Simple Tteokbokki (Korean spicy rice cake)
This Tteokbokki recipe is the simplest and easiest Korean spicy rice cake recipe ever and I used to make this for myself when I was in high school as my late night snack. I haven’t made this type of Tteokbokki in a while but I realized this may be the perfect recipe for college students or young people out there who really don’t have the time or have all the ingredients to make a full version. Recipe for the more common spicy rice cake with vegetables and fish cake is also available so try that sometime!
Spicy Rice Cake with Vegetables and Fish Cake RECIPE
Tteokbokki – Spicy Rice Cake Recipe
Servings: 1 Cooking Time: 15 min Difficulty: EASY
Ingredients are adjustable and listed below in my Recipe Card –
Step by Step Directions for How to Make Tteokbokki
1. 1 cup rice cake weighs about 5-6 oz. The quality of the tteok/dduk varies quite a bit and freshly made (never frozen) is the best. Here’s a pic of a freshly made, never frozen, moist tteok and then dry, old, cracked tteok below. Rice cake can also develop cracks if it has been frozen and defrosted a few times.
fresh rice cake(떡 tteok/dduk)
dry, old, cracked rice cake (tteok/dduk)
If your tteok/dduk is frozen, let it defrost in cold water for a few minutes and drain.
2. Add water, gochujang and sugar to a pan and bring to a boil on medium high heat. I forgot to stir before taking this picture but yes.. you should stir it at some point before it boils. 🙂 You can use less gochujang if you like things less spicy.
water, gochujang and sugar for tteokbokki
3. Add the tteokbokki tteok to the gochujang water. Add 1 tsp soy sauce and lower the heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes.
Tteokbokki with 5 ingredients
And it should look something like this:
Tteokbokki (Korean spicy rice cake) is done!
There you go! That’s it!! This tteokbokki will probably taste a bit different from the ones you may have tasted before but you should definitely give this a try. It has a very simple, clean, spicy and sweet taste that’s quite addicting.
Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top if you’d like. Fish cake (oden) soup or yache twigim are perfect compliments to this if you want to make this into a complete dinner good enough to have friends over.
Oh and you may wonder..these tteok look like they have cracks in them! Yes, I bought these on purpose to show on this post. But I couldn’t just throw them away so I used them in this recipe…
Tteokbokki - Korean Spicy Rice Cake
Ingredients
- 1 C rice cake (dduk/tteok) for tteokbokki(떡볶이)
- 2 tsp korean spicy bean paste (고추장 gochujang)
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 3/4 C water
- sesame seeds (optional)
Instructions
- 1 C rice cake is about 5-6 oz. The quality of the tteok/dduk varies quite a bit and freshly made (never frozen) is the best but if you can't buy fresh ones, defrost frozen rice cakes.
- Add water, gochujang and sugar to a pan and bring to a boil on medium high heat.
- Add the tteokbokki tteok to the gochujang water and lower the heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
Enjoy!
I love how easy and tasty this recipe is! I couldn’t find some of the ingredients as indicated though. Instead of the cylinder shaped rice cake, I used the oval shape because that’s all they had. I also ended up using Hot Pepper Paste (although it’s labeled as Go Ghu Jang) instead of soy bean paste. Also, instead of white sugar, I used brown sugar because that’s all I have at home right now. I also used a full cup instead of 3/4 because it was starting to stick towards the end. Anyway, thank you for the recipe! I love it!! Will add fish cake next time.
Using the oval shaped rice cakes is fine to do! I do that sometimes when I don’t have the tteokbokki tteok. And sorry, if my instructions were not clear, gochujang IS what you are supposed to use so that was perfect. Thank you for sharing your feedback.
I use to live in Korea and tteokbokki was one of my favorite street food. I have been craving it so much! I live near a Korean restaurant but I am now gluten free and theirs is not. So I decided to make it myself. Your recipe is so delicious I made a few changes I used chicken broth instead of water and added some carrots, garlic and onions. It turned out amazing
So glad to hear that! Sounds like you found your perfect combination. Thank you for the comment. Cheers!
This is absolutely delicious! You are right its not exactly the same but its still amazing! I will definitely make this again! I did have to ass extra water but that was because I used a very big pan (I would say that you shouldn’t use abig pan) I did end up adding to much soy sauce and it tastes very much like it so I had to add a little bit more of everything, but It still turned out! I would rate this a Ten out of 10.
Happy to hear that!! Yes, it’s a very simplified version but I think it’s good in its own way. Thank you so much for giving me a 10!!! woohoo!! I wish there were 10 stars instead of 5.. lol. See you around! Have a great Sunday.
