Name: Gamja Tang
Yield: Serves 3 or 4
Ingredients: 4 cups vegetable broth; 1 teaspoon sliced fresh ginger; 2 sliced shiitake mushrooms; 1 onion, julienned; 1 dried red chili; 2 tablespoons doenjang; 6 cloves garlic, minced; 3 tablespoons gochugaru; 1 tablespoon gochujang; 3 tablespoons “Fishy” Sauce; ¼ cup roasted wild sesame seeds (also called perilla seeds); 1 teaspoon sesame oil; 3 Yukon Gold potatoes, halved; 1 cup bean sprouts; 2 scallions, roughly chopped; 5 to 6 perilla leaves, roughly chopped; 2½ ounces (70g) sweet potato vermicelli (about 1 handful), cooked according to package directions; 1 tablespoon sesame oil

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Joseph De Leo

Growing up, my grandmother would make this dish for us very rarely. While the name gamja tang, or “potato stew,” suggests that the majestic spud is the star of the show, in actuality the main component of gamja tang is a big piece of pork shoulder. I think this is why my grandmother rarely cooked this dish—pork is tricky to cook with and it often left our kitchen smelling a little…funky. When I decided to go plant-based, I was excited to recreate this dish so that it truly lived up to its name by restoring the potato to its rightful place as the star!

Recipe notes

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