Seolleongtang

On August 28, 2025 0 Comments - Cooking

Seolleongtang is the first meal I ever ate in Korea. After a 15 hour flight and a long train ride, I finally arrived at my Insa-dong hotel sore, exhausted and hungry. The closest restaurant was directly behind the hotel, attached to the parking lot. This unassuming restaurant turned out to be one of the oldest in Seoul: Imun Seolleongtang. I had a big hot bowl of this plain milky beef soup and within an hour I felt completely refreshed. This simple soup seemed to erase my body’s memory of being crushed in an economy seat for the last 15 hours. It was like magic.

Since then, I have been back to Korea many times and I always start and finish my travels with this simple meal. Imun Seolleongtang has since received Michelin recognition and so it is busier (and more expensive) than ever with lots of tourists coming in to snap photos for instagram and tiktok. The staff seem to take it in stride, brisk and efficient, though maybe somewhat less friendly than I remember nearly 10 years ago. Also gone is the sloppy bucket of juicy and chunky kkadugi in the middle of the table and the big basket of chopped green onion. These now arrive in less bottomless portions after you order. But, even though some things have changed, the food is still as delicious as I remember and I still go to Imun as well as another smaller family run Seollongtang restaurant nearby.

Homemade seolleongtang

Seolleongtang always seemed kind of mysterious to me. Where did that milky colour come from? How was this simple soup so nutty and delicious? It arrives at the table completely bland and unseasoned but the addition of a little salt and pepper, kimchi juice and green onion turns it into something deep and complex and unforgettable.

Like a good food detective, I decided to launch a full investigation. After much reading and video watching, I discovered that the secret is really in the style of beef stock, in the process rather than the ingredients. The recipe below is a two-part process. First you will need to make the milky bone broth. Once you have this broth on hand, turning it into finished seolleongtang is a very simple and quick process. You can find the complete recipe for the beef bone broth by clicking here.

Ingredients

*this is for one big portion or 2 smaller portions

  • 1 litre Korean milky beef bone broth
  • 250gr beef brisket point
  • cooked white rice
  • cooked somyeon/somen noodles
  • 2-3 green onions (scallions)
  • salt and pepper

I used brisket point. You can use any beef you like. Tougher cuts will take longer to soften up and more tender cuts will take less time. I like brisket because it is somewhere in between. It has the deep beef flavour of a tougher muscle but is slightly more tender so takes a little less time to cook. If you like, you can soak the meat in water for a few hours to remove some of the blood but, this is optional.

Process

raw seolleongtang ingredients
Raw ingredients. This is leftover rice from yesterday. I am cooking a whole portion of noodles but probably will not use them all in here.
sliced brisket point
Slice beef into thin bite-sized pieces. Note: if you are making seolleongtang and the bone broth on the same day, you can cook the uncut chunk of meat directly in the broth and slice it after it is cooked. Either way will work. I think that slicing the meat first and then cooking might give it a slightly drier texture but I don’t think it makes that much difference in the end.
cooking somen noodles
In a seperate pot, precook your somyeon according to the directions on the package. The ones I am using take around 3 minutes.
Drain the noodles and rinse them with cool water.
Warm up the beef broth.
Add in slices of meat. Cover the pot and simmer the meat in the broth until it is as tender as you like. I let this brisket go for about 30 minutes.
Add noodles. You can put as many noodles as you like.
assembling finished seolleongtang
Scoop in some rice. You can also serve a bowl of fresh rice on the side. I usually end up putting most of it in the soup anyways so I will add it now.
While the above ingredients are warming through, slice up some green onions.
Once everything is warmed through, it is ready to go. Serve it with kimchi, salt, pepper and green onion on the side. As you add salt, you will notice that the bland broth suddenly comes alive with rich nutty sweet and beefy flavour. Add some pepper if you like. You can also add in some kimchi juice if you want to give it a little spice or acid. This is usually served with a juicy kkakdugi and this radish kimchi is a perfect accompaniment to this dish. Some time ago, I made a batch of watery kkakduki to eat with seolleongtang but I ate it all before I got around to cooking this. Cabbage kimchi is also good. You can find the kkakdugi recipe by clicking here. This doesn’t look too impressive at the table does it?
All the good stuff is hiding in the milky broth.
a look at the finished and seasoned soup

The verdict?

This turned out to be very very good. Maybe 4 out of 5 stars. One star off because, as good as it is, it doesn’t quite measure up to the flavour of Imun Seolleongtang in Seoul. But, honestly, I can say the same thing about all Korean food made outside of Korea. There is always a little something missing when you make these dishes yourself or, eat them in restaurants back home. I think a big part of this is the high quality of ingredients in Korea but, there is also generational knowledge and experience that adds flavour to these dishes and makes the magic hard to replicate. Imun Seolleongtang has been making this same dish for over 100 years and legend has it that the same stock pot has been continuously boiling fresh bones every day for the whole time!

Having said that, I am really happy with the way this turned out and I feel just as refreshed after eating a big hot bowl of this flavourful soup. 시원하다!

If you have any questions or comments please leave them in the space below. Thanks for reading!

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