Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

• Napa cabbage, daikon radish.
• Fermented vegetables in the Korean style.
• How is it different from sauerkraut? Using korean recipes, spices and methods. Done cabbage and radish, with pineapple added too.
• RUb salt on veggies, let them dehydrate, pack tightly with addition of certain addons like fish sauce, rice flour etc.
• Let ferment for a couple of days to a couple of weeks depending on season and expectation of taste.
• Does much better in the summer with temperatures higher than 60F, long fermentation time can be tricky because more chance for pathogens to spoil it.
• Need to be careful to either start with existing kimchi ‘starter’ or nothing.
• Started with kombucha starter for a batch, and the taste was off, it didn’t taste like kimchi, it tasted like a tea ferment, fine if that’s what you want, but not resembling actual kimchi. Korean friends didn’t appreciate!
• It’s eaten with carbs, it can be used in things like fried rice, or eaten as side dish for rice, noodles, etc.
• Can be eaten raw, in sandwiches, salads, diverse usage!
• Really want to try with daikon radish and pinapple, but it’s really hard to justify the effort, considering mature, locally-produced kimchi can be bought at about the cost of the raw ingredients here in seattle.

Kimchi is simply fermented vegetables in the Korean style. The most common ingredients are Napa cabbage, daikon radish, spring onions, mustard greens, even pineapples. Any ‘green’ vegetables can be used, and even fruits are used. If you’re wondering how it’s different from a similar ferment, for example, sauerkraut, the difference is that it uses Korean recipes, spices, and methods. That means it uses Napa cabbage versus the traditional regular cabbage, and Korean radish, with potentially pineapple and green onions added too.

The recipe is quite simple. Chop and clean your veggies, rub salt on them, let them dehydrate for a few hours, wring them, pack tightly in a fermenting jar with various spices and add-ons like fish sauce, rice flour, chilli flakes gochugaru, etc. Let it ferment for a couple of days to a couple of weeks, depending on the season and how you want it to taste. You don’t actually need to refer to a guide. Just keep tasting the vegetables until they’ve reached the right level of consistency and sourness, and that’s your kimchi done.

Kimchi fermentation happens much quicker and better in the summer when temperatures are higher than 60°F. Longer fermentations in the wintertime can be tricky because the longer it stands, the more potential there is for pathogens to spoil it. It’s important to be careful about starting a kimchi culture with a starter or just letting your ambient microbes work on it. In the first batch of kimchi I ever made, I started with a kombucha starter because I figured the microbes in a kombucha starter are microbes as well. And the taste was off. It did not taste like kimchi. It tasted like tea-fermented vegetables, which is fine if that’s what you want, but that did not resemble actual kimchi in the Korean style. My Korean friends who were expecting a Korean-style kimchi were not impressed by my kombucha-inspired kimchi. A good idea to get started is to use a couple of spoonfuls of your last batch of kimchi to start a new batch. It can be store-bought as well; it’s not a big deal.

Kimchi is eaten with carbs. It can be used in things like fried rice or eaten as a side dish for rice and noodles. My favorite ways of eating kimchi are eating it with rice, eating it with savory oats, putting it in a sandwich, and eating it with Shin Ramyun soup.

It can be cooked, it can be fried, it can be eaten raw. It has many diverse uses.

I have made about six different batches of kimchi, but none in the last three years. I really want to experiment with a batch with daikon radish and pineapple, but I find just the effort really difficult, considering mature, locally produced kimchi can be bought for about the cost of the raw ingredients here in Seattle.

So, it’s one of my earlier ferments, and one I haven’t been doing recently, but I really want to get back to it. If I start it or do something with it, I’ll definitely update this page.