What’s better than a fiery kimchi soup to warm up your insides? How about one loaded with chewy hand-torn noodles. This Spicy Kimchi Sujebi is a mash-up of two Korean favorites: kimchi jjigae and sujebi. While you can certainly find these dough flakes in a spicy broth, they’re often featured in a mild anchovy stock with zucchini and potato. This recipe includes a small bit of ground meat (beef, pork, or your choice), anchoring the soup’s flavor without being overly heavy. Making sujebi is easy, fun, and relatively fast—no special equipment required. Simply make the dough and let it rest while you prepare the remaining ingredients. As with all kimchi stews, the riper the kimchi, the richer the final soup will be.
When preparing the sujebi, aim to create thin 1"–2"-long strands for the best chew. These sujebi noodles rely on a 50% flour-to-water hydration ratio for a great result, but they are endlessly forgiving even if you don’t have a scale.
What you’ll need
Dutch Oven
$90 At Amazon
Spatula
$13 At Amazon
Pyrex 4-Cup Measuring Cup
$8 At Bed Bath and Beyond
Oxo Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
$14 At Amazon
Recipe information
Total Time
1 hour 35 minutes
Yield
4 servings
Ingredients
Sujebi
Soup and Assembly
Preparation
Sujebi
Step 1
Mix 1⅔ cups (208 g; or more) all-purpose flour, 1½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1 tsp. Morton kosher salt, and 2 tsp. vegetable oil in a large bowl. Gradually drizzle in ⅓ cup plus 1 Tbsp. (104 g) water, mixing with your hand like a claw until dough comes together and forms a ball (it will be shaggy and sticky; but don’t worry, it will get smoother when you knead it). If dough feels too dry, add more water, 1 Tbsp. at a time; if it feels too wet, add more flour, 1 Tbsp. at a time. Knead dough until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl and is taut with a smooth skin, 8–10 minutes. Wrap dough in plastic or place in a resealable plastic bag and close. Let rest at room temperature while you prepare the soup (at least 15 minutes).
Do ahead: Dough can be made 12 hours ahead. Chill. Bring to room temperature before using.
Soup and Assembly
Step 2
Heat 2 tsp. vegetable oil in a medium Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium heat. Add 8 oz. ground beef or pork and sprinkle with ½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt. Spread meat out in an even layer and cook, undisturbed, until a light crust forms underneath, about 1 minute. Using a flat-edged wooden spoon or heatproof rubber spatula, break up meat and continue to cook, stirring and breaking up as much as possible, until brown all of the way through, about 2 minutes more. Add 1 small onion, coarsely chopped, and 5 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped, and cook, stirring, until combined and fragrant, 30–60 seconds. Mix in 2½ cups drained ripe kimchi (about 1 lb.), chopped into bite-size pieces (along with any clinging juices), then 1 (heaping) Tbsp. gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste). Pour in 7 cups cold water and stir well. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover pot partially with a lid, and simmer, decreasing heat to low if needed, until kimchi is softened, 15–20 minutes. (If soup has reduced too much, add up to another 1 cup water and return to a simmer over medium-low heat.)
Step 3
Add 1 Tbsp. fish sauce, 1 Tbsp. soy sauce, and remaining 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt to soup. Taste and add more gochujang and/or season with more salt if needed.
Step 4
Unwrap dough and divide into 2 or 3 manageable pieces. Hold 1 piece of dough in your hand and stretch off a small piece with your other hand until thin and 1"–2"-long (the thickness doesn’t need to be perfectly consistent). Tear piece off and lay gently in simmering soup (still over medium-low). Continue with remaining dough, working as quickly as you can. Give sujebi a gentle stir and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through (if you try one, there should be no floury taste) , about 5 minutes. Taste sujebi and season with more salt if needed. Remove from heat; drizzle in ¼ tsp. toasted sesame oil and top with three fourths of 2 scallions, chopped.
Step 5
Ladle sujebi into bowls and top with remaining scallions.
