What Korean fermented soybean paste is used in soups and stews?

What Korean fermented soybean paste is used in soups and stews? Doenjang is the answer.

Doenjang is a thick Korean fermented soybean paste made primarily from soybeans and brine. It supplies a deep salty, earthy, and savory flavor to Korean cooking. Traditional production begins with meju, blocks of cooked soybeans that are shaped, dried, and fermented before being aged in brine. The liquid separated during this process can become ganjang, Korean soup soy sauce, while the solids develop into doenjang.

The paste is a foundation for dishes such as doenjang-guk, a relatively light soybean-paste soup, and doenjang-jjigae, a thicker stew often containing tofu, zucchini, potatoes, mushrooms, seafood, beef, or pork. It can also be served as a condiment or mixed with garlic and sesame oil to make ssamjang for lettuce wraps.

Doenjang is sometimes compared with Japanese miso because both are fermented soybean pastes, but they are distinct traditions with different typical ingredients, fermentation methods, textures, and flavors. Gochujang is another Korean fermented paste, but its defining ingredients include chili powder and glutinous rice or other grains; it is sweeter and spicier than doenjang.