Recipes

What do you usually like to have on your birthday table? Salad, pizza, fried chicken, and cakes are all delicious choices for a birthday party. However, I would like to introduce you to a healthy Korean dish we always have on birthdays. It is not a fancy menu item but, once you hear about the origin of this tradition, you might want to try it on one of your birthdays.

Seaweed, our main ingredient for this dish, is well known for cleaning the blood in our body. After a mom gives birth to a child, her body usually loses blood in the process.

These days, we have various supplements to take before and after the delivery. Historically in Korea, we have seaweed instead as we are surrounded by clean oceans.

Having this seaweed soup helps moms to recover from deliveries and keeps their bodies warm. Korean people have a belief that the mother’s body remembers the birth of her children and needs more blood and nutrition.

We usually prepare food for people on their birthday, but the seaweed soup is actually for the mother of the birthday child. That’s the reason why this dish is special, although the recipe is not so special. When I was young, making a pot of seaweed soup for my mom was the first thing I would do on the morning of my birthday to show how thankful I was that she gave birth to me. I loved to see my mom enjoy it with a smile.

Since the recipe is very easy, you can enjoy it any time of the year, and it is very healthy and gluten-free. It is actually good for everyone. (Vegetarian option available as well)!