Homemade Vegan Kimchi | Recipe

Oh, how I love a good spicy, crunchy kimchi. Ever since I first tasted this traditional Korean fermented cabbage a year ago, I’ve been head over heels in love. However, nearly all kimchi I’ve been able to find in store or in restaurants contains fish sauce and/or sea food and therefore sadly isn’t vegetarian and vegan friendly. The only kimchi I’ve been able to find around me at all is sold in a specialty Japanese & Korean food market and pretty pricy, as such. Plenty of reasons to try making my own!

Food fermentation is something that has fascinated me for a while. Last fall I finally decided to get myself a fermentation pot, learn more about this ancient food preservation process and start making my own fermented foods. I called in help from the best source I know on the topic of cooking: my grandma. She makes a mean sauerkraut and recreating that was the first stop in my fermentation journey. After I had succesfully prepared a basic ferment of just cabbage and a bit of horseradish, I was ready to tackle the next thing (which was my reason for starting this journey): kimchi. Kimchi is a mix of fermented vegetables, often based on cabbage and radish, and comes in varying degrees of spicyness. It’s incredibly nutritious and healthy, not to mention versatile and delicious.
I mentioned wanting to try making kimchi to my grandma and lo and behold: it turns out her sister has been making it for years. She got a recipe from a Korean acquaintance and has had pots of kimchi going regularly ever since.

I’m guessing the person who shared this recipe with my great-aunt is from a northern region is Korea, because the finished product is a rather fresh kimchi with little spice and no sea food. The original recipe also mentions saving half the cabbage leaves and, after having processed the rest of the ingredients, wrapping them up in the whole leaves to create little packets before fermenting. I do believe that’s a northern practice as well, but please correct me if I’m wrong.

I have altered the recipe slightly to make it more spicy according to my taste, and I usually don’t make the cabbage packets. Slicing up all the cabbage is a bit quicker and in what’s already quite a lengthy process, that’s a welcome shortcut. The rest of the recipe is exactly what I got from my great-aunt, and the best news is I didn’t even have to veganise it. This recipe is all vegan on its own!

Ingredients

Main
1 kg salt
2 nappa cabbages
1 radish (preferably mu, I only have access to daikon and that works fine)
1 large carrot
300 g scallions
1 apple or pear
1 chilli pepper
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
4cm piece of ginger

Seasoning Paste
2 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp sugar
100 ml water
100 ml soy sauce
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp cayenne pepper or chilli flakes

Process

Wash and cut your nappa cabbages. I cut mine into 3 cm strips, but larger chunks are also common. Take a large pot and fill with enough water to submerge the cabbage later. Add salt until it no longer dissolves in the water, then add your cabbage (you’ll need approximately 1 kg of salt for 5 liters of water). Cover the pot and leave for at least four hours or overnight, for the cabbage to soften.

Drain and rinse the cabbage well. Clean all the vegetables. Slice and/or grate the radish, carrot, scallions, apple and onion. I like to use the coarse grater on my food processor to speed up the process. Finely chop the garlic, ginger and chilli pepper.

To make the seasoning paste, add the rice flour, sugar and water to a saucepan and simmer until it reduces into a paste. This will take about 10 minutes. When it’s done, take it off the heat and stir in the paprika, cayenne pepper/chilli flakes and soy sauce.

Combine the cabbage, vegetables and seasoning paste together before packing everything tightly into a fermentation pot. As you pack the vegetables, you should already start seeing some liquid (brine). This will grow as time goes by and is essential for the fermentation process: make sure all your vegetables are completely submerged in brine at all times. Seal the fermentation pot with a water lock, and leave on the counter for two days. After two days the kimchi is ready, and you can choose to either ferment it further for a stronger flavour, or to transfer it to the fridge to slow the process.

I’ve only tried fermenting foods in a proper fermentation pot, which has a water lock. This lock allows the gasses that form during the fermentation process to escape, but won’t let any air from the outside come in. My fermentation pot has a 3 liter capacity and if I use smaller cabbages and a small radish, this amount just fits. I do have to go back and scoop out the excess brine twice a day in the first days though to prevent it from overflowing, so I do recommend using a larger pot for this recipe. If you don’t own a fermentation pot, I’ve heard kimchi is quite forgiving and people have gotten great results by making it in standard jars. Do keep in mind that if you do that, you’ll have to visit your kimchi regularly (a few times a day at first) to unscrew the top a bit and let the gas out.

Even though kimchi is traditionally a side dish, I like to serve mine as the star of the dish accompanied by just a bit of rice and tofu.
You can make endless variations and get different results every time. Try swapping out vegetables or adding more or less chilli for a new experience.