Hello, my sweet people! Seollal, the Lunar New Year celebrated in Korea, is right here and I am so excited about it. My family back in Seoul are talking about when to meet and what to eat. I really wish I was there with them, but fortunately for me, I have my family-in-law to visit this weekend to spend some time together and eat some festival foods like rice cake soup tteokguk, bulgogi, and rice cake like this mugwort rice cake! There are many rice cake recipes I shared on this blog, so check it out and see if making rice cake is your interest 💗

In today’s blog post, I will cover everything about mugwort rice cake; from the introduction, facts about mugwort, the health benefits of mugwort, how to eat it, and of course, the recipe. Let’s get started!

Types of Mugwort Rice Cakes

So what are mugwort rice cakes? There are many different types of mugwort rice cake. They can all be called mugwort rice cakes in English, but they have their own names in Korea. So to give you some clarity, here is some background information about some of the well-known rice cakes made with mugwort.

Mugwort Injeolmi 쑥인절미

There is mugwort injeolmi, which is a steamed glutinous rice cake covered with toasted bean powder. Toasted bean powder has a lot of savory and sweetness in the flavor. Injeolmi is one of my favorite rice cake types for its sweet flavor and super chewy texture!

Mugwort Chapssal-tteok 쑥찹쌀떡

Ok, this is another favorite rice cake of mine. Chapssal-tteok is another type of glutinous rice cake but covered in starch (instead of toasted bean powder like injeolmi) and has sweet azuki bean paste filling inside. For mugwort chapssal-tteok, you put some mugwort while making the outer glutinous rice layer for its green color and a hint of mugwort flavor!

Mugwort Beomuri 쑥버무리

Beomuri is an old type of rice cake that mixes rice flour and many different ingredients like pumpkins, chestnuts, and dried jujube. For the mugwort beomuri, you need fresh mugwort mixed with some rice flour, water, and other ingredients you prefer. I haven’t seen this sold at rice cake stores and it is more of a homemade quick and easy rice cake dish.

Mugwort Jeolpyeon 쑥절편

And finally, there is Jeolpyeon! Jeolpyeon is a rice cake type that is usually in a flat circle or square shape with traditional Korean patterns such as daisy flowers, ancient letters, and cartwheels that symbolize good meanings such as luck, happiness, and love. This is often served during the holiday seasons like the Lunar New Year. 🌟✨

Jeolpyeon can have sweet azuki bean paste filling like chapssal-tteok, but it doesn’t have to. When you make jeolpyeon without the fillings, it can be one of the easiest rice cakes you can make. Therefore, as the first mugwort rice cake to share with you, it is this mugwort jeolpyeon!  This mugwort rice cake recipe I will share with you is something that you can quite easily make at home as long as you have mugwort powder and a few simple ingredients. (It’d be nice to have the traditional Korean rice cake stamps, but it’s optional.)

Frequently Asked Questions About Mugwort Rice Cake

Q. What is mugwort in Korean food?

If you haven’t ever tasted mugwort, mugwort is a herb with a noticeable smell. I would say it has a pretty similar smell to the sage herb. Their leaves somehow shared a few similarities too – they both have light greyish-green colored leaves and the leaves feel very soft and slightly fluffy.

Mugwort is in the same botanical family as daisies, so the leaves look and smell like daisy leaves too. The daisy flower has a little bit of the smell of daisy leaves, and therefore the mugwort. In Korea, we eat many different types of plants in the daisy family – the daisy flower for tea, mugwort for rice cake and soup, and glebionis coronaria for stews. They all taste slightly bitter with a hint of daisy or sage scent.

Q. What does mugwort cake taste like?

Mugwort has an earthy smell similar to sage herbs or daisies and has a little bit of bitterness.

If you are not very familiar with the mugwort flavor, then you can use a little bit just for the color and a slight scent. Mugwort itself is a little bitter, but mugwort rice cake is a dessert with some sweet ingredients inside, so mugwort cake usually tastes just sweet and chewy with a hint of mugwort scent – or daisy scent.

The best way to know how something tastes like is to eat it yourself, so I encourage you to try this mugwort rice cake recipe at home and see for yourself 😉

Q. Why are Korean rice cakes so good?

Thank you! We Koreans do love our rice cakes and it has been eaten for thousands of years, so there are not only countless varieties of rice cakes, but the techniques to make good rice cakes have been developed. So that makes Korean rice cakes so good. I hope to share many amazing Korean rice cake recipes to come!

Q. Where can I get mugwort?

The most difficult part of making mugwort rice cake is getting the mugwort, especially if you are not in Korea. In Korea, you can buy fresh mugwort at grocery stores in the spring, and mugwort powder or dried mugwort throughout the year. In Europe, there are also some mugwort but they are often treated as weed here! I sometimes go pick some mugwort in the public field in Norway, but I don’t recommend foraging mugwort if you don’t know how to identify the species for sure.

Luckily, you can get mugwort powder online. Here is a recommendation I found on Amazon.

This is a high-quality mugwort powder from Korea that has a deep dark green color and preserves the smell. It contains 6.3oz or 180g of powder, which will last you for a while to make lots of mugwort rice cakes and mugwort lattes!

