I feel like Lunar New Year came around much faster this year. I’m still barely out of the “holidazz” mode, you know? In any case, big or small, I do love celebrating Lunar New Year. It’s all about the food. The kind of food that I love the most. New Year’s rice cake soup tteokguk, kimchi pork dumplings, delicious gochu japchae with bao bun, a platter of assorted jeon, braised short rib galbijjim. Today, I’m sharing something a little different. I love making traditional tteokguk with a deep rich bone broth or clear beef broth. Mainly because I know it works and it’s going to taste good. But today, I’m sharing a vegan tteokguk. The broth is rich in flavor with kelp and dried shiitake mushrooms. I used two differently shaped rice cakes for interesting textures and did not miss out on the sauteed meatless topping. I enjoyed this very much and it was a nice change from the bone broth one. Make sure to give it a try!

Vegan Tteokguk  2 servings

1 pk of toasted seaweed snack
1 cup flat oval rice cakes (frozen or fresh)
1 cup joraegi snowman shape rice cakes (frozen or fresh)
8 dried shiitake mushroom
2 small pieces (3-4-inches long) of dried kelp
1 small yellow onion
5 oz (150 g) daikon radish, cut 1-inch thick chunks
1 scallion, finely chopped 
1 tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp toasted sesame seeds
½ tsp salt & pepper
1 tbsp cooking oil

1. Soak rice cakes in cold water for about 30 minutes. In a separate bowl, soak shiitake mushrooms. After about 30 min, drain the water out then squeeze the liquid out from the mushroom by using your hand and cut off the stems that are too tough to eat. Save 4 of them for the stock and finely chop 4 of them for topping. 
2. Cut yellow onion in half. Save half for the stock (keep the skin on) and finely chop the remaining for the topping. 
3. On a skillet over medium-high heat, add cooking oil then saute both chopped onion and mushrooms. Season it with a little bit of salt, pepper, and soy sauce. Set it aside.
4. In a medium size pot, add 5 cups of water, add kelp, mushroom, onion (skin-on), and radish then bring it to a boil. Take out the kelp and boil it for another 5 minutes over medium-low heat. 
5. Take the remaining ingredients out from the stock then add rice cakes. When the rice cakes float to the surface and are soft, it’s cooked and ready, about 4-5 minutes. Season with more salt if needed.
6. Serve with sauteed mushrooms, scallions, sesame seeds, and crumbled seaweed snack.

Tip: To make crumbled seaweed snack, add seaweed sheets in a plastic bag, using your hand to crush them in the bag. You can also purchase packaged toasted seaweed crumbs at Korean markets.