My aunt came to visit me a few weekends ago and presented me with a giant tub of gochujang, Korean hot pepper paste. I was excited because once you have this stuff, your possibilities in Korean cuisine are endless.

The first thing that I wanted to try cooking with my precious gochujang was soondubu jjigae, a dish that I always get at Korean restaurants — a fiery tofu soup thickened with raw egg and served in a stone or earthenware bowl. Soondubu jjigae actually refers to the kind of tofu that the dish is made out of — tofu that’s so soft and silky that it comes in a tube.

I did some research and stumbled upon this recipe. My fridge and pantry were on the skimpy side, plus my roommate is vegetarian, so I decided to adapt it for a veggie palette. I also didn’t have dried anchovies or dried kelp to make the stock with.

But I made do with what I had, and I think my version is almost good as the real thing.

Ingredients: cabbage, mushrooms, scallions, eggs, tofu

Recipe:

stock:
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
5-8 medium-size dried shitaake mushrooms
1 tbs ginger, thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced

soup items:
1 container soft tofu
1/2 a head of napa cabbage, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
2 tbs gochujang, Korean chili pepper paste
1/2 package enoki mushrooms (if you can find it…mwahaha!)
1 green chili pepper, minced
1/4 c chopped scallions
2 tbs fish sauce (or, to taste)

Dump all the stock items into a pot and bring to a boil along with 5 cups of water. Reduce to lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Pull the mushrooms out and chop up into pieces.

Mash up the tofu with a fork in its container (not too much, just roughly). Dump it into the stock and bring up the temperature a little bit so the stuff you add into it actually cooks. Put the remaining ingredients in except for the scallions and cook until the napa cabbage is cooked all the way. Add more gochujang and fish sauce to taste.

Try to get it to a softly rolling boil, and then gently crack two eggs into the soup to poach. When you think the yolks and whites have almost set, swish it around the soup to thicken up the stock.

Voila! Serve with a spoonful of rice in it and eat it for dinner or lunch. This is really good if you have a stuffy nose — it’ll clear your passages in a heartbeat.

TIP: You can get gochujang at the Asian kiosk at the Eastern Market farmers’ market.