Ethan, I absolutely love how you almost always have healthier versions available for recipes without sacrificing much taste. It is so helpful!

This looks great. The healthier version actually resembles the "궁중떡볶이 (Goongjoong Tteokbokki, where Goongjoong means royal cuisine)" that had been served to the kings a lot, except we didn't have asparagus back then. I'd like to recommend to those interested in the more 'authentic' or rustic version of traditional Tteokbokki, which is considered a soul food to many Koreans, to add Sogogi Dashida (쇠고기 다시다) in the sauce. Sogogi Dashida is a Korean beef stock powder that is very savory and full of 'flavor (MSG),' and it's really a backbone in the flavor profile of most kitsch Korean dishes. I don't know if Sogogi Dashida is easy to get your hands on outside of Korea, but it is one of the pantry staples in Korean households and cheap diners. My taste is to reduce the amount of Gochujang to make the sauce thinner and add some Sogogi Dashida. Please be careful of the amount of Sogogi Dashida you put in as it is very salty and sharp. Also, I wouldn't skip on the fish cakes because they contribute enormously to the taste of the sauce, but it's up to you. Plus, you can always throw some green onions or cabbages in to give the final flavor profile more depth. + You can substitute the rice cakes (쌀떡) with the wheat rice cakes (밀떡, Milltteok). 밀떡s are made of flour as opposed to rice cakes being made of rice flour. 밀떡s were cheaper than rice cakes in the 80~90s, and many of the street vendors made tteokbokki with 밀떡. So, one would argue that the tteokbokki made with 밀떡s are more old school, but it's really a choice of preference. Personally, I prefer 밀떡s over rice cakes in tteokbokki, as they get much softer and less chewy in the sauce, and they tend to absorb the flavor of the sauce better.

When i worked for a Korean couple at a Quizno's 15 years ago, on slow evenings they'd send me to the Korean market for their groceries and hot food. As they realized how open-minded I was about their culture, they started sharing lots of great food with me, with a coworker once even bringing me homemade bulgogi. Everything i tried was amazing, and out of it all I was hooked from the first bite of teeokbokki. It's great seeing this awesome getting more love.

Genuinely admire how you make traditional recipes more suited for weekday meals, both time-wise and health-wise!

The best tteokbokki I ever had were actually sauteed in very hot oil a little first, so they had a bit of crunchy crust as well as the addictive soft chewy texture. Highly highly recommend as an extra step when you have the time.

Ethan, I appreciate all the care and respect you give to my country’s food and to all the other countries/cultures’ cuisine you’ve explored- the mark of a true chef and food lover

As korean living overseas, I actually thought it was texture that was hard to convince people 😆 but for some reason, people seem to like it more lately haha I think it kind of came with whole bubble tea trend and people just got bit more used to chewy texture 🤔 Anyway I am glad you like it! We have so many variations. If you are looking for unique one, you can try egg and butter tteokbokki 😌 And their is classic Alfredo saucey tteokbokki etc. I honestly love adding it to anything like soup, ramen, mix with pasta sauce 🥴 just works with anything

Learned making this dish from Maangchi's recipe in september myself & fully agree. This dish is 1 of the best dishes I have ever tried. Highly recommend

We Koreans love this stuff. Hey...while it's not "healthier" add puck of ramen noodles on there...while it boils and you will get ra-bokki. Delicious.

Words cannot describe how much I appreciate your videos, Ethan. They’re so addictive and they’ve levelled up my cooking tenfold over the past year (or two? has it been that long?). Great job, and keep it up.

Maangchi!! Love her! …and always giving props to other chefs is so awesome of you.

Outstanding stuff! Please make more Korean food, it's always so tasty!

Ethan I really appreciate your videos and the effort you put into them. I especially appreciate how you've included the caloric breakdown. It makes tracking macros so much easier. Thank you so much and I have tried and loved your recipes.

I have been absolutely ADDICTED to this dish since your last video. THANK YOU for introducing this to me.

I love how in the USA a decade ago these ingredients were considered to exotic for the average supermarket! Now you can find them pretty much everywhere which is amazing. I’d recommend buying them from an Asian grocery shop simply because they will always be available. At my local Target it’s hit and miss frankly. Ethan you are a legend my friend!

This has become my family’s favorite. Thanks for introducing us to new dishes.

hands down you have the best foodtube channel I’ve found. Your recipe’s are healthy, price wise, and approachable. I actually make most of your recipients. I Appreciate your content man!

When sold on the streets of Korea, this usually includes the option of twigim, or a variety of deep fried foods. If you wanted some protein and some crunch you could always add ojingeo twigim (deep fried squid) and we know Ethan likes to deep fry!

Me and my Japanese wife have been doing the same for some years now, but with mochi we make ourselves instead, which is basically the same thing. I had no idea this was a thing in South Korea. We use gochujang, togarashi, katsuobushi, soy sauce and honey.

