Chef Jeong-sun
Albaechu-mul-kimchi (Baby Cabbage Water Kimchi)
Tender baby napa cabbage in a clear pear-garlic brine, lightly fermented until the broth turns clean and bright, the summer kimchi a beginner can make without a kimjang floor.
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Yangnyeom-ganjang (Seasoned Soy Sauce)
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A spoon-ready Korean seasoned soy sauce with scallion cut fine, garlic kept in balance, chili for brightness, and sesame oil added last so plain tofu or rice wakes up without being buried.
Sauces & Condiments
Korean
Weeknight
Meal Prep
10 min
Active Time
0 min cook•10 min total
YieldAbout 1/2 cup, enough for 4 servings
Yangnyeom-ganjang lives or dies by the knife. The sauce is simple enough that people get careless with it: a splash of soy sauce, a rough chop of scallion, too much garlic, and then they wonder why it tastes sharp instead of useful. Cut the scallion fine. Mince the garlic smaller than you think. A dipping sauce should cling to tofu or jeon, not drop one large piece of onion into every bite.
This is one of the small sauces that makes a Korean table flexible. Spoon it over warm dubu (tofu), drag pan-fried hobak-jeon (zucchini fritters) through it, mix it into rice with a fried egg, or set it beside steamed eggplant. It asks very little from you tonight, only ten minutes and careful hands. The restraint matters because soy sauce is already salt, depth, and authority. You are not making it louder. You are giving it direction.
Notebook 31 says 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon water, 1 teaspoon vinegar, and 2 teaspoons sesame oil for the everyday version. That one has served more weeknight tables than I can count. 손맛 is real; I measure it anyway. Once you know the balance, you can make it by eye, but first give your hand a number to remember.
Ganjang (Korean soy sauce) belongs to the older jang family of fermented soybean seasonings, recorded in Korean food history from at least the Unified Silla period, when jang appeared among important household provisions. Yangnyeom-ganjang is not a palace sauce pretending to be grand; it is a home-table condiment built from soy sauce, aromatics, sesame, and chili, used across Korea for tofu, jeon, muk, noodles, and rice. Modern bottled ganjang made the sauce faster, but the habit is older than the bottle: season the soy sauce so one small dish can carry several plain foods.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
Korean soy sauce (jin-ganjang or yangjo-ganjang)
Quantity
3 tablespoons
water
Quantity
1 tablespoon
rice vinegar
Quantity
1 teaspoon
gochugaru (Korean chili flakes)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
sugar or maesil-cheong (Korean green plum syrup)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
scallion
Quantity
1 small, about 2 tablespoons
finely minced
garlic
Quantity
1 small clove, about 1/2 teaspoon
very finely minced
green chili or cheongyang chili (optional)
Quantity
1
thinly sliced
toasted sesame oil
Quantity
2 teaspoons
toasted sesame seeds
Quantity
1 teaspoon
lightly crushed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Korean soy sauce (jin-ganjang or yangjo-ganjang) | 3 tablespoons |
| water | 1 tablespoon |
| rice vinegar | 1 teaspoon |
| gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) | 1 teaspoon |
| sugar or maesil-cheong (Korean green plum syrup) | 1 teaspoon |
| scallionfinely minced | 1 small, about 2 tablespoons |
| garlicvery finely minced | 1 small clove, about 1/2 teaspoon |
| green chili or cheongyang chili (optional)thinly sliced | 1 |
| toasted sesame oil | 2 teaspoons |
| toasted sesame seedslightly crushed | 1 teaspoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Small sharp knife
- •Small mixing bowl
- •Measuring spoons
Instructions
- 1
Cut the aromatics
Mince the scallion as finely as you can, aiming for pieces no larger than a grain of cooked rice. Mince the garlic even finer. This is the step people rush, but large pieces make the sauce harsh and uneven. Fine cutting lets the scallion season the soy sauce instead of floating in it.
- 2
Season the soy
In a small bowl, stir together the soy sauce, water, rice vinegar, gochugaru, and sugar or maesil-cheong until the sugar dissolves. The water is not weakness. It loosens the salt so the sauce can be spooned over tofu or rice without punishing the tongue.
- 3
Add the vegetables
Stir in the minced scallion, minced garlic, and sliced chili if you are using it. Let the sauce sit for 5 minutes so the scallion softens slightly and the garlic loses its raw edge. Do not leave it all afternoon with the scallion inside; fresh green flavor turns tired quickly.
- 4
Finish with sesame
Add the toasted sesame oil and crushed sesame seeds last, then stir once or twice. Sesame oil is a finish, not a brine. Add it early and it dulls while the aromatics sit; add it last and the sauce smells clean and nutty.
Crush the sesame seeds lightly between your fingers before adding them. Whole seeds look pretty, but crushed seeds give more flavor to a sauce this small. - 5
Taste and use
Taste with the food you are serving, not from the spoon alone. On plain tofu, it should taste salty, nutty, a little sharp, and fresh with scallion. On jeon, the vinegar should cut the oil. If it tastes too salty, add water 1 teaspoon at a time. If it tastes flat, add another 1/2 teaspoon vinegar.
Chef Tips
- •Use jin-ganjang or yangjo-ganjang for this sauce. Guk-ganjang, the soup soy sauce, is saltier and sharper; if it is all you have, use 2 tablespoons guk-ganjang plus 2 tablespoons water.
- •For tofu, keep the vinegar at 1 teaspoon. For oily jeon, increase it to 2 teaspoons. The sauce has to answer the food beside it, not stand alone showing off.
- •Cut the scallion fresh. Pre-chopped scallion from a container tastes tired and wet here, and there is nowhere for that tiredness to hide.
- •For a child-friendly table, leave out the chili and reduce gochugaru to 1/4 teaspoon. The sauce will still be Korean and still useful.
Advance Preparation
- •The soy sauce, water, vinegar, gochugaru, and sugar can be mixed up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated.
- •Add the scallion, garlic, sesame oil, and sesame seeds within 30 minutes of serving. That is the corner you should not cut, because freshness is the sauce.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 28g)
Calories
45 calories
Total Fat
3 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
2 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
700 mg
Total Carbohydrates
2 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
2 g
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