Kongnamul-guk

Light, clear soup made from soybean sprouts — Korea's beloved morning and hangover soup.

Kongnamul-guk is one of Korea's most consumed and most culturally significant soups, a clear broth built from the simple brilliance of simmering soybean sprouts with garlic and salt until the liquid turns slightly milky with the sprouts' starch and amino acids. The soup is prized above all as a haejang-guk — hangover soup — served in the early hours at dedicated restaurants near entertainment districts, where the soup's hydrating minerals and the mild detoxifying compounds in the sprouts are believed to restore clarity and settle a roiling stomach after a night of drinking. In its everyday form at home, kongnamul-guk is a morning staple across Korea, prepared in less than ten minutes and served alongside rice and kimchi as the first meal of the day. The Jeonju region of Jeolla Province is particularly famous for its kongnamul-guk, which uses a rich dried anchovy broth base and thick local sprouts to produce a soup of unusual depth and body. Its extreme simplicity makes kongnamul-guk one of the most meditative and contemplative dishes in Korean cooking — a reminder that the best soups need not be complex.