This recipe will show you the easiest way to make Korean spicy rice cakes (Tteokbokki)! Ready in 15 mins.
Korean spicy rice cakes (Tteokbokki / Ddeokbokki, 떡볶이) is probably the most well-known Korean street food in Korea. You can see mini vans or carts that sell it on the street very easily.
There are many ways to make these spicy rice cakes, however today’s recipe is the most basic way of cooking it with minimalistic ingredients. So I want to call it “Easy Korean Spicy Rice Cakes!” But it’s still very delicious! I hope you like it!
Ingredients for Korean Spicy Rice Cakes (2 servings)
Main
- Garaetteok (Korean rice cakes) (300g, 10 ounces), separated (if you are using frozen or packaged rice cakes, separate them first then soak in warm water for 20 mins before cooking to soften.)
- 2 fish cake sheets (105g, 3.7 ounces), sliced into medium size pieces
- 1/2 medium onion (75g, 2.7 ounces), thinly sliced
- 2 leaves of cabbage (145g, 5.1 ounces), sliced into medium size strips
- 1 stalk of spring onion, chopped
- Some cooking oil – I use rice bran oil
- Some roasted sesame seeds to garnish
Tteokbokki Sauce (mix these in a bowl well)
- 2 Tbsp Korean chili paste (Gochujang)
- 2 Tbsp raw sugar
- 1/2 tsp Korean chili powder (Gochugaru)
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/3 cup water
*1 Tbsp = 15ml
**If you want to know more about Korean cooking ingredients, check my “30 essential Korean cooking ingredients list!”
How to Make Korean Spicy Rice Cakes
- Pre heat a wok/skillet on medium high heat until well heated. Add some cooking oil and the onion. Stir it until the onion softens.
- Add the cabbage and stir until it softens.
- Add the rice cakes, fish cakes and the seasoning sauce. Mix them well and stir until the rice cakes and fish cakes cook through (about 2 mins). Reduce the heat to low.
- Add the spring onion. Stir it quickly. Garnish with some sesame seeds and serve.
Variations
Here are a few variations of spicy rice cake recipes you could try.
- Tteokbokki
- Rabokki (Ramen + Tteokbokki)
- Tteok Kkochi (rice cake skewers)
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Easy Korean Spicy Rice Cakes
Ingredients
MAIN
- 300 g rice cakes (10 ounces), separated (if you are using frozen or packaged rice cakes, separate them first then soak in warm water for 20 mins before cooking to soften.)
- 2 fish cake sheets (105 g / 3.7 ounces), sliced into medium size pieces
- 1/2 medium onion (75 g / 2.7 ounces), thinly sliced
- 2 cabbage leaves (145 g / 5.1 ounces), sliced into medium size strips
- 1 stalk spring onion chopped
- Some cooking oil - I use rice bran oil
- Some toasted sesame seeds to garnish
TTEOKBOKKI SAUCE (MIX THESE IN A BOWL WELL)
- 2 Tbsp Korean chilli paste (Gochujang)
- 2 Tbsp raw sugar
- 1/2 tsp Korean chilli powder (Gochugaru)
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/3 cup water
Instructions
- Pre heat a wok/skillet on medium high heat until well heated. Add some cooking oil and the onion. Stir it until the onion softens.
- Add the cabbage and stir until it softens.
- Add the rice cakes, fish cakes and the seasoning sauce. Mix them well and stir until the rice cakes and fish cakes cook through (about 2 mins). Reduce the heat to low.
- Add the spring onion. Stir it quickly. Garnish with some sesame seeds and serve.
Notes
Nutrition Info (per serving)
The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
I just made this for dinner and I loved it! The recipe is easy to follow and super tasty! Even the kids (12 and 16) loved it! Thanks!
This was a delicious recipe. As a vegetarian, I omitted the fish cakes, but added sliced, fried tofu equivalent, and a little shredded nori for the flavour. I will definitely make this again.
The conversion from grams to ounces fore fish cakes is incorrect. 300 gms = ~10 ounces
Thanks for pointing out my typo! I meant 0.7 pounds (for rice cakes), but I will update this to ounce to be consistent with the rest of ingredients. 🙂
Just tried this & I omitted gochugaru & basically all the vegetables except garlic. Not very spicy, flavourful & super easy to make. Absolutely perfect for me. Will be making these regularly from now on!
Hi from Singapore! Just made this and it was real easy and quick! I think I accidentally made a flaming hot version cos it’s really spicy Haha. But it still tastes good and I think I’ll cook my own tteokbokki from now on. Thanks for the recipe!
