Dog Tteokguk Recipe: Korean New Year Soup for Dogs
A Dog Tteokguk Recipe is a dog-friendly version of the Korean New Year soup I made for Louie on January 1, 2025. Instead of sharing the seasoned tteokguk our family was eating, I made him a separate small pot with plain water, cooked chicken and beef, egg yolk, and homemade tapioca-starch tteok.
The biggest difference is what stays out of the bowl. This Dog Tteokguk Recipe has no green onion, garlic, salt, soy sauce, soup powder, or seasoned stock. It is an occasional homemade treat, not a complete and balanced meal.
Why Tteokguk for Dogs Needs Its Own Recipe
Tteokguk made for people can contain broth, seasonings, and garnishes that should not simply be transferred to a dog’s bowl. Onion, garlic, chives, and related Allium vegetables can cause red blood cell damage in dogs, and cooked or powdered forms are not automatically safe.
Texture also mattered when I made Louie’s version. The plain tapioca tteok I had prepared the day before was quite chewy, and he had not been interested in eating it that way.
For this Dog Tteokguk Recipe, I cut almost all of the tteok into much smaller pieces before reheating it in the broth. The decorative heart-shaped piece I used when presenting the food was only for the photo and was not fed to Louie.
Ingredients for This Dog Tteokguk Recipe
This is the small batch I made for Louie. It is not a universal feeding formula. I did not weigh the chicken, beef, or tteok in my original batch, so I am keeping those amounts as small amounts instead of inventing measurements.
| Ingredient | Amount used |
|---|---|
| Water | Enough for a small pot of broth |
| Chicken breast | Small amount |
| Beef | Small amount |
| Egg yolk | About 1/2 yolk, whisked |
| Plain homemade tapioca-starch tteok | Small amount, cut into dog-sized pieces |
Use ingredients your dog already tolerates. Dogs eating a prescription diet, elimination diet, or medically restricted diet may need to skip homemade extras unless they are included in that individual feeding plan.
How to Make Dog Tteokguk Recipe Step by Step
1. Make a Plain Chicken and Beef Broth
Bring plain water to a boil and add the chicken breast and beef. Cook both meats thoroughly without adding salt, garlic, onion, green onion, soy sauce, bouillon, or other seasoning.
You can skim away foam that rises while the meat cooks. Once the meat is fully cooked, take it out, allow it to cool enough to handle, and cut it into very small pieces.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends thoroughly cooking raw animal ingredients used for homemade pet food because proper cooking reduces exposure to foodborne bacteria such as Salmonella and Listeria.
2. Add the Small Tteok Pieces
Add the pre-made tapioca tteok to the hot broth.
When I made this Dog Tteokguk Recipe, the tteok had become firmer after being refrigerated overnight. Once it went back into the hot broth, it softened again and became more translucent.
Because Louie had not liked the chewy texture the previous day, I cut nearly every piece smaller before serving it. If you make a similar holiday treat, choose a piece size and texture that your own dog can comfortably handle and supervise while the dog eats.
3. Add the Egg Yolk and Cook It Through
Whisk the egg yolk and slowly drizzle it into the simmering broth while stirring gently. Continue cooking until the egg is fully set.
Cooked egg is among the plain foods that can be offered to dogs as treats, while seasonings and unnecessary additions should be avoided. Vca I used only yolk in this batch because that was the version I prepared for Louie, not because cooked egg white is inherently unsafe.
For a more detailed explanation of egg yolk, egg white, serving amounts, and raw-egg concerns, see my guide to feeding eggs safely to dogs.
4. Cool the Soup Before Serving
Turn off the heat and allow the soup to cool to a comfortable eating temperature.
Serve only a small portion rather than giving the entire pot at once. I like this Dog Tteokguk Recipe as a holiday extra because Louie could take part in our New Year meal while still eating food made separately for him.
How Much Dog Tteokguk Should You Serve?
There is no single serving size that works for every dog. Body size, daily calorie needs, activity, body condition, current diet, and medical conditions all affect how much extra food can fit into the day.
North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine advises that treats be measured, included in the pet’s daily calorie intake, and kept to no more than about 10% of the diet.
That means this Dog Tteokguk Recipe should be counted together with other treats, toppers, chews, and extra foods given that day.
For a toy-breed dog, the useful portion can be very small. The goal is a few festive, dog-sized bites, not an additional full meal.
If homemade food is part of your dog’s regular diet instead of an occasional holiday treat, my guide to what complete and balanced homemade dog food actually requires explains why meat, vegetables, eggs, and other wholesome ingredients alone do not guarantee nutritional completeness.
What I Would Leave Out of Dog Tteokguk
I would keep this Dog Tteokguk Recipe deliberately plain and leave out green onion, onion, garlic, chives, leek, soy sauce, added salt, soup powder, seasoned commercial broth, butter, sauces, raw egg, and undercooked meat.
I also would not give Louie large pieces of the chewy tteok simply because that is how tteokguk is normally served to people. His version was cut specifically for his small size and for the texture he had shown me he preferred.
The exclusion of onion-family ingredients is a safety issue rather than simply a preference for bland food. Merck Veterinary Manual reports that dogs can be affected after ingesting raw, cooked, dehydrated, or granulated onion and garlic.
Louie’s New Year Tteokguk
Louie was about 16 months old and weighed 3.04 kg, or about 6.7 pounds, when I made this Dog Tteokguk Recipe on New Year’s Day 2025.
I was not sure whether he would eat the tteok because he had not enjoyed its chewy texture the day before. Once I cut the pieces smaller and warmed them in the meat broth, his reaction was completely different.
He rushed toward the bowl as soon as I put it down and stayed focused on the food instead of looking back at me. He finished the serving I gave him and even kept licking the empty bowl afterward, which was unusual for Louie.
After eating, he stretched out on the floor for a while. When I told him to go rest in the room, he bounced away happily.
That was exactly what I wanted from this Dog Tteokguk Recipe: a small New Year tradition that felt connected to our family meal without simply handing him the same food we were eating.
Is Dog Tteokguk a Meal or a Treat?
Treat homemade tteokguk as a special treat or topper unless a complete recipe has been professionally formulated to meet your individual dog’s nutritional requirements.
Chicken, beef, egg, starch, and broth can all contribute food and calories, but putting several ingredients together does not automatically make a nutritionally complete diet. Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine similarly notes that home-prepared diets need to be formulated for nutritional adequacy rather than judged only by the ingredients they contain.
This Dog Tteokguk Recipe works best as an occasional celebration food: plain, thoroughly cooked, cut into manageable pieces, and served in an amount that fits the rest of the day’s diet.
For Louie, sharing New Year’s tteokguk did not mean eating our exact soup. We had the tteokguk made for people, and he had his own little bowl made just for him.
Source
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Get the Facts! Raw Pet Food Diets can be Dangerous to You and Your Pet
- Merck Veterinary Manual — Garlic and Onion (Allium spp) Toxicosis in Animals
- North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine — Healthy Human Food Treats for Pets
- VCA Animal Hospitals — Using Food and Treats for Training Dogs
- Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine — Re-evaluating Your Dog’s Diet.
