Tteokbokki w/o Glutinous Rice Flour

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Ever since I had tteokbokki for the first time, I’ve been addicted to it. This dish offers a satisfying contrast between the bouncy, chewy rice cakes and the smooth, flavourful sauce. Traditionally, these rice cakes are made with glutinous rice flour but my recipe uses a combination of regular rice flour and tapioca flour, the substitution allowing it to be more accessible to prepare at home while still preserving the original chewy texture of the rice cakes.

Similarly, to make things accessible, I have also created a gochujang free tteokbokki which you definitely need to try: Rose Tteokbokki w/o gochujang!

What is Tteokbokki?

Tteokbokki is a popular Korean street food. Chewy rice cakes (tteok) are simmered in a beautiful red sauce, resulting in a dish that can be best described in two words: flavour bomb. It’s sweet and spicy, slightly sour, very savoury and umami-rich. The vibrant red colour makes it as visually appealing as it is delicious. Tteokbokki typically isn’t vegetarian because it contains anchovy broth and fish cakes, but this vegetarian recipe is equally delicious while still capturing the authentic flavours.

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Ingredients

Rice cakes:

2/3 cup water
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 cup rice flour, to be mixed with the hot water
1/2 cup rice flour, to be kneaded into the sticky mixture
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 tsp salt

Sauce:

1/4 cup water
1 tbsp gochujang
1 tbsp chilli oil
1 tbsp chilli powder/gochugaru, adjust accordingly
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp msg, optional
salt to taste

Garnish:

hiii i am shivangi

Welcome to shivangi kooks! Here I share easy and delicious vegetarian recipes that’ll make you go: this is just so so goood!

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How to make the Spicy Rice Cakes?

Heat up some water and add in the salt and toasted sesame oil. Add the flours (rice and tapioca) and gently mix it in with a spatula. Once it starts to bind and look like a sticky mixture, turn off the heat. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes, allowing the mixture to settle and cool to a suitable temperature.

Add the sticky mixture to a kneading surface along with more rice flour. Incorporate the rice flour into the sticky mixture till a dough forms, kneading the dough firmly. The dough should be smooth and soft and not sticky to touch (kind of like clay). Drizzle with toasted sesame oil and let rest for 10 min.

Brush a knife and the surface you’re working on with oil and divide the dough into smaller portions. Roll each portion out into a log with the use of both hands, mainly using the palms. Divide the logs further into smaller pieces by cutting diagonally, these are your rice cakes. Alternatively, you could roll small portions of the dough into balls, they’re cute and fun.

Add the rice cakes to boiling water. Boil the rice cakes till they float to the top, this takes around 5-7 minutes. Transfer the rice cakes immediately into an ice bath: a bowl filled with lots of ice and water. This step makes the rice cakes more chewy. Let the rice cakes rest in the ice cold water while you prepare a sauce.

To make a quick and delicious sauce to coat the rice cakes, heat up some water and add all the sauces and seasonings to it. We have gochujang: the heart of this sauce (if you don’t have access to it, you can make this tteokbokki without gochujang which has a similar flavour profile as this sauce), chilli oil, soy sauce, vinegar, chilli powder, brown sugar and msg. Let the sauces cook for 2 min, allowing them to combine. Add in the rice cakes and simmer the rice cakes for 2 more minutes or till the sauce thickens juts a bit. Garnish the tteokbokki with toasted sesame seeds and serve hot!

Note:

Please feel free to substitute to rice flour and tapioca flour with glutinous rice flour if you have access to it. You can follow the same instructions as this recipe to make the rice cakes.
When you start kneading the sticky mixture with more rice flour, it might seem like an excessive amount of flour but once you progress, all the flour gets incorporated into the dough without leaving the dough dry.
To store the rice cakes: Take out the boiled rice cakes out of the ice bath and let the excess water drip. Add the rice cakes to an airtight container, preferably a ziplock food safe bag and freeze them for about 3 months. Whenever you want to consume the rice cakes, take them out of the freezer and boil them directly, no need to thaw.
In case of unavailability of gochujang, try preparing this gochujang free sauce which has a similar flavour profile!