VARIATIONS · Easy · 40 min
Curry Tteokbokki Recipe — Japanese Roux, Korean Rice Cakes
By Tteokbokki Curator
How to make curry tteokbokki: a mild Japanese curry roux loosened with stock, then rice cakes and a few vegetables. A street variation, not a palace dish.
TL;DR
Sweat onion and carrot, add stock, melt half a roux block, then braise soaked tteok 8 minutes. Keep it stew-thick, not soup. Gochujang is optional and a different dish if you add a lot. Longer method: /blog/japanese-curry-tteokbokki/.
Ingredients
- 400 g garae-tteok, soaked
- 1/2 onion, 1 small carrot, 1 small potato (optional, 1 cm dice)
- 2.5 cups stock or water
- 2–3 squares Japanese curry roux (mild or medium)
- 1 tsp soy, 1/2 tsp sugar if the roux is very salty
- 1 tsp gochujang or a pinch of gochugaru (optional, not required)
- Scallion, pickled radish
Steps
- Sweat onion and carrot in a little oil 3 minutes. If using potato, add it now so it has a head start.
- Add stock, simmer until the carrot is just tender. Melt roux off a hard boil, stirring until smooth.
- Add drained tteok. Simmer 8–10 minutes until the cakes puff and the curry clings. If it seizes, a splash of water — curry starch plus tteok starch is aggressive.
- Optional: a teaspoon of gochujang for a red tint. More than that and you are no longer cooking curry tteokbokki; you are cooking a confused red pot.
- Scallion on top. Pickle on the side. Rice if you want it as a stew.
Tips
- Use a cake that can stand a longer simmer — wheat-mix or thick rice. Soft fresh cakes turn to porridge in curry.
- This is not jjajang. Black-bean paste is /recipes/jajang-tteokbokki/.
What you'll need
Pantry searches on Amazon — we do not invent prices or pick a single “best” brand.
- Gochugaru (Korean chili flakes)Medium-coarse flakes for kimchi color; freeze the bulk bag.
- Gochujang (Korean chili paste)Fermented chili paste for tteokbokki, jjigae, and bibimbap.
- Garae-tteok (cylinder rice cakes)Cylinder rice cakes for tteokbokki and tteokguk. Check rice vs wheat on the label.
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More Korean food
Relevant pages on the two hub sites — recipes and a BBQ directory on bulgogi.ai, street rice cakes on tteokbokki.ai.
- bulgogi.ai — recipes & BBQ directory →Marinades, cuts, and a USA Korean BBQ map.
- Rice-cake storage (tteok.ai) →Fresh vs refrigerated vs frozen garae — before you set the sauce.