Kimchi is a traditional Korean dish made from fermented vegetables, most commonly napa cabbage and Korean radish (mu), seasoned with a blend of chili pepper flakes (gochugaru), garlic, ginger, scallions, fish sauce, and a few other ingredients. It’s bold, tangy, spicy, and rich in umami. If you’d like to learn how to make kimchi at home, I’m going to walk you through it.
Making kimchi at home is really fun. You can make all kinds of kimchi – napa cabbage, radish, cucumber, sesame leaves, scallions, even pineapple (recipe coming soon for that). It is less intimidating than it seems, and kimchi has many known health benefits. It has natural probiotics and contains lots of vitamins and antioxidants. Let’s start with the ingredients you need for traditional napa cabbage kimchi.
- Napa Cabbage
- Kosher Salt
- Daikon radish – my regular grocery store carries daikon, but if you don’t have access to it you can leave it out
- Scallions
- Ginger – you want fresh ginger root for kimchi and you need a large piece
- Garlic
- Korean Red Pepper Powder – you can get this at any Asian market or click the link to buy online
- Fish Sauce – you can get this at an Asian market, or buy my favorite brand by clicking the link
- Sugar
- Korean Salted Shrimp – these are tiny, salty shrimp you can buy at Asian markets. If you don’t have access to these, you can add an extra tbsp of fish sauce and it works fine. If you watch my video clip at the bottom, you can see the size of the shrimp.
- Kimchi pots or canning jars – kimchi ferments and slowly releases gas, so you don’t want to store it in a fully sealed container. Using canning jars allow you to keep the jar more loosely sealed. I like these.
The process of making kimchi includes 2 hours soaking time for the cabbage so plan for that. After you have made your kimchi, depending on the weather, it is good idea to let it sit out on the counter overnight to jump start the fermentation before putting in the fridge. If it is summer and hot, I usually leave it a few hours, then put in fridge. Kimchi continues to ferment as you keep it and lasts weeks in the fridge. Once it turns very sour it is great to use in soups like kimchi sujebi or army stew.
How to Make Kimchi at Home
Ingredients
- 2-3 lb napa cabbage cut into large pieces and washed well
- 1/2 cup Kosher salt
- 8 oz daikon radish peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 8 scallions cut into 2 inch lengths
- 1/3 cup Korean red pepper powder
- 1/4 cup fish sauce plus an extra tbsp if not using the shrimp
- 1/4 cup peeled minced fresh ginger
- 8 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tsp Korean salted shrimp
- 1 tsp sugar
Instructions
- Prep your cabbage. Slice the napa cabbage into 2 inch or so slices. Wash and rinse well. Mix the kosher salt with the cabbage in a large bowl and use very clean hands to mix well. Cover with cold water until cabbage is submerged and soak for 1-2 hours.
- While it is soaking, you can prep the rest of the ingredients. Peel and slice the daikon and slice the scallions into 2 inch pieces and set them aside.
- In a small blender cup, combine the ginger, garlic, red pepper powder, fish sauce, shrimp and sugar. Blend to process. It doesn't have to be super finely blended.
- When the cabbage is done soaking, pour into a strainer and rinse very well to remove the excess salt. This is important or the kimchi will be way too salty. I drain it and then refill the bowl with clean water and swish it around to be sure I got all the salt off. Drain and squeeze out excess water and rinse the bowl.
- Make sure your hands are clean and add the scallions, daikon and the mixture you blended and mix well using your hands. You want to be sure all the cabbage gets coated evenly. Pack into your clean jars and set on the counter overnight, then store in the fridge. You can eat fresh kimchi right away, and as it sits in your fridge it will ferment and turn more sour. I love both fresh and very sour kimchi.
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