This Rabokki recipe is the famous tteokbokki with ramen. Recipe courtesy of Joanne, The Korean Vegan.
Rabokki is literally a combination of ramen and tteokbokki. Tteokbokki is a famous street food made with rice cakes in spicy, sweet, and savory red sauce. To take this ever-so-loved dish up a notch, adding ramen is the way to go!
Now this recipe is in collaboration with Joanne L. Molinaro of The Korean Vegan. A lawyer, fellow content creator, a New York Times Best Selling Author, and a James Beard Winner for her book: The Korean Vegan.
Through her platform, she educates her audience about Korean culture through food, promotes equality and justice, and inspires many people—including me! She was very warm much like her content and we had a great conversation about our upbringing, our passions, and our mission. Check out the full vlog on YouTube!
How do you make Korean Food Vegan?
Korean food in general uses a lot of seasonings and ingredients that derive from plants. While our signature dish is Korean BBQ, many of our side dishes are commonly made with vegetables like Water Kimchi, Cucumber Salad, or Radish Salad. It is best if you make your own since these would normally have fish sauce or shrimp paste which you can swap out.
For Korean soups and stews that almost always use vegetables but also anchovy broth, you can use kelp or mushroom broth instead and skip the meat altogether. With this in mind, if you are on a plant-based diet and are craving Korean food, these are some things I think would be helpful!
Ingredients for Tteokbokki with Ramen
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For this recipe, the main ingredients are:
Rice Cakes
Rice cakes are made from rice flour turned into chewy tubes or coins. They are usually bland with a hint of sweetness. Nevertheless, once you put it in a sauce, they carry it really well. We’re going to use the tube shapes for this recipe and they are commonly found in the freezer section of Korean groceries. You can also ask if they have fresh ones, and we highly recommend them freshly made, because they taste so much better!
Ramen
For rabokki, we highly recommend using Korean ramen which is normally spicy and very savory. Its soup packet would add so much flavor to the dish—it’s our secret ingredient! Always check the label if it’s vegetarian or vegan-friendly as some may use meat-based soup packets.
Sauce
- Garlic and Scallions – These are going to be the aromatics for the dish.
- Soy Sauce and Sesame Oil – These are going to be the seasonings for the dish.
- Gochujang and Gochugaru – These are the main bases of the sauce. Gochujang is a Korean red pepper paste that will add savory spice, while Gochugaru is a Korean red pepper powder that will bring more heat and color.
- Sugar – This will add balance to all the spice and savor from the other seasonings.
- Water – While traditionally we would use anchovy stock, many people still make their tteokbokki or rabokki with just water and it’s just as good. If you want it tastier, you can use kombu (dried kelp) or mushroom broth to add umami, which is essentially what the anchovy broth is for.
Other things you can add to Rabokki:
You can also add other types of noodles like potato noodles (which we randomly found in the grocery store) or dangmyeon!
While it is common to add fish cakes in tteokbokki or rabokki, you can skip them altogether or add fried tofu in place for additional protein to the dish!
How to make Rabokki?
To make this, Joanne first seasoned the rice cakes with soy sauce and sesame oil. This will make them soft and flavorful!
Afterward, with a little bit of oil, saute your garlic and scallions. Once they are fragrant, add your rice cakes, soup packet, gochugaru, gochujang, and sugar. Saute these really well so that the tteok will be coated with all the sauce and all the flavor.
TIP: Do not skip seasoning and sauteing the tteok as these will ensure a super tasty rabokki!
Now, you can add water. Once it starts to boil, you can add the ramen noodles and potato noodles. Submerge them in water so that they get cooked thoroughly. It may seem like too much water at first, but the rice cakes and the noodles will absorb everything and make it into a nice thick sauce.
Serving and What to Eat with Rabokki
To eat this, you need to consume them right away while it’s hot. Otherwise, the sauce will thicken up and you’d need to rehydrate it. If you have a good amount of sauce, you can definitely pair this with any fried foods that you like!
Other Korean snacks you might like:
Make sure to leave a rating, a comment, or tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok when you chop them up! Yeobosayo!
Vegan Rabokki (Tteokbokki with Ramen)
Ingredients
- Vegetable or Canola Oil For sauteing
- 300 grams Tteok or Rice Cakes
- Sesame Oil Enough to coat the rice cakes
- Soy Sauce Enough to coat the rice cakes
- Scallions Chopped; White parts for cooking, green parts for garnish
- Garlic
- 1 pack Korean Ramen
- 5 tbsp Gochujang
- Gochugaru As spicy as you like
- 3 tbsp Sugar
- 3 cups Water
- Potato Noodle Optional
Instructions
- Season the rice cakes with sesame oil and soy sauce.
- Heat up your pan and with a little bit of oil, saute the scallions and garlic.
- Once aromatic add the rice cakes, ramen soup packet, gochugaru, gochujang, and sugar.
- Mix everything well to coat the rice cakes and have it absorb all the flavor.
- Add water and let it boil.
- Add ramen and potato noodles and submerge them in the soup to cook.
- Mix well and cook until the noodles are done and the sauce has thickened and reduced.
- Serve and consume immediately, enjoy!
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