A classic Korean dish that’s also an incredibly popular street snack, Fish Cake Soup (Odeng or Eomuk in Korean) packs refreshing flavors while also being fun to eat!
Grab a stick of fish cake and sip some refreshing broth, eating Fish Cake Soup is an incredibly unique experience.
But what is Fish Cake Soup made of?
What ingredients are needed to make Korean Fish Cake Soup?
To make your very own authentic Fish Cake Soup, prepare just a few basic ingredients:
- Fish Cakes
- Seafood Vegetable Korean Soup Base – 6 cups
- Dried Bonito Flakes – 5 grams
- Radish – 300 grams (1/3 medium sized)
- Soup Soy Sauce – 1 tablespoon
- Soy Sauce – 1 tablespoon
- Mirin – 1 tablespoon
- Wasabi
- Microgreens
By following our Fish Cake Soup recipe, you’ll make about 4 servings of a delicious and traditional Korean soup in 40 minutes.
How to make Fish Cake Soup
Now, the Fish Cakes are clearly the center of attention in this dish, but it’s actually the soup that helps balance the overall dish with refreshing and deep flavors.
Making the soup for Korean Fish Cake Soup.
Pour 6 cups of Seafood Vegetable Korean Soup Base into a tall pot and start heating on medium heat.
While we wait for the soup base to start simmering, roughly chop the radish into large cubes and add into the pot.
Bring the soup to a boil and continue boiling for 10 minutes, then turn down the heat to low and add the Dried Bonito Flakes and Mirin into the soup base.
We highly recommend using a tea ball strainer for the Dried Bonito Flakes as it’ll make removing these flakes much easier later.
Bonito Flakes impart amazingly deep umami flavors into the soup but it’s important not to boil on high heat as this will extract some bitter and strong flavors from the bonito flakes.
Let this soup simmer for about 5 minutes.
Skewering fish cakes for Korean Fish Cake Soup
While we wait for the soup, let’s start preparing our fish cakes!
We use 4 different types of fish cakes, but it’s completely fine to use just one because the only major difference is the shape and texture, while the flavor is mostly similar.
Using bamboo sticks, carefully skewer the fish cakes.
Fish cakes in Fish Cake Soup
By now, the bonito flakes should be done simmering so remove the flakes from the soup and we just need to heat up the fish cakes!
Carefully place the fish cakes into the soup, making sure that the liquid covers the fish cakes, add the Soup Soy Sauce, then turn the heat to high and boil for about 5-10 minutes.
Once the fish cakes are warm, Korean Fish Cake Soup is ready to serve!
Watch how to make Korean Fish Cake Soup
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Dipping sauce for Korean Fish Cake Soup
Remember, Fish Cake Soup is a popular street snack that’s served in a small paper cup full of broth, with a couple skewers of fish cakes sticking out.
We prefer to serve Fish Cake Soup in a bowl garnished with microgreens and a simple dipping sauce:
- Soy Sauce – 1 tablespoon
- Fish Cake Soup – 1 tablespoon
- Wasabi
Microgreens adds a nice pop of color, while the salty dipping sauce helps refresh the palette.
An easy way to elevate this traditional Korean dish!
Tips for making Fish Cake Soup
Hopefully, we’ve shown you how easy it is to make your very own Fish Cake Soup.
Here’s a few additional tips to help you master this delicious Korean soup:
Right pot for Korean Fish Cake Soup
At the very beginning of this Fish Cake Soup recipe, we mentioned using a tall pot to boil the Seafood Vegetable Korean Soup Base.
If the soup level is too low, some of the fish cakes won’t be covered by the liquid and therefore, heat up slowly.
One way to get around this is to put less fish cakes on the skewers, but if there’s only 2 or 3 pieces of fish cakes on the long skewer, it might look a bit funny.
Hot, but not TOO hot
Fish cakes have a soft and chewy texture but if it’s boiled for too long, or left in the soup for a while, it can become soggy.
Keep this in mind when preparing and boiling the fish cakes.