On December 31, 2024, it's the last day of our second year with Louie. Our 16-month-old Yorkshire Terrier will soon turn 17 months old. In our family, we eat tteokguk (rice cake soup) on New Year's Day — though I prefer manduguk (dumpling soup) since I like dumplings more. This year, I decided to prepare a homemade dog-friendly tteokguk as a special treat for Louie. There are many ways to make dog tteok, depending on whether your dog eats grain-free, legumes, or other allergens. Today, I’ll share how to make it using tapioca flour.
1. Ingredients
Tapioca flour: 100ml
Warm water: 50ml
Optional: For dumplings, prepare minced meat like beef or chicken breast.
Among many methods to make rice cakes for dogs, my go-to flours are:
Tapioca flour
Chickpea flour
Oat flour
Today, we’ll use tapioca flour only.
2. Making the Dough
Pour warm water into the measured tapioca flour.
Warm water helps the flour combine well. I also added a bit of olive oil.
Mix until it forms a cohesive dough ball.
3. Shaping the Rice Cakes
Roll out the dough using a rolling pin. You can also roll it into a log and slice it.
I used small molds to cut out cute rice cake shapes.
4. Dumpling Wrappers
Roll the dough thin and cut into circles. Add minced meat on top. I used beef, but chicken works well too.
Shape into dumplings — be careful not to make them too thick like I did.
5. Cooking
Boil water and drop in the rice cakes and dumplings.
Once they float, turn off the heat.
6. Cooling and Storage
Transfer the cooked pieces to ice water to help them firm up.
Drain and refrigerate.
Reflections
The rice cakes turned out cute, but I didn’t fully consider Louie’s texture preferences. No worries though — tomorrow’s tteokguk will be made with a broth of chicken breast, egg yolk, and beef topping. These rice cakes and dumplings are more for decoration and to include Louie in our New Year’s celebration.
Next time, I plan to make colorful versions using oat or chickpea flour. If you use oat flour, the original method works fine. But for chickpea flour, mix it with tapioca to get the right texture.
Here's a quick ingredient overview:
Tapioca flour: ~85g carbs per 100g, low fat and protein. Makes chewy dough. Grain-free. Very low in fiber.
Chickpea flour: ~55g carbs per 100g, high in fiber and protein. More nutritious but harder to digest. Grain-free. Needs to be mixed with tapioca.
Oat flour: ~70g carbs per 100g, not grain-free. Lower protein than chickpea but more than tapioca. Easily digestible.
Choose the flour based on your dog's dietary needs.