Korean rice cake and beef soup, or duk guk, is enjoyed year-round but is traditionally served on New Year's Day to symbolize good luck. The soup was originally made using beef or pheasant, but modern versions sometimes replace the beef with chicken or seafood. The resulting soup provides B vitamins, protein, essential minerals and antioxidants, but it can also be high in salt.
Definition
Duk, also spelled tteok, refers to Korean rice cakes that are made by mixing rice flour and water into a dough that’s rolled into a log. Duk guk incorporates rice cake, beef, eggs, onions and dried seaweed as a garnish. The ingredients are not all tossed into the broth and cooked together, however. Beef is simmered until it’s cooked, then the meat is removed, thinly sliced and set aside. The rice cake is sliced, added to the broth and boiled. Egg strips are made by frying eggs in a skillet and slicing them into strips. The soup is assembled by putting the broth with rice cakes into a bowl and then placing strips of beef, fried egg and chopped onion on top. Roasted seaweed is cut into pieces or crushed and served on the side.
The Basics
A pot of duk guk is made from 2 pounds of rice cake, a half-pound of beef flank steak, 8 cups of water, five cloves of garlic, two eggs, a half-cup of scallions and 1 tablespoon of salt. The yield is five servings, so one serving is about 1.5 cups of broth together with one-fifth of the other ingredients. This serving size of duk guk has 348 calories, 19 grams of protein and 6 grams of total fat. You can get as much as 2 grams of dietary fiber from the rice flour. Seaweed can give you a boost of vitamin K, vitamin C, calcium, iron and magnesium. But the amount of those nutrients you’ll gain depends on how much you eat with your soup.
Vitamins
One serving of duk guk provides 30 to 40 percent of the recommended daily intake of niacin, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12. Niacin helps your body convert food into energy, keeps your skin healthy and is essential for the nervous system. Vitamins B6 and B12 reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease by lowering the amount of homocysteine in your blood. You’ll also gain 17 percent of the daily vitamin K you need for blood clotting.
Minerals
You'll get 6 percent of the recommended daily value of potassium, 9 percent of magnesium and 28 percent of phosphorus in one serving of duk guk. Phosphorus and magnesium contribute to strong bones. Magnesium is also necessary for many biochemical processes in your body, from energy creation to muscle contraction. Potassium ensures normal muscle contraction and nerve functioning. Duk guk delivers 27 percent of the daily intake of zinc, which must be present for normal growth and neurological development. Most duk guk recipes use salt and soy sauce for seasoning, so remember that a dash of salt contains 10 percent of the recommended daily value of sodium and 1 teaspoon of soy sauce gives you double that amount.
Antioxidants
Duk guk delivers a small amount of vitamin C and vitamin E, but one serving gives you more than 50 percent of the daily value for selenium. Selenium-containing compounds protect cells from damage throughout the body, including cells in blood vessel walls. The eggs and onions in duk guk contain lutein and zeaxanthin, which are antioxidants that protect your eyes from age-related macular degeneration and cataracts.
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