Yes, there is a mugwort latte. A mugwort latte is quite similar to a matcha latte, so if you are a matcha-lover you might love a mugwort latte too! A mugwort latte is a popular Korean latte like a sweet potato latte that I shared my recipe on my blog.

Mugwort Health Benefits

1. Greens for Anti-Aging

Eat more greens! I try to include dark leafy greens every single day in my diet, as they are considered one of the healthiest food kinds on this planet Earth. And mugwort is one of them.

The green pigments in green vegetables are due to chlorophyll content in the plant and when consumed by humans, chlorophyll seems to have countless health benefits. One of the most interesting research I’ve found regarding the health benefits of chlorophyll was CoQ10 generation. It is a powerful antioxidant that generates energy in our body and is thus considered anti-aging. So if you include these green mugworts in your diet, you are getting younger. I wrote a blog post in detail about the leafy greens and why you need to eat more.

2. Anti-Bacterial

The scent of mugwort is from an oil compound called cineol, which has strong sterilizing power and excellent anti-inflammatory and preservative effects. For that reason, there are some K-beauty products made with mugwort for acne-prone skin!

I’m From is a famous K-beauty brand and they have a whole line dedicated to mugwort skincare. This essence is the most popular product of their lines. Perhaps this is something you could try if you have been annoyed by acne.

Image Source: I’m From Korean Official Website

[I’m From] Mugwort Essence 5.4 Fl Oz | 100% Vegan Mugwort Extract

This hydrating and refreshing Korean essence toner made out of mugwort soothes sensitive and irritated skin. It is also good for redness relief. I also love the calm toned-down golden color of the essence – it makes me feel like I’m dabbing some tea on my face.

Easy Korean Mugwort Rice Cake Recipe | Serve It with Honey!

I ate mugwort rice cake with some toasted sesame oil and tea. It’s so delicious!

Tips for Korean Mugwort Rice Cake

1. Adjust the Mugwort Amount

You may or may not like to have a mugwort scent strong in your rice cake. Or you want to have your mugwort rice cake color in a lighter color. No problem, just adjust the amount of mugwort powder in the rice cake as you like. You can put just half of what is written on the recipe and still be able to get some color in the rice cake.

2. Leave Out Mugwort

Actually, there is a simple and classic white jeolpeon and that one is made without mugwort. All you need to do is take mugwort out of this recipe and you’ll have classic white jeolpeon. As a matter of fact, in Korea, the white and green mugwort jeolpeon are usually served together. I guess they look more appetizing that way.

How to Serve Mugwort Rice Cake

1. Dip It with Date Syrup or Honey

What is the best way to serve this mugwort rice cake? We usually eat it by dipping these beautiful rice cake pieces in honey. They are so sweet and chewy! I love dipping mine into date syrup as it has much more nutrients than honey or any other regular sweeteners.

Have you tried rice cake with some toasted sesame oil? It’s so savory and has a punch of umami flavor.

2. Try it with Toasted Sesame Oil

If you are more of a savory-flavor type of person, then try to dip the mugwort rice cake with some toasted sesame oil!

Eating rice cake with sesame oil or syrup is two of the most common ways to eat rice cake.

I also have a blog post about how to find the best sesame oil, so you can read about it if you want to learn more about this Asian cooking must-have pantry!

3. Eat with Warm Plant Milk

Even before turning my diet into completely plant-based, I never really liked cow milk as it would create a huge turmoil in my stomach! I am quite lactose-intolerant. It’s so nice to be able to drink some plant milk peacefully with the rice cake. Try the rice cake with warm and sweet soymilk or oat milk. It’s like milk and cookies in a Korean version.

Other Mugwort Recipes

1. Mugwort Latte 쑥라떼

View Recipe

Like there is a matcha latte and a pumpkin spice latte aka PSL, there is a mugwort latte! It is quite similar to a matcha latte as a mugwort latte is also savory, fragrant, sweet, and comforting. Some popular Korean lattes are popping up in cafes in Korea, and a mugwort latte was one of them. There is a sweet potato latte too, that is similar to a pumpkin spice latte. I wrote all about a popular Korean sweet potato latte and a matcha latte on my blog.

2. Mugwort Soup 쑥국

I love this soup! It is a very simple soup made with mugwort and some doenjang, fermented Korean bean paste. In the spring, my mom would make me this soup with seasonal fresh shoots of mugwort. It is so fragrant like no other vegetable soup in the world. It is so comforting and has a lot of umami flavor going on. Sadly, this soup can only be made with fresh mugwort, not with mugwort powder, so I haven’t been able to eat mugwort soup in a while.

Final Thoughts on Korean Mugwort Rice Cake

I hope you learned a few things about mugwort and mugwort rice cake jeolpeon. I hope you get to try this mugwort rice cake recipe. This fragrant, chewy, and sweet mugwort rice cake is a beautiful Korean traditional dish that will steal everyone’s attention on the Korean dinner table if you make one. Happy cooking!

 

Pumpkin Butter Mochi | Easy Hawaiian Kabocha Dessert Recipe

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Try this pumpkin butter mochi recipe! Pumpkin butter mochi is rich and buttery, like cake with a chewy texture of mochi and sweet, deep flavors of pumpkin.

 

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