Kongnamul-guk (Bean Sprout Soup) · Paik Jong-won

Rinse the bean sprouts lightly under running water and tip them into a colander to drain. Do not leave them sitting in a bowl of water.

💡 Sprouts are mostly water already. Soaking them waterlogs the stems, and a waterlogged sprout goes limp the moment it hits the pot — the exact opposite of what this soup is for.

Slice the green onion and the Cheongyang chili into thin rounds about 0.3 cm thick. Set them aside — they are the last thing in.

Pour the 2 L of filtered water into a pot and bring it to a full, rolling boil over high heat — big bubbles breaking the surface, not just steam.

💡 Boil the water FIRST. Everything in this recipe goes into water that is already boiling — that short, hot, decisive cook is what keeps the sprouts crunchy and the broth clear.

Once it is boiling hard, add the bean sprouts, the guk-ganjang, the minced garlic and the fine salt — all at once — and keep the heat on high.

If you are using MSG, add 1/6 tbsp of it now.

💡 This is his own listed option, not an addition of ours — it is how restaurant kongnamul-guk gets that rounded savouriness. If you leave it out, he suggests using seasoned salt (matsogeum) in place of the fine salt.

Let it return to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium.

Simmer on medium for about 5 minutes. The broth turns from cloudy to clear and pale, and the raw, green, beany smell disappears.

💡 Five minutes, not fifteen. Long boiling is what turns bean sprout soup into a pot of grey, soft, smelly stems — the sprouts have almost nothing in them that needs cooking out.

Taste the broth now. This is the moment to adjust the guk-ganjang — he says explicitly to set it to your own preference.

Add the green onion and the Cheongyang chili.

Boil for just 1 more minute — long enough for the scallion to go bright and fragrant and for the chili to release its heat into the broth, and no longer.

💡 One minute. The chili gives the broth that clean, sharp finish Koreans call 시원하다 — 'refreshing' — which has nothing to do with temperature and everything to do with that bracing edge.

Turn off the heat immediately. Do not let it sit bubbling on the stove while you set the table.

Serve hot, with rice and — ideally — a bowl of sour kimchi alongside.

💡 Restaurant trick he shares: keep the broth and the sprouts in separate containers and combine them only in the serving bowl. That way the sprouts never sit stewing, and every bowl is as crunchy as the first.