Korean Army Stew

Budae Jjigae, which loosely translates to ‘Military Base Soup’, was born in the years following the Korean War, and is a soup/stew hybrid that’s the ultimate comfort food. Food was scarce in a post-war Korea, and many Koreans relied heavily on processed foods from the US military bases. New staple ingredients became Spam, sausages, baked beans, ramen noodles and sliced cheese, which are the main features of Budae Jjigae, along with Korean spices and condiments such as gochugaru and gochujang.

Army Stew is super easy and relatively cheap to make – and ultra delicious. You can also change or omit any ingredients based on your own personal preferences.

Gochugaru is one of the pillars of Korean food. And it is a super important ingredient when it comes to making authentic budae jjigae AKA army base soup!

It’s a type of Korean chilli powder that really brings the heat to your fave Korean dishes. If you’re wanting to level up your budae jjigae at home but can’t seem to hunt down gochugaru, you can generally find the wonder ingredient at your local Asian grocer. Alternatively, if you can’t find gochugaru nearby, it is a shelf stable ingredient and is able to be purchased online and shipped right to your door!

Authentic budae jjigae whenever hangry hits and with ALL the right ingredients! Woohoo!

Gochujang is another staple when it comes to Korean cooking, and is another vital ingredient for your budae jjigae.

This fermented chilli paste brings the classic spicy, funky, delicious flavour that is unique to Korean cuisine, right to your homemade army base stew. Gochujang is quite easy to find, you can find gochujang in the Asian section of your local supermarket, or of course from your nearest Asian grocer.

If you can’t get your hands on Gochujang, a good substitute is adding paprika for colour and some chilli flakes for the heat – you will miss all the funky, fermented goodness though so getting your hands on the real stuff is always best!