6 Best Korean Soup Recipes for Winter! (2024)

FAQs

What is the best Korean soup for a cold? ›

Samgyetang

This hot stew made with chicken and ginseng is a popular dish in Korea and is traditionally eaten when a person is sick with a cold or flu. This is because of the chicken, which is often said to be 'hot' food, and the ginseng, which supposedly helps to fight off the sickness and make you feel better.

Dwaeji gukbap is a popular South Korean soup made with pork, soy sauce, miso, rice wine, sesame oil, and bone broth. When served, the soup is accompanied by a variety of side dishes such as rice, shrimps, onions, noodles, kimchi, garlic, and green peppers, which can all be added into the steaming bowl of soup.

It's called “budae jjigae,” or “army stew,” and it's a hearty, savory, spicy stew perfect for those gnarly winter flus that make you feel weak all over with no appetite.

Tteokguk (rice cake soup) is a delicious, filling soup made of disc-shaped rice cakes in a clear broth. Koreans always eat it on Seollal (Korean New Year's Day), the first day of the Lunar calendar and one of the most important holidays in Korea.

Galbitang, a Korean soup made from simmering beef ribs, is the perfect dish if you're suffering from a cold or allergies that have your nose and sinuses clogged up.

Yuzu jelly tea

Not only is this tea tangy, comforting and refreshing but in Korea, it's believed to relieve the symptoms of colds and flu.

According to the Taste Atlas Awards, the international food database, the Filipino favorite, Sinigang, is hailed as the best soup in the world.

Soups are a common part of any Korean meal. Unlike other cultures, in Korean culture, soup is served as part of the main course rather than at the beginning or the end of the meal, as an accompaniment to rice along with other banchan. Soups known as guk are often made with meats, shellfish and vegetables.

Miyeok-guk (미역국) (also rendered as miyuk guk) or seaweed soup is a non-spicy Korean soup whose main ingredient is miyeok, or seaweed. It is traditionally eaten as a birthday breakfast in honor of one's mother and by women who have given birth for several months postpartum.

The humble coffee – shots of espresso served over ice, topped up with water – has become South Korea's unofficial national drink, outselling its hot counterpart even during the depths of winter, Starbucks data shows.

What is Korean soup for cold and flu? ›

Chicken Soup (Yeong gye baeksuk 영계백숙)A simple yet extremely nutritious soup made with cornish game hen or young chicken and lots of garlic that Koreans swear by for revitalizing the body, something we all need during the cold and flu season.

Soups and stews: Koreans often enjoy soups and stews for breakfast. This might include haejangguk, considered to be a hangover cure, which consists of pork, cabbage, coagulated ox blood, and vegetables in beef broth, or galbitang, which is a thick soup made from short ribs.

At a macro level, Korean soups can be generally divided into four categories: guk, tang, jjigae and jeongol. Guk refers to brothy soups, where the liquid outweighs the soup's other ingredients, like miyeokguk and dukguk. Usually, guk is served as individual portions.

Korean cuisine offers a variety of delicious and nutritious soups, boasting both rich flavors and health benefits.

Lung Fung soup originated in China and it is deemed to be the ideal remedy for cold, sore throat and seasonal flu.

Vitamin-rich hot pepper is high in capsaicin, believed to kill harmful microbes. Rounding out the list, ginger is an Ayurvedic remedy for coughs and colds. But kimchi's real cold-fighting power lies in its fermentation process, which produces high levels of beneficial bacteria, or probiotics.