Is tteobokki vegetarian?
Not sure if you’re talking about this recipe or tteokbokki in general, this recipe isn’t vegetarian because it includes fish cakes. You can certainly omit it, but tteokbokki without fish cakes aren’t the same in my book. 🙂
Also, something to note is many tteokbokki recipes (including my other version https://mykoreankitchen.com/tteokbokki-spicy-rice-cakes/) are made with Korean soup stock. My version in particular includes anchovy as one of soup stock ingredients. If you omit this, along with fish cakes, you can make it as vegetarian.
Hope this helps!
Question: I have fresh rice cakes, but they seem a bit firm (I’ve never cooked with them, so have no idea of what is the optimal texture), should I soak in hot water? Thanks!
When you press the rice cakes with your finger tip, does it bounce back? If so, you don’t need to soak. It is fresh (as in less than 2 days old fresh). Also, if you have to soak, use warm water, not hot water. Hope this helps.
Hi. What do I do if I didn’t have the gochugaru? Will the tteokboki sauce taste different?
Hi! First of all I’d like to congratulate for your wonderful site 🙂
I’d really like to eat this but I can’t find neither fish cakes nor kochugaru 🙁
I don’t like things too spicy so maybe if I don’t use kochugaru is not a problem for the taste but fish cakes.. Do you think it will be still ok?
Hi Alice, If you can’t find fish cakes, you can omit them. Just add more rice cakes to match the volume. Alternatively, you can make fish cakes at home using this recipe. https://mykoreankitchen.com/how-to-make-korean-fish-cakes/ It’s not too difficult!
Thank you very much 🙂 _I’ll try my best 🙂
I just made this as a midnight snack. It’s great. I used sunflower oil since it’s the only neutral oil I had at home and honey instead of sugar (I try not to eat sugar if I can) and it was really good. I also skipped the gochugaru since my gochujang is super spicy and I wanted to be able to sleep after. I like how much sauce you accounted for. I always find that there’s too much sauce in the restaurant versions of this dish. Yours was perfect. I also like that yours had more fishcake to ddukkboki ratio than the restaurant versions. Or at least the Toronto, Canadian versions, since that’s all I have to compare it to. I’m lucky I live close to the largest of two Koreatowns in my city.
Still waiting on the kakkdugi final taste test. I decided not to worry about the garlic. From the initial taste, it was pretty good. I do think that the garlic adds a really nice layer of flavour and will include it next time but I’m not so upset with this one that I’d throw it out. I also think that next time I’d like to try asian pear instead of apple in that recipe for a lighter flavour. What do you think?
Hi Maria, So good to hear that you enjoyed my rice cake recipe! I hope you were able to sleep well after eating this. 🙂
For kkakdugi recipe, I think asian pear is a good idea as well. I’m not sure whether it would give lighter flavour than apple (because I didn’t think apple was heavy tasting anyway. Lol) But I know some people use 50% apple and 50% pear as well. It all depends on personal preference. Some people even don’t add neither of fruit. But I think having apple or asian pear is good. It gives natural sweet flavour and Kkakdugi tastes extra nicer because of that.
So, I made this this morning for breakfast and I love how quick and easy it was. I subbed soy sheets for the fish cakes and cabbage and it was great. Thank you!
For breakfast? 🙂 I don’t think I’ve ever made this for my breakfast. But sounds lovely! Yes, this recipe is real quick & easy version. There is also more complicated version as well. I’m planning to share it some time this year.
I made this dishes yesterday for snack, and my 13 yr. old daugther as soon as she saw it the grin on her face is priceless. She ask me to cook it again for the next day so she can have a snack when she get back home from school. Even my wife loves it too.
So happy to hear that Gerardo!
Hi! This looks so good… 🙂
I wanted to ask you, do you know the japanese rice cake called “mochi”? I was wondering if mochi and the rice cakes of your recipe are similar..(mochi is made with glutinous rice).
I wanted to try ddeokbokki, but here korean food is not very common.
Thank you! ^_^
Hi Ayumi, Yes I know what mochi is. We have something very similar (probably the same one) in Korea as well. We call it Chapssalddeok (찹쌀떡, https://mykoreankitchen.com/2006/11/13/sticky-rice-cakes-chapssalddeok-in-korean/).
You can’t use mochi in this recipe. Rice cake used in this recipe is made with rice flour not glutinous rice flour. 🙂 I will definitely do the recipe on that in the near future! Thanks.
I made this tonight for dinner and my yobo was so happy! Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks Leslie! Great to hear that your husband liked it so much!