Bean Sprout Tails: Trim or Keep? Korean Lab Numbers by Part
Should you trim bean sprout tails before making kongnamul-guk (콩나물국, soybean sprout soup)? A common Korean answer is "keep the roots, that's where the hangover compound is," and a Korean news site ran that line again on September 19, 2026. I went back to the Korean lab data behind it, and the numbers split in a way the headline hides. First, the sprout in question. Kongnamul (콩나물) grows from soybeans and has a large yellow head. Sukju (숙주) is the mung bean sprout, with a small green-hulled bean. At a Korean grocer such as H Mart, the Hangul on the bag is the quickest way to tell them apart. What the "keep the roots" articles claim The September 19 piece in News-wa says "아스파라긴산은 뿌리 부분에 가장 풍부하다," which means the compound is richest in the root. It adds that 100 g of kongnamul holds 1,101.56 mg of it, "대부분이 뿌리에 몰려있다" (mostly concentrated in the root), and credits the number to the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences. The article do...