Glad you made this video Ethan. I make Tteokbokki every few weeks, I usually have rice cakes in my fridge or freezer, and as you said, the gochujang and gochujaru are pantry stable. I love that it takes only 15 mins or so to make, and its very satisfying.

the texture is such a sensory dream for me, though its far too spicy for me. the woman who owned the only korean spot in my college town almost stopped letting me order them so i’d stop dying in the corner of her restaurant every few weeks

I endlessly appreciate you including healthier versions of these foods. Sometimes I feel like I can't really be an adventurous cook because I care too much about my nutrition, but you always prove me wrong :)

You can add ramen noodles and boiled eggs as well 😋 *oops I should have watched the entire video before commenting. There's also another version of that got popular called Rose tteokboki. Also great vid might make it this weekend.

I'd never heard of tteokbokki but as a lover of ALL Asian cuisines and gochujang, as well as your healthier mince/veggies variation, tomorrow I'll be making a trip to the Asian grocer. This was yet another fantastic video from a never dissapointing channel. Thanks Ethan!

on the very day you uploaded the video where you first mentioned the tteokbokki recipe, i tried it, loved it and have been making it at least twice a week with a slight modification - I used broccoli instead of asparagus because that's what I had at the time lol thanks for the content as usual!

Tteokbokki has been the bane of my diet haha. It's easily one of my favorite foods and I make it all the time. Glad it's getting some love here!

You're sincere, Ethan. It's brilliant.

The first time I had tteokbokki was from my sunbasket food subscription and I fell in love. I'm so glad you reminded me of them, I will be making some as soon as I can find them.

I love how you genuinely love food from all over the world.

Gochujang and the rice cake texture are just an incredible combo. Thanks for showing me this

Thank you Ethan, for introducing an uncultured American like myself about all theses diverse culinary options. Also, I appreciate the style of explaining why each ingredient is used and how they all come together to make the dish, instead of just blindly following a recipe.

Thank you for saying addictive vs addicting!! Awesome recipe!

That looks so good! Excited to try it out.

Yes!!!!! This is one of the best dinners we make at home now!

ANOTHER great production and recipe🙌

I was thinking of making this sometime soon and now I see you dropped a vid on it. The world has aligned in my favour.

i lit rally had this for dinner last night! happy to see you talk about this lovely comforting meal

All of these Indian, Pakistani, and Korean dishes have convinced me that Ethan grew up on the wrong hemisphere of the globe as a kid. :D

this looks so good thanks for the tips

Always love the rice cakes at restaurants, had no idea it'd be so easy to make my own. I'll def be trying this.

The last one, I've made it a few times and usually I end up simplifying it without using the soup base and vegtable mix. Still SO good. Love the texture of rice cakes!

I try to make most of your exotic recipes. Always love some new tastes. 👌

Super Cool! I've never heard of these before. I love mouth feel in cooking so I'll defined be trying this out

Dude you are awesome. i dig your vids. you have upped my home cooking game. thanks and keep on keeping on.

Mine too! Just discovered this dish recently, so comforting. X

Even though I am Chinese like Korean food a lot. They actually use much less ingredients the entire food options but delicious

Yay! Korean food. Thank you!

I recently had this and I loved it

Ah time to relax after a long day with my fav food youtuber. Am I gonna make this recipe? No. But I watch anyway because it's Ethan ✨

I love how Ethan tries cooking from all over the world without prejudice 🌎

I literally just ate this for the first time last night and now you have a video on making it

I really like these weekly meal videos. Hook me up with more like this! I'm terrible at planning meals but this kinda video makes me want to get better.

I just made it! I combined both methods, using the recipe from the first and adding beef and veggies and it was amazing. And easy. Spent about $30 but got enough to make it 3 more times (minus the beef and veggies) with about 3 servings each time. So it was $30 for like, 12 servings. Not bad!

Fav cooking channel on YT

my new favorite meal, thank you! And, now a fan of making my own dashi.

Rice cakes are amazing! Discovered them a few years ago and buy vacuum-sealed packs at an Asian market or on Amazon. Love the beef and broccoli alternative you showed.

The hottest food I've ever eaten was this dish in a little place in Seoul that was known for making it very spicy. I was hallucinating after finishing it. Best pain ever

I've never had beef nor asparagus in tteokbokki but it looks good! What we usually do is a packet of ramen noodles, bean sprouts, onions, fish cakes, and hard-boiled eggs.

So great to see I'm not the only one experimenting with Tteokbokki! If you run low on those ricecakes, the sauce also works great with any noodles. FYI, the ricecakes are called Tteok, the dish made with the spicy sauce is Tteokbokki. ;)

The texture is so addictive!

