Patjuk (Red Bean Porridge)

Name: Patjuk (Red Bean Porridge)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 130 min
Total time: 160 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Korean
Ingredients: 300 g Red adzuki beans; about 2.5 L Water; 90 g Short-grain white rice; 150 g Glutinous rice flour; 6–8 tbsp Boiling water; 1¼ tsp Salt; to taste Sugar

팥죽

Romanization: patjuk

Porridge of puréed red adzuki beans and rice with chewy glutinous rice balls, eaten at the winter solstice to ward off misfortune and shared with neighbors.

Serves: 6
Prep: 30 min
Cook: 130 min

RegionJeolla · Gyeongsang

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Recipe

Ingredients · Serves 6

300 gRed adzuki beansabout 1½ cups, rinsed and picked over
about 2.5 LWaterplus water for the first boil
90 gShort-grain white rice½ cup, soaked 1 hour
150 gGlutinous rice flourfor the rice balls
6–8 tbspBoiling waterfor the rice balls
1¼ tspSaltplus a pinch for the dough; adjust to taste
to tasteSugaroptional, at the table

Method

Technique: Making Juk

Step 1: Cover the beans with water, bring to a boil for 5 minutes, and drain, discarding the bitter first water.
Step 2: Return the beans to the pot with 2.5 L fresh water. Simmer, partly covered, for 1–1½ hours, until the beans burst and crush easily; add water if the level drops below the beans.
Step 3: Press the beans through a sieve set over a bowl, pouring some of the cooking water over them and working with a spatula until only skins remain. Let the purée settle for 30 minutes.
Step 4: Meanwhile, mix the glutinous rice flour with a pinch of salt and knead in the boiling water a spoonful at a time to make a smooth, soft dough. Roll into balls about 2 cm across and keep covered.
Step 5: Ladle the thin liquid from the top of the settled purée into a heavy pot, add the drained rice and simmer, stirring often, for 15–20 minutes until the grains open. Stir in the thick sediment.
Step 6: Bring back to a gentle boil, add the rice balls and cook, stirring along the bottom so nothing sticks, until the balls float and turn glossy, about 5 minutes, and the porridge is thick and deep red. Season with salt and serve hot, with sugar on the side.

Origin & History

Patjuk is porridge made from red adzuki beans (pat) boiled soft, pressed through a sieve to remove the skins, and simmered with rice; small balls of glutinous rice dough called saealsim, "bird's-egg hearts," are cooked in it. It is the food of Dongji, the winter solstice. The oldest Korean references are poems by the late-Goryeo scholars Yi Saek and Yi Je-hyeon, which the Encyclopedia of Korean Folk Culture reads as showing that people of Goryeo all ate bean porridge at the solstice, shared it from house to house, and offered it to elders as a gesture of respect. In Joseon, officials served it at solstice ceremonies, families offered it to ancestors, and it was also eaten in the summer dog days (as bokjuk) and given to the old and sick to restore strength.

Joseon writers, and the almanac Dongguk sesigi, attributed the custom to a sixth-century Chinese account in which the son of the mythical Gonggong died at the solstice, became a plague spirit, and could be repelled only with red beans. The folk encyclopedia doubts that a single borrowing explains it, seeing instead a notion shared across East Asia that links the solstice, the rebirth of the sun and the protective power of red. It also argues that patjuk was a nourishing everyday food first, and became a ritual food only when its red color was attached to the solstice.

Before eating, households took bowls of hot porridge around the house, flicking spoonfuls at the gate, kitchen, well and storage jars to drive off misfortune, and set bowls where the household gods were thought to dwell. If the solstice fell in the first ten days of the eleventh lunar month, called aedongji ("child solstice"), many families made red-bean steamed rice cake instead, believing porridge that year would harm children. Patjuk was also the standard gift to a house in mourning, made without rice balls, and temples cooked it for solstice services and shared it with villagers. On the solstice as "little New Year," see seasonal foods; see also making juk and red beans.

Key Ingredients

Nutrition

Estimated, per serving (⅙ of recipe, one bowl, about 450 g)
Calories	~310 kcal
Protein	~12.6 g
Fat	~0.5 g
Carbohydrates	~64 g
Fiber	~7.3 g
Sodium	~520 mg

Notable forFolate · Dietary fiber · Potassium · Manganese

Estimated by summing USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy) values for raw adzuki beans (FDC 173727), medium-grain white rice (FDC 168879, standing in for short-grain), raw glutinous rice (FDC 168883, standing in for glutinous rice flour) and table salt (FDC 173468), divided by 6, without added sugar (each tablespoon of sugar at the table adds about 50 kcal). Some folate, potassium and fiber is lost with the discarded first water and the bean skins. Actual values vary with ingredients, portion size and preparation.

Health Benefits

Fiber and folate from beans: adzuki beans are rich in dietary fiber and folate and also supply potassium and plant protein.
Low in fat: the porridge is made without oil, so almost all its energy comes from beans and rice.
A warming winter meal: long associated in Korea with restoring strength in the old and unwell, it remains a gentle, filling dish.

Regional Variations

Dongji patjuk (nationwide): with glutinous rice balls; some families add one ball for each year of a person's age.
Pat-kalguksu (Jeolla): red-bean broth with hand-cut wheat noodles instead of rice balls, a summer dish; the folk encyclopedia notes that in South Jeolla the word patjuk often means this noodle version, while the solstice porridge is called saealjuk.
Mourning patjuk: made plain, without rice balls, and carried to a house in mourning to feed visitors through the funeral.
Bokjuk (summer): patjuk eaten in the hottest days of summer, recorded in Dongguk sesigi and by both encyclopedias.

Pairings

Sources

Last updated October 13, 2026