I am currently eating this now…and it’s delicious! It’s sweet and spicy, definitely my new favourite tteokbokki recipe. I had to add another 1/4 cup of water because the rice cakes started sticking to the pan towards the end of the simmer time, but other than that, I am enjoying these immensely. Thanks for the recipe!! So easy and not stressful like all the other ones I have tried (and way better tasting!).
So happy to hear that!! And depending on how dry or wet your rice cakes are the amount of water could be different. Glad you had the sense to add more water. I’m so glad you liked it – thank you so much for leaving me a comment. Take care,
Hi I was wondering if there was any way I could substitute the gochujang for just hot pepper powder. Do you have any ideas? I’m just trying to get rid of the hot pepper powder before buying more.
Hi Jasmine! Sure! There’s actually another kind of tteokbokki that’s made just from pepper powder. https://kimchimari.com/tteokbokki-recipe-chili-oil-gireum/ is the recipe. It’s different but really yummy, one of my favorite. Good luck and thanks for asking!
What’s thw soy sauce for…? It doesn’t say. :/
Oh dear.. so sorry, I can’t believe I left it out. I just edited the post. Soy sauce is added to the sauce for saltiness. You can basically add it in the beginning or in the middle after you taste it. Thank you so much for asking!
can i add oyster sauce or salt instead as you said it’s used for saltness , I’am running out of soy sauce 🙁
Hmm you can try salt. Don’t add oyster sauce. Cheers!
I’ve recently started cooking more Korean foods, eating smaller portions, but with banchan. At 72, I may be getting a late start cooking Korean, but I have been making my own mandoo at least once a year for about 35 years, the way my Korean grandmother taught my Caucasian mother. I’ve tried making the spicy rice cakes a number of times using a more traditional recipe, but recently I’ve tried to do an easier version, like your’s. Instead of using plain water, however, I use Japanese dash which gives added flavor.
Wow – good for you that you make your own mandoo. And you are never late to start cooking more Korean food! And yes, adding dashi would definitely make it better – I just tried to make the simplest one possible. Thanks so much for sharing and let me know if you have any questions.
what if u don’t have gochujang ?
Well…that’s almost asking me how you can make macaroni cheese without the cheese! haha 🙂 But having said that, there are other versions where you don’t use gochujang – https://kimchimari.com/tteokbokki-recipe-chili-oil-gireum/ just uses chili powder. Obviously it’s not the same taste but it’s delicious in its own way. Thanks for asking!
This tastes absolutely amazing! Every week during my Korean class the director serves traditional Korean snacks and my favorite is tteokboki 🙂 This tteokboki tastes very similar to my directors! and now I am happy that I can make it whenever I am craving her tteokboki. Thank You!
Hi! I’m so happy that you enjoyed it! BTW if you want to try a more traditional recipe with veggies and all, you can try https://kimchimari.com/ddukbokki-with-vegetables-and-fish-cake/. I also have a non-spicy Royal Palace style version and then also a dry chili oil version. Just search for Tteokbokki in the front page and you will see them all. Thank you so much for your comment.
At what point is the soy sauce added?
Thanks
If you see my recipe you will see that soy sauce is added in 2 places-once to marinate rice cakes and then to marinate beef. Thanks!
Wow. Just wow. I’ve wanted to make ddeokbokki for a while now, but wasn’t sure how. I had originally planned to use a different recipe, but while trying to find an ingredient for that one, I stumbled onto yours. Easy, simple, and easily-acquired ingredients. And it tastes like heaven! Although you’re absolutely right. It doesn’t taste like the ddeokbokki I’m used to, but this taste…this taste I can get addicted to! Matter of fact…*pops a piece of ddeokbokki into mouth*….I think I already am addicted to it!
Oh Yay!!! Someone who appreciates my very simple but yummy recipe!! So happy to hear that you *get* what I mean..THANK YOU for making my friday! I have been working on my post for another simple recipe – Mayak Kimbap (kimbap with just carrot) and was feeling a bit tired but your comment just zapped my energy back. I think I gained a few pounds because I kept having this tteokbokki for night snack everynight when I was in high school.. haha.. Have a great weekend!! And did you need any Korean lang books? I’m doing a giveaway – check that out!
Watching K dramas and totally hooked on the whole concept of food as a solution for stress, for celebration, for indicatiing closeness…. for everything.
Korean culture rocks!
That’s a great way to describe Korean’s relation to food! Thank you!
I love spicy food……yumyumyum