Vegan Samgyetang (삼계탕) - Ginseng Soup

This deceptive springtime weather makes me yearn for the heat of summer. In South Korea, it's a tradition for people to line up outside restaurants on the hottest days of the year to eat this delicious soup. Typically made with cornish hens stuffed with herbs and rice, this dish is originally not vegan (the name samgyetang translates literally to "ginseng chicken soup"). But of course, as this is a veggie only blog, here's my easy take on Vegan Samgyetang.

While perusing our local Asian market, I was so happy to find a samgyetang kit for making the famed Korean summer dish at home. The kit contains ginseng root, jujubes, chestnuts, glutinous rice (sticky rice), licorice root, astralagus membranaceus, kalopanax pictus, and acanthopanax sessiflorus - all herbs with medicinal properties. 

I wrapped all ingredients in a cheesecloth sachet to flavor the soup with.

The aforementioned sachet full of the aromatic ingredients - I didn't want to have to strain them out of the soup later on before serving.

Yields 4 servings.

Ingredients:

• samgyetang kit, which includes:
• ginseng root
• licorice root
• jujube dates
• chestnuts
• 1/4 cup glutinous rice
• astralagus membranaceus
• kalopanax pictus
• acanthopanax sessiflorus
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 white onion, diced
• 3 tbsp ginger-garlic paste (or 1.5 tbsp each minced garlic and ginger)
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 tsp vegetable bouillon
• 1 block extra firm tofu, or 12 oz plant meat replacement of choice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 4 green onions, chopped

Gochujang dipping sauce:

• 2 tbsp gochujang paste
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• chopped green onion

Sesame dipping sauce:

• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Soak the glutinous rice in water for at least 30-60 minutes.
2. If you don't want to strain out the herbs and barks later, I suggest making a sachet out of 2 squares of layered cheesecloth and tying with kitchen twine for easy retrieval.
3. In a soup pot, sautee the diced white onion and the ginger-garlic paste in sesame oil for about 5 minutes, until onion is translucent.
4. Pour the vegetable stock over the onion and paste and bring to a boil.
5. Place sachet in boiling stock. Add the vegetable bouillon.
6. Add tofu or plant meat and drained glutinous rice to the stock. 
7. After 60 minutes, remove sachet from soup and serve with dipping sauces.

Notes:

I served this dish alongside vegan kimchi and seaweed bugak, or rice paper fried with nori strips. You can dip the kimchi and bugak in the dipping sauces as well as the tofu from the soup!

I have a feeling Butler's Soy Curls would go phenomenally with this dish, especially if you are someone who prefers the meaty texture over the texture of tofu.