Here’s How To Make Joanna Gaines’ Mom’s Kimchi Tofu Soup — It’s So Simple & Will Warm Your Soul

We all have those nostalgic dishes from childhood that we crave every now and again, and for Joanna Gaines, that dish is her mother’s kimchi and tofu soup. Gaines recently asked her mom to video herself making the soup so she could log it for her own use, but for us, Gaines also shared the step-by-step with her followers, too. The soup is so simple to make, but warms your soul.

“I called my mom this morning and told her I was craving her kimchi tofu soup (kimchi jjigae),” Gaines wrote in the caption of a recent Instagram post. “I asked her to video how to make it so I could log it and make it her way. This video makes me so happy, and her soup was just what I needed for a longer day at the office. Thank you, Mom. I like it your way.”

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In the video, Gaines’ mom, Nan, shares that her soup is made with simple ingredients: kimchi, tofu, hot chili pepper, broth powder, and hot chili pepper bean paste. First, add a good helping of your favorite kimchi to a pot. Next, put a tablespoon or so of your bean paste into a measuring cup and add water to thin the paste out. Add this to your kimchi along with about a tablespoon of the chili powder.

“I don’t put a lot of other stuff in it. I don’t put pork or fish or clam…I just like the clean [soup],” Nan says in the video.

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Once the chili powder and bean paste mixture is combined with the kimchi, add a couple of tablespoons of the broth powder and another cup or so of water. You could also use store-bought or homemade stock instead of the broth powder if that’s what you have on hand. Your soup is finally ready for the stove!

You can cook your kimchi soup for as long as you’d like. Nan likes to cook hers until the cabbage of the kimchi goes translucent, but if you like more crunch, cook the soup for less time.

“I forgot to add the tofu portion,” Gaines added to her caption. “She boils the soup on medium high for 10-15 minutes, then adds the sliced silken tofu into [the] soup and covers and boils for another ten minutes! She serves w rice.”

This soup is quick, easy, and will warm you from the inside out. Make it for lunch or dinner and you’ll have a new favorite dish on your menu!

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