Wow, it has been a long hiatus hasn’t it? The last two months has been a whirlwind of crazy, what’s more the little ones had a bad stomach flu and was puking literally everywhere and on everything. I had to be careful about what they eat before they could ingest like solid food again. Not to mention the crazy weather. It was super hot the last few weeks. If I go in the kitchen just to cook our main meals, I’d come out sweating like I’ve gone to the gym. It is so hot. Makes me feel like I don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen. But good news is, there’s been a bit of rain lately so I might do some baking after a long time.
I didn’t submit this to AFF Korea month because I wasn’t sure whether or not this is an original Korean recipe, I just kinda threw everything together with the kimchi I made myself. It is one of my favourite ‘instant’ soup! It is sour, tangy and savoury…like a palate opener, makes you work up an appetite.
Making this soup gives me an excuse to use this favourite tofu of mine. While I do admit that this is not a cheap brand of tofu, I honestly feel it taste different from all the other tofu I’ve eaten. I don’t know how to describe it but you could taste the soy milk and it’s light and savoury and delicious.
You can adjust the spiciness to your taste. I rather like a lot of kimchi in it with a big dollop of gochujang for the colour and spiciness. I would say, you can put anything into the soup. I chose some pork and tofu. But you can used sliced beef, crack an egg into the soup, bean sprouts or even fish.
Kimchi really is an amazing ingredient. While I gather it’s not everyone’s favourite (like my parents) it has a lot of potential to be converted to many other great dishes. I’ll be honest, I actually don’t fancy eating kimchi on its own as a side dish. I much rather put them in soups, dumplings, pancakes or fried rice.
RECIPE FOR KIMCHI SOUP 
Ingredients;
1/2 cup of chopped kimchi
3 tablespoons of kimchi juice
50 gms of sliced lean pork
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 heaping teaspoon of gochujang
1 block of firm tofu (soft would be fine too)
1 fish stock cube
1/2 teaspoon Sesame oil
White pepper
Water
Sunflower oil
Chopped scallions for garnish
Sesame seeds for garnish
Steps;
1. In a saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil, sautee the garlic, add the chopped kimchi and cook for 10 seconds.
2. Add the sliced pork and the gochujang. Stir till they’re dissolved together.
3. Add water until just covered. Crumble fish stock cube into the soup, let it come to a boil. Add pepper and sesame oil.
4. Taste and adjust.
5. Cut the tofu into squares and drop them into the soup.
6. Serve in bowls, garnish with chopped scallions and sesame seeds.
7. Eat with white rice.
Enjoy!
