Soybean Paste Soup with Spinach and Little Neck Clams
….Fermented soybean paste(doenjang) is a staple ingredient in Korean cuisine. Soybean paste is Koreans’ everyday food and we have many variations. Today I made fermented soybean paste soup with spinach and clams because it’s very easy to find, but you could substitute it with other vegetables — Napa cabbage, bok choy……It’s not only delicious but it’s a kind of soup that makes my family’s soul warm and comfortable. The hot, savory, little spicy, and earthy broth gives our satisfaction in cold weather. Furthermore, the texture of the soft spinach and sweet and chewy clams is amazing. The broth was perfectly delicious. The key to this recipe is using fresh clams and good spinach and preparing them well. From the bubbling smell, it has already become delicious. JOHN would never reject a large bowl of doenjangguk with a small bowl of warm rice bowl, as it’s our all-time favorite.
Servings: 4
Time: 30 minutes plus 2 hours for soaking clams with salt water(remove the sediment)
Ingredients:
- 300 g-400 g fresh spinach, cleaned and cut into half
- 6 cup rice water
- 15 little neck clams, remove the sediment and cleaned several time with cold water
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp Korean soybean paste
- 1 tbsp gukganjang
- 1 tbsp mixed fish sauce(gukganjang: fish sauce: tuna sauce= 1: 1: 1)
- 1 tbsp garlic, minced
- 2 stems green onion, cut into 1 inch
Cooking Instruction:
- Put the clam into a bowl and add the sea salt and 6 cup water into the bowl. Cover the bowl with a lid for 1–2 hours(remove the sediment).
2. After 2 hour, drain and rinse the clams several times(I rinsed 8–10 times) until the rinse water is clean, rubbing and scrubbing the clams with your hands under running cold water. Sift the clams with strainer.
3. Clean some rice with cold water into a bowl and remove the first rinse water. Scrub the rice for 30 seconds with your hand and put 6 cup water into the bowl. Put the rice water into a pot.
4. Heat a pot with medium high heat and place the soybean paste and gochjang into a stainless mesh strainer and lower it into the soup. Push the paste through the strainer with a spoon so that it goes into the soup. Discard any chunks left over in the strainer.
5. Add the gukganjang and mixed fish sauce into the pot.
6. Start boiling, add the spinach into the pot to boil them with a lid for 3 minutes.
7. After 3 minutes, add the garlic, green onion, and clams into the pot to boil them for 7 minutes until the clams open and the spinach looks tender with the lid.
8. Remove any floating bubbles with a spoon.
9. Serve right away with rice, kimchi, and more side dishes if you want.
You can also view this recipe on instagram.
