Cheese Rice Paper Tteokbokki for Weight Loss

Today, let’s make cheese rice paper tteokbokki!
Many Koreans use rice paper instead of rice cakes when they want to enjoy tteokbokki while losing their weight. If you are looking for tteokbokki without rice cake(tteok), this is for you! This version is super cheesy, satisfying, and takes only 15 minutes to make!

What is Rice Paper Tteokbokki?

This Korean rice paper tteokbokki recipe uses rice paper instead of traditional Korean rice cakes. It was designed for people who have difficulty finding Tteok (rice cake) or who are trying to lose weight.

Simply soak the rice paper in water, roll it up, and shape it like tteok to use in tteokbokki. Today, I’m sharing an even tastier cheese tteokbokki version: cheese rice cakes made by stuffing the rice paper with lots of cheese!

Why Rice Paper Tteopokki?

Diet-friendly

Traditional tteok (rice cakes) are made entirely of carbohydrates, but rice paper tteok can be filled with cheese, which adds volume while reducing carbohydrate content.

This version is popular among Koreans, including K-pop idols losing their weight, as a lighter alternative.

Easy to find abroad

Even though Korean food is trending, it’s still hard to find Korean rice cakes in most regular grocery stores overseas. But rice paper? You can find it almost anywhere—even in the small supermarkets!

Quick to cook

Usually, rice cakes need to be soaked and simmered for a while so that the sauce can absorb properly. Rice paper tteok, on the other hand, is ready as soon as it touches water.
It absorbs the sauce much faster, which makes the entire dish quicker to prepare.

Softer, easier texture

If you’ve ever felt traditional rice cakes were too chewy, rice paper tteok offers a softer, gentler chew. It’s the perfect balance of stretchiness and tenderness, making it easier to enjoy for everyone.

Why Is It Good for Weight Loss?

Tteokbokki is one of the most fattening Korean comfort foods. It’s basically a carb-heavy dish—rice cakes coated in a sauce loaded with sugar and sodium. But let’s be honest—tteokbokki is too delicious to give up!

When you make it with rice paper, though, you can reduce the carbs by filling the rice paper with cheese. Compared to eating the same volume of regular tteok, this version cuts down on carbs significantly. That’s why many low-carb, high-fat (Keto-style) dieters love it.

Instead of using a large amount of rice paper tteok, this recipe boosts the volume with cabbage and adds an egg for protein. Both cabbage and egg help you feel full longer, making this a great option for anyone trying to lose weight.

Ingredients

Today’s Rice paper cheese tteokbokki recipe is super simple and only requires a few ingredients.

• Rice Paper: This is what we’ll be using instead of traditional rice cakes. I chose it because it’s easy to find in most grocery stores, no matter where you are.

• Mozzarella Cheese: One of the key ingredients in this cheese tteokbokki! It helps reduce the carb content while giving you that stretchy, melty cheese-filled tteok experience.

• Cabbage: It adds natural sweetness to the broth and increases the overall volume of the dish, helping you feel full.

• Boiled Egg: Adds protein and balances out the spicy flavor. It’s also super satisfying when eaten with the tteokbokki sauce—seriously delicious!

Cheese Tteokbokki Sauce

This Cheesy rice paper tteokbokki sauce is incredibly simple. All you need are a few basic ingredients: gochujang (Korean chili paste), gochugaru (Korean chili flakes), sugar, beef dashi (Korean beef stock powder), and soy sauce.

Want to make it less spicy or vegan-friendly? Don’t have dashi-da? No worries! I’ll share some easy substitutes and variations below.

How to Make a Less Spicy Tteokbokki

• Cheese Topping

Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese on top of your tteokbokki and let it melt. The creamy, salty flavor of the cheese balances the spiciness, creating delicious, cheesy tteokbokki that’s hard to resist.

• Rose Tteokbokki Sauce

Instead of using the traditional spicy sauce, try a rose tteokbokki sauce made with cream and milk. It’s much milder, but still rich and flavorful.

It’s a simple rose tteokbokki recipe you can use with today’s rice paper version—perfect if you’re looking for something tasty with fewer calories!

• Paprika Powder

If you want to maintain the classic tteokbokki flavor but reduce the spiciness, try replacing gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) with paprika powder. This substitution maintains the color while adding a subtle kick without overwhelming spiciness.

Vegan Topokki

If you’re vegan, simply skip the cheese filling and just roll the rice paper on its own.
Also, leave out the boiled egg, and you’ve got yourself a completely vegan version of this dish.

For the sauce, you can substitute the beef dashida with a pinch of MSG or vegetable stock powder.
Actually, where I live in Europe, CJ’s beef dashida is made vegan- and halal-friendly—so I recommend checking the label if you’re not sure.

Recommended Toppings for Tteokbokki

Today, I added a boiled egg as a topping, but tteokbokki is super versatile—you can top it with so many different things depending on your mood or what’s in your fridge. Here are some of my favorite toppings to level up your tteokbokki.

• Fish Cake (Eomuk): One of the most classic tteokbokki toppings. The fish oil in the eomuk blends beautifully with the broth, adding a rich umami flavor.

• Bacon or Sausages: Crispy bacon or sliced sausages add a salty, savory kick. The combination with spicy sauce is seriously addictive!

• Mozzarella Cheese: This is one of the most popular toppings among Koreans. Its stretchy, melty texture adds a creamy, salty richness that pairs perfectly with the spicy tteokbokki sauce.

• Ramyun Noodles: This recipe is more of a soup-style tteokbokki, so if you add an extra 100ml of water and cook some ramen noodles in the broth, it becomes rabokki (ramen + tteokbokki)—a deliciously satisfying twist!

Ingredient Substitutes

Beef Dashida (Korean beef stock powder)

If you don’t have beef dashida, here’s a great hack: just use a bit of Korean instant ramyun seasoning powder! It gives you a very similar umami-rich flavor. But be careful—it’s salty. Start with just ¼ of the packet and adjust to taste. And don’t waste the ramen noodles—boil them in the sauce like ramyeon sari (ramen add-on) for a delicious upgrade.

No ramen? You can also use MSG, chicken stock powder, or oyster sauce instead. All of them work great as flavor boosters.

Korean Chili Flakes (Gochugaru)

You can substitute gochugaru with paprika powder for a milder version of tteokbokki. It keeps the color and some of the smoky flavor without too much heat.

Get Ingredients

• Wok Pan: https://amzn.to/3DQgIPu (US), https://amzn.to/4hmr6w3 (DE), https://amzn.to/42f3uVG (NL), https://amzn.to/3RcZnmR (UK)

• Korean Dashida: https://amzn.to/4iyh9gb (US), https://amzn.to/42AKP5y (UK),  https://amzn.to/41PSmNz (NL), https://amzn.to/3RaARTg (DE)

• Gochujang: https://amzn.to/3XstNFi (US), https://amzn.to/4hSoh65 (DE), https://amzn.to/4l4b2BU (NL, BE), https://amzn.to/4curibS (UK)

• Gochugaru (Korean Red Pepper Powder): https://amzn.to/4hD0Duw (US),  https://amzn.to/40F34pK (DE), https://amzn.to/425ncTO (UK)
• Rice Paper: https://amzn.to/4jbh3uI (US), https://amzn.to/43l5zyB (UK), https://amzn.to/43f6zG1 (DE), https://amzn.to/4mkwHGG (NL, BE)
• Sesame Seeds: https://amzn.to/3D85aXg (US), https://amzn.to/3EQVBwt (DE), https://amzn.to/3D7C6iD (NL)

Disclosure: Blonde Kimchi is part of the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program that allows websites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.com and promoting products.