Nice video! Your healthy version reminds me of another traditional form of tteokbokki called gungjung ("palace") tteokbokki, in case you were interested. Tteokbokki is one of the dishes i always hear different pronunciations for, but the second O isnt emphasized as much as it would seem. The best tip i can think of at the moment is that it should sound vaguely like "tupperware" when you say tteokbokki 😂

did some improvising with broccolini. my rice cakes didn’t have seasoning packets so i used some oyster sauce for umami and a little Shaoshing wine with copious gochuchang and gochugaru. easy and quick and so deliscious! where has this been all my life? thanks for introducing this

Wow! This looks delicious. I'll try making it this weekend. ^^

Definitely going to try making this soon, my Korean friends keep telling me I need to try it

Yummo! LIKE the idea of adding meat & veg to it!

Fantastic, I'll try the second version.

Unrelated video idea-a guide to lesser know vegetables and techniques to use them. I feel like a lot of people understand basics like broccoli, asparagus, carrots and so on but I had to google radicchio and don’t know jack about radish, leeks, parsnips, and so on. Veggies are filling for their calorie count but intimidating to many Americans. Understanding how to use them, especially together, would be great.

One of my favorite dishes!

My mom loves Tteokbokki! I’m gonna try your recipe soon.

I love Tteokbokki! You can also add other proteins, vegetables, my favorite is adding sweet potatoes. I can't wait for an episode on Korean bbq!

Thanks for introducing us to new recipes.

I would love to see more korean home cooking recipes (please).

To make mine slightly more healthy I add a bunch of shredded cabbage and carrot after the rice cakes (and frozen peas if I have them). Also recommend snow peas!

both looks Yummy

Duck-bucky! I love this stuff! I add Morningstar Veggie Sausage Patties, broccoli, fish cakes, and top it with a sunny side up fried egg -

I love this! Healthy version rocks!

Adding the rice cakes to the air fryer is a nice touch as well, makes them kind of crispy

Thanks Ethan! I am Korean so I had all the ingredients in my refridgerator. Made your healthishy version and it turns out great! Thanks for sharing :)

Gochugaru and Gochujang have become staples in my daily cooking , esp Gouchugaru everything tastes better with this. Since im found out how healthy and heartly the korean cruisine is in cant stop make dishes from it. Also authentic Chinese Cruisne. And Garlic .... garlic baby ich can live with Garlic /Ginger Mix anymore , makes everything better to gigest and improved my bloodresults also my daily dose auf toasted Seasme seed Oil

I love tteokbokki❤❤

For a quicker version of dashi, you can also purchase dashi in a tea bag form or hondashi in a powder form and just put it in your water

Really love that you put up healthier, weeknight versions of a lot of these recipes with calorie and macro info! Side note - someone that makes a point of saying that the nutritional content / macros of a meal is good for them specifically as opposed to generally is someone that knows about nutrition and worth listening to!

I also use maangchi recipe. In My country You can not find bonito flakes but i use dashi instead and add the kombu to Maje broth. I add thick slices of carrots, big chunks of onion ando Big pieces of peppers. And just an advice, use toasted sesame seeds, that's a life changing

I love this dish. When I’m feeling lazy I just add a Tbsp of dashi flakes to the pot and forgettaboudit. If you add a whole package, you might want to strain it out to avoid bitter after taste.

I've been experimenting with tteokbokki for a bit and one dish I made was like a hamburger helper but with the rice cakes, so good. Also once made bbq chicken tteokbokki.

This sounds perfect. I was planning to try and start eating healthy with rice and chicken but was afraid it would be bland, but this looks like it could be a great alternative

A+ for listing everything in grams. So much easier! Had some jjajang tebokki today. Love it. (-White Californian)

We serve this where I work and it’s very popular whenever we put it on the menu

This has become my new favorite cooking chanel. It's familiar but new and creative which is rare with so many culinary content.

I love that you reference mangchi repeatedly. 👌 So respectful.

I hope Koreans who saw this felt like this is a faithful reproduction, as a non-Korean I wanted to say I really appreciate you adding comments for people who are not likely to have some of these ingredients at home, or to use them often. If you hadn't mentioned that Gochujang keeps "almost indefinitely" in the fridge, I'd probably skip this recipe. Because you mentioned it, I went and bought all the ingredients yesterday, and will be making it tomorrow for the first time. Thanks!

OMG I love Maangchi

Great job ethan

I'm moving to near an Asian supermarket soon, and I'm definitely going to try this! Thanks!

Your take on the dish is interesting, it kind of becomes a crossover with Pad Krapao Moo Sap minus the basil leaf

오마이갓ㅋㅋㅋ 해찬들 고추장!!! 멋져 이든!!!

Yay Korean food!

im craving these

It's like gnoccis but with rice and spicy! Awesome! 😋

4:40 that potato masher hack is going to be a game changer for me, I often make dishes based on minced meat and I always get frustrated over how much time it takes to break it up using a wooden spoon 😂