Seaweed soup is the traditional birthday soup in Korea. It’s a good thing that it is also one of the easiest and tastiest soups you can make! Canned tuna comes in very handy in making this seaweed soup with tuna.
My son’s birthday is coming soon and I am making this seaweed soup with tuna again this year. In fact, I’ve made this easy, simple recipe for him every year since he was born. He loves it and asks for it every year.
Seaweed soup recipes come in many varieties. Perhaps beef seaweed soup is the most well known, even among Koreans. But in Korea’s southern provinces, people tend to use seafood. How appropriate!
Out of many seaweed soups that I tried (and I tried a lot), I love my mother’s seaweed soup the best. My mother always used fresh fish to make her soup and it was delectable.
Here, I adapted my mother’s recipe to use a can of tuna instead to make life more convenient. My son actually prefers this seaweed soup with tuna over the beef version and other varieties. I am totally with him.
Fun Korean Tradition (Seaweed Soup As A Birthday Soup): After a Korean mother delivers a child into the world, she eats seaweed soup as her basic meal (plus rice and banchan, or side dishes) everyday for a couple of months. It is believed that the nutritional benefit of seaweed produces good breast milk, which is the main resource to nourish her newborn. Korean people then eat seaweed soup on their birthday each year to respect and remember their mother’s love by which she ate mainly seaweed soup for 2-3 months after bearing a child.
Seaweed Choice For Seaweed Soup
Choosing the right kind of seaweed is important.
In Korea, fresh seaweed is available to make seaweed soup which, of course, makes a silky smooth soup. However, dried seaweed can produce an equally great tasting soup. Look for thin twig-like dried seaweed. They are as light as a feather when dried.
The simple soup requires simple ingredients: seaweed, a fish stock cube, canned tuna, garlic, Korean soup soy sauce, and Korean tuna sauce.
Step-By-Step Instructions
You will need to soak the dried seaweed in cold water for 10-15 minutes. As you can tell, they quickly re-hydrate themselves and quadruple in volume.
Drain re-hydrated seaweed and cut into 2-inch long slices. You will also need a fish stock cube and canned tuna (solid albacore tuna in water).
Note: Please keep in mind that some of the fish stock cubes have MSG as an ingredient.
If you can’t find fish stock cubes, use sea kelp stock to replace the cube and water in the recipe. Plain water won’t bring the right taste.
Heat oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Cook seaweed in hot oil for 2 minutes stirring constantly.
Add water and a fish stock cube. Bring it to boil, then cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes over low heat.
Season the soup with Korean soup soy sauce and Korean tuna sauce. If needed, add salt to suit your taste.
Lastly add minced garlic and stir. My mother always added her garlic at last in the soup. It brings the garlicky kick and I just love that. Remove the soup from heat, and serve with rice.
Any Kimchi will make a nice side dish to accompany with this seaweed soup. I usually serve mine with cabbage kimchi.
Leftover Storage and Reheating
As with many other soups, this seaweed soup also tastes even better on the next day. The seaweed will soak up the wonderful flavor from the broth and become softer. The same goes to the tuna.
Store the leftover seaweed soup in the fridge and it will last up to a week. You can also freeze the seaweed soup for a longer storage, about 3 months.
To reheat, you can use a microwave or gently simmer over the stove until hot.
More Seaweed Recipes
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Seaweed Soup With Tuna (Miyeokguk)
Ingredients
- 0.7 oz dried seaweed (miyeok)
- 2 tsp oil
- 6 cups water
- 1 fish stock cube
- 1 can (7 oz) Albacore solid white tuna in water drained
- 1 tbsp Korean soup soy sauce (gukganjang)
- 1 tbsp Korean tuna sauce
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- pinches salt if needed
Instructions
- Soak the dried seaweed in cold water for 10-15 minutes until it re-hydrates themselves and quadruple in volume. Drain the seaweed and cut into 2-inch long slices.
- Heat oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Cook seaweed in hot oil for 2 minutes stirring constantly.
- Add 6 cups of water and a fish stock cube. Bring it to boil, then cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes over low heat.
- Season the soup with Korean soup soy sauce and Korean tuna sauce. If needed, add salt to suit your taste.
- Lastly add minced garlic; stir well and heat through. Remove the soup from heat, and serve with rice.
Merci de partager cette belle histoire avec nous, thanks to share with us 🙂
Oh this makes me miss my mom even more! I will have to travel over the mountain to Portland, Oregon…no dried seaweed or sauce on this side of the mountain!
Mmm…I love seaweed soup and this looks really good 🙂 Thanks, Holly for sharing another wonderful recipe with us!
Can I use wakame? It is the same thing?
thanks for also sharing the touching story about your mum, I hope your brother has gone on to have children too? 🙂
Lucy, you can use wakame.The texture will be slightly different. If your wakame is the kind that is already chopped, don’t simmer too long.
My wife’s Aunt had 5 daughters before she had a son. My wife can vividly remember seeing her being forced to get up and make dinner shortly after giving birth to a girl-literally crawling around the kitchen. Fortunately,those days are gone forever.
Wow, can’t believe that. She must be a very strong woman.
Holly, I love the story of your family and your culture. Way to keep the tradition going 🙂
Holly – I confess – never had miyeok guk with canned tuna. Sounds great! I must try. So you have 3 sisters. Must be nice. I don’t have any. I have 3 younger brothers. Great post!
Thanks Hyosun. You must have been very special to your family since your the only girl.
What a lovely story, and thanks for the recipe! I’ve been craving this soup for a while and had no idea it was so simple to make. Yum!
I love learning about different traditions that families have. That’s really neat and good to know about the beauty secret! My Clean and Clear isn’t working too well these days, I think I might have to try this. :p
Cool soup – and a great story. Really, really interesting post + recipe. Thanks for this.
Hi Holly, interesting writing you’ve got there! Well done. Will definitely try out this seaweed & tuna soup. Oh by the way, I’ll be travelling to KL, do you need anything from Melbourne?
Hi Holly! I love your website. I made a few dishes already. I featured you in my blog. 🙂
I’m going to make this today but instead with chicken. I made your chicken salad yesterday, it was SOOO good! I’m going to use the chicken stock + chicken for my seaweed soup. :3 Your recipes are so easy and simple to follow! Hehe. 😀
This looks delicious! My mother makes this soup when I am sick. I never had it with tuna and onions but I will try it out. Looks yummy.
hi!
wow! the way you make it would really cut down on the cooking time. can’t wait to try! thanks!
just wondering, how do you know if the miyeok is good or not? there’s so many different kinds at the grocery store. is there a brand you like? thanks!
Hi Helen, Ottugi or Chungjoungwon brand is popular. I look for even thickness without too much tough stem in the middle of seaweed strands.
What a beautiful family tradition and unusual (to me) recipe. I can’t wait to make this for a light and healthy lunch!
I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your website. It’s a very easy on the
eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me
to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create your theme?
Exceptional work!
Wow that was strange. I just wrote an very long comment
but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up.
Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again.
Regardless, just wanted to say superb blog!
Hi, just wanted to let you know, that most pictures of this post are gone.
Thanks for letting me know. I will try to fix it asap.
I still can’t see the photos.
how long can miyeokguk be kept in a fridge? asking so i avoid food poisioning
One of my favourites! My mom makes pork spareribs soup with seaweed very often for our lunch, esp. in summer time. The seaweeds taste particularly flavourful and yummy after absorbing all the meat flavours. I love all sorts of seaweeds.