Mandooguk is a non-spicy soup made with beef broth and dumplings that are usually stuffed with seasoned ground meat. Popular dumpling fillings can consist of beef, pork, kimchi, vegetables, seafood or any combination of the aforementioned ingredients. The content of this dish can also contain tuk (rice cake) to make tuk mandooguk which are cylinder-shaped rice cakes about 2cm in diameter. It is cut diagonally into thin slices, transforming this dish into dumpling soup w/ rice cake.
Koreans especially love this dish during the cold winters but mandooguk or tuk mandooguk is known to be a specialty dish for the New Year. Nonetheless, it can be enjoyed at any time as a meal since it's fairly easy to prepare if frozen dumplings are readily available. Koreans restaurants and households usually make the dumplings from scratch but it can be substituted with pre-cooked frozen ones which can be purchased at local Asian groceries or supermarkets.
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