Rose Tteokbokki is similar to the traditional Tteokbokki but milder and cheesy! Tteokbokki is a popular rice cake dish with a spicy sauce. It is typically a little too spicy for many people to handle, but this milder version makes it palatable. It is one of the latest food trends to hit Korea.
If you have never had this creamy, savoury delight or have never made Korean food before, trying to cook it at home might make you nervous. But, don't fear. This simple Korean recipe uses common ingredients you can easily find anywhere.
As we love trying out TikTok trends, we tried different recipes and found the best ones for you. We will tell you everything you need to know about this trendy new dish. We've also included different versions to try for the more curious among you. If you've always wanted to get into modern Korean cooking, this is the place to start!
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What is rose tteokbokki made of?
Rose tteokbokki is a twist on classic Korean street food, using rose sauce and cheese instead of the classic sauce made mainly of broth and soy sauce. Rose sauce comes from Europe and is usually a mix of tomato sauce and cream. But in Korea, this sauce cannot be made without a few traditional touches, such as gochujang, sesame oil, and soy sauce.
The fusion of Korean and Western elements makes this a delectable dish, and it's simple to make. This recipe uses ingredients you probably already have sitting at home!
Despite its name, no actual roses or other flowers are involved in making this Korean street food. Instead, it gets its name from the light pink colour of the sauce. It is also called Rosé Tteokbokki or Cream Tteokbokki.
There are two different versions of this dish. First, some varieties of this dish use a standard European Rose Sauce, combining the cream with tomatoes and spices. This is similar to the pink sauce made by mixing marinara and alfredo sauces.
On the other hand, the more common version of this dish simply uses milk and cream in the Tteokbokki sauce. This makes it a creamy tteokbokki, which is heavier, milder, and more savoury. Toppings such as vegetables and meat are also added to enhance this dish. Our recipe will focus on the second version, the most common in Korea.
What does rose tteokbokki taste like?
Rose tteokbokki tastes savoury, creamy and mildly spicy because of the milk and cheese. It is less spicy than tteokbokki. If you've never had tteokbokki, it has a spicy, salty sauce made with gochujang and soy sauce.
The chewy, soft, and springy rice cakes add body and substance while still being light. Cheese and vegetables create a dish that will captivate you with its simplicity and impress you with its deliciousness.
If you're nervous about making this dish, never fear. Just keep reading to find our recipe and some fun twists for when you want to try something a little different.
Rose tteokbokki calories
One serving of rose tteokbokki is around 750 calories. That seems like a lot, but you won't care after you take a bite! While it is a comfort food with a good amount of carbohydrates (100 g) and fat (27 g) per serving, it also has a good amount of protein (22 g).
If you want to adjust the macros for this dish, add more vegetables and fewer rice cakes. However, if you want to cut down on calories, you can add this sauce to anything like stir-fried vegetables to a salad.
Because milk and cheese are some of the essential ingredients, it is not vegan to start with. But you can adjust the recipe with our tips below to make it suitable for vegans and vegetarians. Tteokbokki-tteok is gluten-free as well!
Rose tteokbokki vs tteokbokki
Rose tteokbokki uses milk, cheese, and cream, while traditional tteokbokki does not usually contain dairy products. This is the major difference between rose tteokbokki vs tteokbokki, but we'll explain the other subtle differences below.
Traditionally, this Korean street food is a dish of small rice cakes (called tteokbokki-tteok) stir-fried and simmered in a sauce made of broth, gochujang, soy sauce, and sugar. The sweet, sticky, chewy rice cakes perfectly complement the spicy, savoury sauce.
Rose Tteokbokki stands out with the addition of cream and cheese. This makes the texture luxuriously velvety with a savoury tang. Of course, you can find cheese in a lot of street food, such as Korean corn cheese or cheese ramen. Putting it in traditional tteokbokki, however, is a new thing.
However, rose tteokbokki sauce doesn't use sardine broth and boiled seaweed that traditional tteokbokki usually has. Without this umami seafood flavour, the dish is milder and less aggressive.
However, this mildly spicy Korean food still has the traditional rice cakes and boiled eggs. You can also remove them in the rose tteokbokki recipe if you want to without losing much flavour or character from the dish.
Rose tteokbokki ingredients
The main ingredients in making this spicy rose sauce are gochujang, cream, soy sauce, and of course, tteokbokki-tteok and toppings to complete the dish. The addition of dairy will give you the creamy gochujang sauce you need for this popular and trendy street food.
Here are all the ingredients you need to make this creamy, spicy rose tteokbokki:
- Milk
- Cheese
- Cream
- Gochujang
- Gochugaru
- Sesame oil
- Soy Sauce
- Spring onions
- Dashi or Korean soup broth
- Meat (sausages, bacon, etc)
- Vegetables
- Fish cakes
- Boiled eggs
- Garlic
- Tteokbokki-tteok (rice cakes)
We don't recommend using frozen rice cakes since they crack when heated up. Instead, use fresh rice cakes. But, If you can only find frozen ones, you must thaw them at room temperature before you start cooking.
We recommend using two types of cheese in this recipe. Parmesan cheese can be used as the topping, and melty cheese can be added to the sauce to maximise the luxurious mouthfeel and the savouriness of the dish. For the umami, try adding MSG instead of salt as well! It's not as bad for you as you think.
