This vegan tteokbokki (비건 떡볶이), also known as spicy Korean rice cakes, is a delicious Korean dish that traditionally isn’t vegan.

This tteokbokki vegan recipe mimics traditional tteokbokki and takes about 20-25 mins to cook! It’s my mother’s recipe and makes for a quick & tasty vegan dinner idea!

This dish is an absolute masterpiece and I believe everyone should try it (if you can handle a bit of spice!). Not only is it incredibly unique, but the combination of the texture and flavours also makes this one of the most popular Korean dishes out there… which is why I had to make it vegan 🙂 

Recipe for Vegan Tteokbokki

To make vegan tteokbokki (aka 비건 떡볶이), you should know that Tteokbokki is made with one of Korea’s most beloved ingredients – Tteok. Tteok is the Korean word for rice cakes. And no, they’re not the low-calorie dry rice cakes you might be familiar with as a snack.

Korean rice cakes, Tteok, are made with rice flour and transformed into soft, slightly sticky and incredibly chewy pieces of “rice dough” as I like to call it. These can be made into many shapes but for tteokbokki, the most common shape we use is the cylinder-shaped rice cakes. Truthfully, you can use whatever shapes you can find but if you have a Korean supermarket near you, I’m sure you can find these cylinder-shaped rice cakes. 

The next main star ingredient for the Tteokbokki sauce is gochujang. Gochujang is Korean red pepper paste. If you have been following me for some time, you would probably have heard of gochujang. This is a must-have ingredient if you are interested in Korean cooking! You can easily find gochujang in any Korean (or usually Asian) supermarket. This little ingredient will give this dish that delicious spice with a hint of sweetness, plus a ton of flavour. 

Traditional tteokbokki also includes processed fish cakes and the sauce is also made with anchovies. So to make tteokbokki vegan, simply leave out the fish cakes (or replace them with fried puffed tofu!) and also use kelp powder or dry kelp instead of using anchovies to flavour the broth / sauce. 

Ingredients

• Korean rice cakes (tteok)
• Kelp Powder / Dry Kelp
• Cabbage
• Onion
• Gochujang
• Gochugaru (optional)
• Soy sauce or soy-free alternative
• Agave nectar or maple syrup
• Garlic
• Green Onions
  
• Sesame Seeds (optional)
• Japanese Sake (optional)
• Puffed Tofu / Tofu Puffs (optional)

---

You can’t make the recipe gluten-free since the main star, gochujang has gluten and can’t really be substituted unless you know of an alternative.

The recipe is soy-free, simply by using a soy-free alternative to soy sauce. Instead of tofu puffs, find a soy-free protein like veggie dogs and cut them up into little pieces (which I’ve done before!)

---

How To Make Tteokbokki (Vegan)

If your TTeok (korean rice cakes) are frozen and stuck together, add them into a large bowl with cold water to separate them for about 5-10 minutes before using them.

Begin making your vegan Tteokbokki by adding water in a large wok or pot. Instead of water, you could also use a low or no-sodium vegetable broth instead.

Because traditional Tteokbokki sometimes use anchovies to flavour the broth, we’re adding kelp powder instead to get a similar taste. Use a whisk to mix and bring to a boil on medium-high heat to create an instant broth. If you only have dry kelp instead of kelp powder, you’ll have to boil the dry kelp pieces in the water for around 15-20 minutes to flavour the broth. After 20 minutes, you can take out the kelp pieces or leave them in.

Next, add chopped cabbage and sliced onion into the pot and bring to a boil. Optionally, you could add chopped carrots as well as which is often found in Tteokbokki.

Start mixing your sauce ingredients by adding into a bowl: gochujang (use more or less depending on your level of spice preference), gochugaru, soy sauce (or soy-free alternative), agave nectar (or maply syrup) and minced garlic. Mix until you get a smooth sauce.

By this point, your TTeok (Korean rice cakes) should be separated in the cold water. Now add the TTeok (Korean rice cakes) into the broth. Optionally, you can add puffed tofu / tofu puffs in as well which will absorb the delicious sauce and flavours. Traditional, fish cakes are added into Tteokbokki so these fried puffed tofu pieces are a great vegan alternative.

Next, add in your sauce mixture and stir. Optionally, you can add sake into the pot (my mother’s secret ingredient). to enhance the taste. Mix well and bring to a boil.

Once the mixture comes to a boil, add in half the green onions. Turn the heat down to a medium-low and let it cook for around 15-20 minutes or until the rice cakes become soft to chew and the sauce has thickened. The sauce will be a bit soupy at first but over time as the ingredients absorb, the sauce will thicken more and more.

When ready to serve, top with the rest of the green onions and sesame seeds (optional) and enjoy hot (I prefer to eat it a few hours after making it, because the flavours really soak in)! If you are serving this later, make sure to heat it up completely until the rice cakes are very soft and chewy again.

NEED MORE VEGAN RECIPE INSPO? CHECK THESE OUT:

• Vegan Tteokguk
• Creamy Rosé Tteokbokki
• Rice Paper Tteokbokki

If you enjoy Korean recipes, try these Korean seaweed rice rolls called Kimbap! You can actually dip these into the tteokbokki sauce as these two dishes are often served together.