Korean Noodles Soup Guksu Recipe & Video

Guksu means Noodles in Korean. This guksu recipe is classic Korean noodle soup you can find every house hold, restaurant or even street vendors.

Guksu can be made cold, hot, mild, spicy or many many different ways and the recipe I’m sharing is the most common and popular guksu recipe in Korea, we call Janchi Guksu.

Janchi means party in Korean and we used eat this Korean noodle soup for weding or any other occasion that needs to celebrate. Now days the tradition has changed a bit but Korean noodles soup is still loved as everyday meal.

Everything about Korean noodle soup is the broth. The clarity and the deep flavored broth is the key for this recipe.

So start to making the soup with dried kelp soaking in cold water. In a large pot, combine dried kelp and water. Cover, let it sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Remove the kelp from the water and add rest of the ingredients for the soup. You can cut and eat the kelp as a salad, I like dipping cho-chugujang, Korean sweet and sour chili sauce as snack.

Place cleaned dried anchovies and black pepper corn in a small tea bag and then add into the pot. You don’t have to put them into the bag, because we will strain the broth anyways, but I just like to do this way.

Korean noodle soup is often (99% of the time) made with dried anchovy broth. It’s very comment ingredients for soup

You can find dried anchovy for soup easily at your local Asian grocery store, usually in a frozen section. You can also order online.

If you want to make this soup vegetarian, go ahead and use dried shiitake instead. It will make real tasty soup too!

Add garlic, green onion and onion into the pot as well. 

Cover, bring the soup to boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile soup is boiling, make the toppings.

Heat a pan over high heat, add 1 tbsp water. Water should boil immediately then add julienne zucchini. Stir fry until soften and water’s evaporated, about 1 minute. Set the cooked zucchini aside and wipe the pan with paper towel.

Heat now-clean pan over medium heat. Add cooking oil and swipe with paper towel so the pan is coated evenly with the oil. Pour the beaten egg and swirl to spread evenly on the pan. when the egg is cooked more than half way and settle, about 1 minute. Carefully flip it over. Cook until egg omelet is fully cooked, about 1 more minute.

Transfer to a cutting board, gently roll the egg omelet and then cut them into long thin strips. Set aside. 

Combine soy sauce, maesilaek (Korean plum extract, you can substitute to apple juice), gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes, optional), sesame seeds, sesame oil, chopped green onions and green/red chili (optional) in a mixing bowl and set aside. This is the sauce to serve with the noodles!

Turn off the heat and remove all the solid ingredients using a fine skimmer.

Season the soup with fish sauce (preferred anchovy fish sauce) and pinch of salt to your taste. You could season with Korean soup soy sauce or light soy sauce (light in color) for vegetarian option too. Keep it warm.

This is somyeon (somen), noodles for Korean noodle soup. You don’t have to get the same brand, but I prefer to use Korean brand since this is Korean recipe. You can also use angel hair pasta for this recipe.

Cook noodles by following the directions of the package your are using. Rinse under cold water with rubbing action. Drain.

In a serving bowl, place cooked noodles and pour the soup (approximately 2 cups per serving). Top with egg omelet and zucchini. Serve with the sauce on the side so everyone can add the sauce to their taste.

Enjoy!

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