Rice paper tteokbokki is another “viral” recipe that took the internet by storm several weeks ago, and I mentally catalogued it as something I’d ultimately need to try. Interestingly, rice paper isn’t even made out of rice, something I discovered when making my Ricepop Tofu Nuggets. Rice paper is made out of the pith of the rice paper plant by boiling the tree’s bark. Whoddathunkit, right?
That said, the concept of rice paper tteokbokki makes a ton of sense and is a stroke or brilliance, in my mind. You achieve a very similar texture to garraetteok, which is made out of steamed rice flour. So, why not add the hallmark spicy tteokbokki sauce? I decided to try it out and the results were delicious.
Working with Rice Paper
As I discuss in greater length in the Ricepop Tofu post, you do not need to soak the rice paper for longer than a few seconds, at most. Any more than that, and you will have a really difficult time working with the rice paper. Moreover, here, I would stick two sheets together, in lieu of using only one sheet. I tried making the “tteok”–a cylinder ricecake–using only one sheet of rice paper and it turned out pencil thin. Of course, if you want to try making tteokbokki with pencil thin cakes, go for it! I wanted mine to be a bit more substantial.
To create even cylinders, I folded the sides of the sheet in so they met in the middle. Then, I rolled from the bottom up.
Stuffing Your Tteok
The fun part about rice paper tteokbokki is that you can stuff them!!! Here is where your creativity can really shine. I decided to stuff mine with some roasted seaweed, vegan cheese (duh), and even some sweet potato vermicelli! You can also stuff them with combinations–like seaweed + vermicelli or seaweed + cheese. When you do stuff them, though, be aware that they will be much thicker than the normal sized tteok you see in tteokbokki.
Creating the Spicy Sauce
The sauce here is fairly simple–I did not add a ton of vegetables like I usually do, only because we’ve already done so much work making the tteok themselves. Plus, they’re stuffed with all sorts of goodies and adding too much to the sauce might overcomplicate things.
I start out by chopping up a red onion (can’t be completely sans vegetables!).
Then, I add vegetable stock to a large and deep pan. Yes, I use vegetable stock instead of water because it’s an opportunity to inject depth of flavor. Why not take it? Finally, I add the usual suspects:
- Gochugaru
- Gochujang
- Soy sauce
- Sweetener (I used maple syrup)
- Minced garlic
And that’s it! The quickest, easiest tteokbokki sauce you’ll ever see, without losing out on flavor. Bring that all to a boil and then carefully add your stuffed rice paper cakes. I also added some of my leftover vermicelli (which I highly recommend). Cook them at a boil until the liquid reduces to a thick gravy like consistency (about 10 minutes).
Enjoy!
Quick Tips for Making Stuffed Rice Paper Tteokbokki
- Do not oversoak your rice paper, as they will become difficult to work with.
- Double up on the sheets in order to create thicker rice cakes.
- Stuff the rice cakes with what you like!
- Use vegetable stock instead of water for your sauce to add depth of flavor.
Rice Paper Stuffed Tteokbokki
Ingredients
Instructions
- Soak the vermicelli in a large bowl of warm water.
- Submerge two sheets of rice paper in water for around 2 seconds. Then, place them on a flat surface and allow it to sit for about 30 seconds, at which point they will start to soften.
- Fold the sides so that they meet in the center. Then, roll from the bottom up until you have a cylinder.
- Repeat step 2. Then, place some cheese in the center of the sheets. Fold the sides over the cheese and then roll from the bottom up until you have a very fat cylinder.
- Repeat same steps for fried seaweed.
- Repeat step 2 and place some soaked vermicelli, lengthwise, in the center of the rice paper. Fold the sides over the noodles and roll from the bottom up. In the end, I had 3 cheese stuffed rice cakes, 2 seaweed stuffed rice cakes, and 2 vermicelli stuffed rice cakes (I reserved some vermicelli for the end).
- To a large pan, add the vegetable stock, soy sauce, gochugaru, gochujang, garlic, and onions and bring the mixture to a boil.
- Add the rolled rice sheets and leftover vermicelli to the boiling vegetable stock and cook for about 10 minutes, until the rice cakes are tender and the sauce is thick.
