Korean Beef Cabbage Radish Soup - Instant Pot and Regular Recipe (2024)

This Korean Beef Cabbage Radish Soup is now our family’s favorite winter soup!

Instant Pot Korean Beef Cabbage Radish soup has also become my husband’s specialty soup because he is very good at making it but also because that’s the ONE and ONLY soup he knows how to make. hahaha…

Back in 2010, I had to be away from home for extended period of time to take care of my sister in the east coast. One of my husband’s favorite soup is Yukgaejang. And he asked me if I could teach him how to make it. But since the proper Yukgaejang version needs a bit of work, I simplified it for him and also made it less spicy so that my daughter could eat it too. BTW, here’s my Yukgaejang recipe if you want to make this classic. 😉

Over the years, the simplified Yukgaejang soup somehow morphed into this Korean Beef Cabbage Radish Soup that I’m sharing today. And he now claims he is the master chef 😝of this family soup because my daughter (who is our family’s taster) stated that as far as this Beef Cabbage Radish soup goes, Dad’s version is simply the BEST. And I’m more than happy to agree… because that just means I can easily ask him to cook this soup all the time and he will be happy to do it!! HAHAHA.. shh…you know how men are when you tell them that they do such a great job with certain things. 😉Suddenly, the usually lazy, ‘I don’t wanna do anythin’..‘ kind of an attitude changes and is so suddenly excited to do it because he is SOOO good at it!!

Yes, 25+ years of marriage has taught me certain things about men…

This Korean Beef Cabbage Radish Soup (wow, OK, now I wish I named it something shorter..sigh) is also a soup that my husband makes for us when either I’m sick, too busy or too tired to cook. He usually makes a big batch and then we eat it with rice for breakfast, lunch or dinner – whatever works! Recently right after New Year’s, with my sister’s family visiting and with me just having finished all the holiday decorations, cooking and working on my snowman rice ball video, he sensed that I was pretty tired from all the cooking and offered to make this soup for the whole family.

My answer?? YES! PLEASE!!! Thank YOU yeobo 😍.

Because this usually takes about 1 hr or more to cook and actually tastes better the next day, we decided to cook it in the Instant Pot. So here’s the Instant Pot version featuring my husband!!! YAY!

BTW, if you don’t have an Instant Pot, PLEASE DON’T WORRY – you can cook this same recipe on your stove top. Just increase water amount to 10 cups and bring to boil and then simmer for 1 hr or 1 hr 15 min or more until the all the vegetables are very soft and flavors have all melded together. 🙂

<Tips for Peeling and Cutting Radish when you don’t need to use the whole radish>

You know how big Korean radishes can be and how you rarely use the whole radish in one recipe. If you are going to use the whole radish, you can just use a peeler to peel the whole radish and then cut into pieces. But if you only need part of the radish, radish keeps fresh longer if you leave the skin on. Peeled radish dries out pretty quickly in the fridge.

So, cut the radish into thick disc like pieces first with the skin on for the amount you need.

Then, peel each disc with a knife (like so)

and then cut further into smaller pieces.

Store leftover radish (with the skin on) in the vegetable drawer, in a plastic bag in the fridge with a little bit of an opening so that it has some air circulation. It will keep for many days. Oh and you can make my Radish Soup with Soybean Paste if you want to use up that leftover radish.

Right, let’s get cooking!

Korean Beef Cabbage Radish Soup (Instant Pot and Regular Recipe)

Servings: 8 Prep: 15 min Cook Time for IP: 10 min + warming time Difficulty: EASY

** For regular stove top, increase water amount to 10 cups, simmer about 1 hr or more **

Ingredients

• 8 oz beef stew meat, cut thin
• 3 cups radish, cut into squares
• 1 lb small green cabbage, aka seoul cabbage (put baechu 풋배추)
• 4 oz soybean sprouts (kongnamul 콩나물)
• 1 bunch green onions
• 8 cups water
• seasoning
• 3 Tbs garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 Tbs Korean soy sauce for soup (gukganjang 국간장)
• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt (or more to taste)
• 1/2 Tbs Korean red chili pepper (고추가루 gochukaru)
• 1 Tbs sesame oil

1. Peel and cut radish into squares. See above for detailed tips on how to cut Korean radish.
2. Cut beef stew meat (usually comes in large cubes) into thin slices.
3. Tear off small green cabbage leaves, wash them and let them drain.
4. Cut cabbage leaves into 3 inch or so lengths.

   

5. Rinse soy bean sprouts and drain.
6. Cut green onions into 3 inch pieces.
7. Turn your Instant Pot to Saute and add 1 Tbs sesame oil.
8. Sautee radish squares for 1-2 min.

   

9. Add beef slices to IP. Also add gukganjang and gochukaru.
10. Saute beef and radish for 2 min or so until all beef pieces are lightly cooked.

    

    See Also

    13 BEST Korean Stew Recipes (Jjigae)Japchae (Korean Stir-fried Noodles) - Salu Salo RecipesHomemade Kimchi Inspired Spicy Sauerkraut Recipe • Cultured GuruHow to Make the Best Cabbage Kimchi Recipe

11. Add 8 cups water, cabbages, green onions, soybean sprouts and chopped garlic. That’s a lot! *** For STOVE TOP, add more water (increase by 2 cups) ***

    

12. Add salt, garlic powder and close lid.
13. Select Soup program. Timer should say 15 min but reduce time to 10 min. *** For STOVE TOP, bring to boil and simmer for 1 hr to 1 hr 15 min or until things look and taste good. You may need to add more gukganjang and salt. **
14. When done, release steam naturally if you have time. Otherwise, you can manually release. It should look something like this right after you open the lid.

    

15. Mix with a ladle and it looks like this.

    

Notes

• Adjust amount of salt and gochukaru (red chili powder) to taste. If you want things spicy, just increase amount of gochukaru. You can also let people add more salt or gochukaru at the table.
• Serve with rice and kimchi.
• Store leftovers in the fridge. You can also FREEZE this soup for later – especially if you are cooking for one.