Bean Sprout Soup (Kongnamulguk)

Somehow, this soup proved weirdly difficult for me to make.  It's actually not hard at all to cook; it's just that beansprouts are such difficult little creatures - full of crunch and nutrition, but spoiled within a couple days of purchase.

As someone who hates wasting food, I hate to admit that I allowed about 2 bags of beansprouts to pass their prime while I found the time and ingredients necessary to make this recipe.  Finding dried anchovies that weren't sold in an enormous quantity (since it's not exactly an ingredient I plan to use every day) was harder than expected, and with the punishing heat we've been experiencing lately, soup wasn't exactly on my mind.

I finally bit the bullet and made it though, using the whole bag even though it made the soup pretty dense because I was not about to allow a single sprout to be wasted.  The result was a simple and comforting appetizer, perhaps the perfect cure to the stress caused by the beansprouts themselves.  The leftovers are now sitting in my freezer, impervious to the sands of time that foiled so many other attempts of mine at eating this dish.

Bean Sprout Soup (Kongnamulguk)
20 small-medium dried anchovies
1 clove garlic, sliced
6 cups water
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tsp gochugaru
12oz bean sprouts with beans, rinsed

Add garlic and anchovies to water and bring to a boil.  Boil gently over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, then strain garlic and anchovies from broth.  Add broth back to pot along with bean sprouts and season to taste with salt, pepper, and gochugaru.  Bring to a boil and boil, covered, for an additional 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in green onions.  Serve immediately.