Gae-tteok (개떡) is an easy rice cake made with fragrant green herbs.
Taggreens
Hamcho: Samphire, glasswort, sea asparagus
Travel along the southwest coast in summer and you may come across a bright green, succulent-like plant stretching upwards like a tiny tree from the mudflat. This is hamcho (함초, samphire or glasswort, Salicornia herbacea),
Recipe: Yeolmu kimchi, young radish greens kimchi
Go to any restaurant in Korea during our hot and sweaty summers, and you’re likely to find these lovely greens stems of kimchi on your table.
10 Korean spring greens you should know
For those of us who’ve grown up abroad, shopping at Korean grocery stores can be both a beautiful and bewildering experience. What is this root? This tangle of leaves? How can I make it delicious?
Recipe: Ssuk-guk (mugwort soup)
About a year ago, we took a trip down to Silsang Temple, where we ran into some ladies trimming greens near the kitchen.
Recipe: Naengi-guk (shepherd’s purse soup)
Koreans think of naengi as the first ingredient to come into season in the spring, and naengi-guk (냉이국, shepherd’s purse soup) is one of the most common ways to eat it.
Goddeulbbaegi: The bitter old man of the vegetable world
Of all the vegetables in the traditional Korean diet, godeulbbaegi (고들빼기, Crepidiastrum sonchifolium) is the most intensely bitter.
Recipe: Godeulbbaegi muchim (godeulbbaegi blanched salad)
Godeulbbaegi’s bitterness is tempered when blanched and dressed with doenjang.
Dallae: Korean wild chive, mountain chive
Dallae is one of the harbingers of spring, a versatile bom-namul with a mild kick.