5-minute Kong-guksu (Korean soy milk noodle soup) with edamame｜ 콩국수, 풋콩국수 [vegan friendly]

Kong-guksu, Korean soy milk noodle soup, is one of most popular Korean summer dishes.
It’s creamy, nutty and so healthy too!
This is the simplest (and the most delicious!) Kong-guksu recipe on this planet using edamame 🙂 And it will really blow your mind!

My grandma always makes us this in late summer, when her garden is filled with young soybeans (also called put-kong or edamame). For me, I like this version even better because of its brighter taste as well as prettier colors.

What are the benefits of young soybeans (edamame)?

Did you know? The nutritional benefits of edamame is actually the best of both worlds! It has soy proteins, and on top of that also essential nutrients like Vitamin K and Vitamin C.

And for me, I love it even more because it’s sweeter and softer than regular soybeans.

Controversy among Koreans: Team Salt vs. Team Sugar

In Korea, there are two kinds of people
1. people who season their soymilk noodle soup with salt
2. people who season their soymilk noodle soup with sugar
In both cases, the noodle soup is served as a meal but it’s of personal preference.

Usually people from Jeolla province (southwestern region) season with sugar, whereas people from Gyeongsang province (southeastern region) season with salt!

Having spent teenage years in Jeolla province myself, I still recall big bowls of sugar in the center of tables at school cafeteria when they served these noodles for lunch. It was quite shocking for me back then because being born in Gyeongsang province, I have never seen such a thing before 🙂

For me, adding sugar makes it taste like sweetened soymilk (not in a bad way), so I just prefer seasoning it with salt only. What’s your choice? Maybe you can try a bit of each and decide on your taste!

If you’re Team Salt, the amount of salt written on the recipe should be enough but adjust the amount to your liking.
If you’re Team Sugar, add a generous amount of sugar. Usually people put around 1 tablespoon but you can even go more!!

This is the simplest Kong-guksu recipe on this planet!

For this simple recipe, you only need a bag of frozen precooked edamame. And most of frozen edamame sold in stores are precooked! If you can, look for edamame beans produced locally. Mine was an organic one grown & produced in The Netherlands (I’m now based in The Netherlands by the way) Follow the recipe below and enjoy this beautiful summer 🙂

Print Recipe

5 min. Korean soy milk noodle soup with edamame ｜ 콩국수, 풋콩국수 Kong guksu

Kong-guksu, soy milk noodle soup, is a dish that Koreans enjoy in summer. It's traditionally vegan! When made with Put-kong (edamame, a.k.a. young soybeans), it's even more delicious but so easy.

Prep Time0 minutes mins

Cook Time5 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian, Korean

Keyword: Noodles, Soy milk noodle soup, Soy milk noodles

Servings: 1 serving

Ingredients

• 1 cup frozen precooked edamame most of frozen edamame are precooked
• ½ cup hot water to blend & thaw the frozen beans
• ½ cup water (room temperature or cold)

Noodles

• 80 g dried somyeon (thin wheat noodles) 3 oz.
• 5 cup water to boil
• 1 teaspoon salt

To garnish

• ¼ cup cucumber, cut into matchsticks
• 1 cherry tomato cut in half

Instructions

• Put frozen edamame beans into a sieve and give a quick rinse under running water
  
• Transfer the beans into a food blender and add ½ cup of hot water. Blend until smooth. At this stage, it should have the consistency of hummus.
  
• Add another ½ cup of water (this time, cold or room temperature) and salt. Blend until smooth.
  
• Keep the soup chilled before serving.
  

Prepare garnishes

• Cut cucumber into matchsticks and halve the cherry tomato.
  

Cook the noodles

• Boil 5 cups of water in a pot and add salt. Bring to a boil and add the noodles when boiling.
  
• If the water boils up, add 1 cup of cold water to the pot to calm it down. This step also makes sure the noodles are nice and chewy too! Repeat the step if the water boils up again.
  
• Cook until the time written on the noodle package.
  
• Drain on a fine sieve and shock the noodles with cold water.
  
• Rinse the noodles with your hands while rubbing the noodles against each other. This step ensures the noodles have nice texture and keep from clumping.
  

Plating

• Add the noodles to a pasta bowl and add a generous amount of soup.
  
• Top it with cucumber and cherry tomato. You can also add some ice cubes to make it cooler or dilute the soup with a bit more water depending on your preference.
  

Video

Notes

1. Substitute dried somyeon noodles with capellini (angel hair past) or soba noodles.

2. Try adding nuts like cashew, pine nuts or sesame seeds into the blender with edamame. Nut butter works well too!

3. If you like sweetness, add sugar to your liking! Read more about it on my blog post.