If you can't find Korean soup broth, try using chicken, beef, or veggie stock. Japanese dashi is less common but an acceptable substitute.
Instead of broccoli and mushrooms, you can use any kind of vegetable you prefer. For example, try using Napa cabbage, enoki mushrooms, or peas!
Rose Tteokbokki vegetarian
To make the Rose Tteokbokki vegetarian, you only need to take out the meat but keep all the other ingredients. Instead, you can use vegetables such as broccoli, napa cabbage, or shiitake mushrooms to make it more substantial.
We recommend substituting the meat with tofu in the same amount of meat by weight. Additionally, you can also just add extra vegetables. You could also exclude the fish cakes and boiled egg toppings for a vegan version. It's all very easy to do.
More detailed instructions will be included in our recipe below.
Rose Tteokbokki noodles
This recipe can also be made without Tteokbokki-tteok. However, if you love rabokki, rose tteokbokki noodles might be fun to try.
Excluding the rice cakes might remove a lot of the dish's texture. However, noodles are usually much easier to find and can add a lot of volume to the dish.
In addition, noodles can increase the quantity and number of servings if you're eating with a big group. They can also be stored for much longer than rice cakes.
You can use any kind of noodle, from instant ramen to egg noodles or rice vermicelli. But, glass noodles are most texturally similar to the original tteokbokki-tteok (translucent noodles made from rice flour). So, if you're in a pinch, even angel hair pasta or fettuccine noodles can also work!
But why stop there? If you want something similar to the shape of the original tteokbokki rice cakes but can't find them where you live, try making your own using rice paper and water.
You can even try using potato wedges or the larger garae-tteok Korean rice cakes cut up into smaller pieces. Hotdogs or rice cakes on skewers are also good to use, reminiscent of sotteok. The possibilities are endless!
Of course, you can skip the carbs and use the sauce on a vegetable stir fry instead. But, where's the fun in that?
Cooking tips
If you want to adjust how spicy your dish is, simply increase or decrease the amount of gochugaru chilli flakes you use. You can also add sliced Korean red chillies or any type of fresh sliced chilli if you want it extra spicy. The amount of gochugaru in our recipe is the baseline for medium spicy.
Stop and turn down the heat when the sauce reaches the thickness you want to avoid overcooking the heavy cream. When you scrape your spoon along the bottom of the pot, it should leave a trail that quickly fades. Remember that it continues to cook once you after the heat is turned off.
How to store
You can store this dish for up to 4 days covered in the fridge. However, the texture of the rice cakes will continue to change and might become less chewy after the first two days. To avoid this, you can store the sauce separately and cook the add-ins like rice cakes or noodles when you want to eat them.
Easy Rose Tteokbokki Recipe (Creamy and Mild)
Ingredients
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tbsps gochujang paste
- 2.5 tbsps gochugaru flakes
- Salt to taste
- 2 tbsps pepper
- 4 tbsps Parmesan cheese
- 4 tbsps other cheese
- 2 tbsps sesame oil
- 2 tbsps soy sauce
- 2 tbsps brown sugar
- ½ cup dashi
- 2 green onions sliced
- ½ white onion sliced
- 4 cloves garlic sliced
- 2 sausages sliced
- 3 strips bacon sliced
- 150 g broccoli florets
- 150 g mushrooms
- 2 cups Tteokbokki rice cakes
- ¼ cup fish cakes sliced
- 2 hard boiled eggs
Instructions
- In an oiled pan over medium heat, fry the sausages and bacon (or tofu) until crispy and the fat is rendered, then set aside. Add your white onion and garlic. Then, fry until the garlic is fragrant.
- Add the dashi and milk to the pan and stir until hot. Then, add the heavy cream, gochujang, gochugaru, brown sugar, soy sauce, salt, and pepper. Bring the sauce to a low boil.
- Once the sauce is done, add the fish cakes and peeled boiled eggs. Simmer until the sauce is thick or to the desired consistency.
- Add in the broccoli, mushrooms, meat, and/or tofu. Turn off the heat and put in the mozzarella or Swiss cheese. Stir until incorporated, and add in the sesame oil.
- Top with Parmesan cheese and green onions. Serve your rose tteokbokki while still hot!
Notes
- You can substitute the sausages, bacon, fish cakes, and hard-boiled eggs with 1 cup of sliced tofu for the vegetarians and vegans.
- To make the sauce vegan, substitute the heavy cream with coconut milk and the milk with any non-dairy alternative such as soy, oat or almond in the same quantity. It won't taste as authentic, but it will be similar enough.
- For the cheese, use any other type of cheese you want. Swiss, mozzarella, or Pepper Jack will work very well.
Nutrition
Calories have been calculated using an online calculator. Nutritional information offered on Honest Food Talks is for general information purposes and are only rough estimations.
Hanspoon 한스푼찐 on Youtube has a great video recipe on how they made their own version of this spicy and creamy dish. We recommend you check out their video recipe as a reference too!
We hope you enjoyed this article about one of the most current, popular and easy-to-cook Korean food trends, Rose Tteokbokki. You can experiment and make your own versions using just about anything!
If you tried our recipe, leave a comment below on how it turned out and what you would do differently if you made it again a second time. And if you want more accessible, easy-to-follow guides for all sorts of Asian cuisine, be sure to follow @honestfoodtalks on Instagram. Enjoy!
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