The Best Korean Kimchi Recipe

Kimchi is napa cabbage salted for two hours to draw out its water, rinsed, then coated in a paste of gochugaru, garlic, ginger and spring onion and packed tightly into a jar. It ferments on the bench for one to three days, then goes in the fridge, where it keeps going slowly for months. This version uses soy sauce in place of fish sauce, so it is vegan without losing the savoury depth.

What makes kimchi work

Three things, and the paste is not one of them.

The salt. Napa cabbage is mostly water, and that water has to come out before the paste goes on or you end up with a jar of pink liquid and limp cabbage. Two hours in salt pulls it out, and the rinse takes the excess salt back off. Skip this and nothing else you do will save the texture.

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The pack. Kimchi ferments best without air. Pressing the cabbage down hard, until the brine rises over the top of it, is what keeps the good bacteria working and the mould out. A loose jar is the most common way a first batch goes wrong.

The wait. One day on the bench gives you a fresh, salad-like kimchi. Three days gives you the sour, fizzy one most people are actually after. Both are correct, and you get to choose by tasting it each day.

The fish sauce question

Traditional kimchi uses fish sauce or salted shrimp for its savoury backbone, which is the umami you notice underneath the chilli. Soy sauce or tamari does the same job here. A tablespoon of white miso alongside it gets even closer if you have some, though it is not essential.

Gochugaru is the one ingredient with no substitute. It is a coarse Korean chilli flake, bright red, more fruity than hot. Cayenne, chilli powder, paprika and crushed dried chilli are all different things and will each give you something that is not kimchi. It keeps for a year in the freezer, so buying a bag is worth it.

Vegan Kimchi Recipe

• Prep time: 30 minutes
• Salting time: 2 hours
• Fermenting time: 2 days
• Total time: 2 hours 30 minutes active
• Serves: 12 as a side
• Cooking: none, it is a no-cook recipe

Ingredients

For the cabbage

• 1 medium napa cabbage, about 1kg
• ¼ cup coarse sea salt

For the paste

• ¼ cup gochugaru, Korean chilli flakes
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon white miso, optional
• ¼ cup water

To finish

• 4 spring onions, cut into 3cm lengths
• 1 carrot, julienned
• ½ daikon radish, julienned, optional

Instructions

1. Salt the cabbage. Quarter the cabbage lengthways, cut out the core and chop into bite-sized pieces. Put it in your largest bowl, add the salt and work it through with your hands. Leave for 2 hours, turning it over every half hour. It will collapse to about half its volume and there will be a pool of water underneath.
2. Rinse and drain. Rinse the cabbage three times in cold water to take the excess salt off, then drain it properly in a colander for 15 minutes. Taste a piece. It should be pleasantly salty, not harsh.
3. Make the paste. Whisk the gochugaru, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger, miso if using, and water into a loose paste. Let it sit 10 minutes so the chilli flakes soften and the colour deepens.
4. Combine. Add the drained cabbage, spring onions, carrot and daikon to the paste and mix with your hands until every piece is coated. Wear gloves unless you want red fingers for two days.
5. Pack the jar. Press the kimchi into a wide-mouth jar a handful at a time, pushing down hard with your fist so no air is trapped. Keep going until the brine rises above the cabbage. Leave 3cm at the top, because it will bubble up.
6. Ferment. Close the lid loosely and leave it on the bench, out of direct sun, for 1 to 3 days. Open it once a day, press the cabbage back under the brine and taste it. When it tastes sour enough for you, it is done.
7. Refrigerate. Tighten the lid and move it to the fridge. It carries on fermenting slowly from here and gets better for the first month.

Tips

• If you are using a jar rather than a proper fermenting crock, stand it on a plate. It will overflow on day two and that is normal.
• Bubbles, a sour smell and cloudy brine are all signs it is working. Fuzzy mould on top is not, and that batch goes in the bin.
• Coarse sea salt draws water out more gently than fine table salt, which can turn the cabbage soft before you have finished.
• If it comes out too sour for eating straight, it is at its best in cooking. Kimchi fried rice, kimchi pancakes and kimchi stew all want the older jar.

What to serve it with

Kimchi is a side dish in Korea, eaten in small amounts alongside a meal rather than as a salad on its own.

• Steamed rice and a fried egg substitute, which is the everyday way to eat it
• Vegan tteokbokki, where the sourness cuts through the sweet chilli sauce
• Korean corn dogs as the sharp thing next to the fried thing
• Japanese okonomiyaki, which takes chopped kimchi straight into the batter
• Stirred through fried rice the following week, once it has soured properly

Storing and how long it keeps

In the fridge in its own brine, kimchi keeps for 3 to 6 months. It does not spoil so much as change: sourer, softer, more useful for cooking and less good raw. Most people find the first month is the sweet spot for eating it straight.

Keep the cabbage under the brine every time you take some out, and use a clean fork rather than your fingers. Both of those matter more than the date.

Signs a batch has gone wrong, as opposed to just gone sour: fuzzy mould on the surface, a smell that is off rather than sharp, or a slimy texture. Sour and fizzy is right. Slimy is not.

Do not freeze it. Freezing kills the live cultures and the cabbage collapses on thawing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is kimchi vegan?

Traditional kimchi is not, because it usually contains fish sauce, salted shrimp or both. This recipe replaces them with soy sauce, which does the same savoury job. Shop-bought kimchi is worth checking, because most jars on a supermarket shelf still contain fish.

What is gochugaru and can I substitute it?

Gochugaru is a coarse Korean chilli flake, mild and fruity rather than sharply hot. There is no real substitute. Cayenne is far hotter, paprika has no heat, gochujang is a fermented paste with a completely different texture, and standard chilli flakes are hotter and less sweet. A bag keeps a year in the freezer.

How long does kimchi take to ferment?

One to three days on the bench, then it continues slowly in the fridge. One day gives you fresh, crunchy, barely sour kimchi. Three days gives you the tangy, fizzy version most people picture. Taste it daily and stop when you like it.

Can I use regular cabbage instead of napa?

You can, but it is a different result. Napa is looser leaved and holds more water, so it salts down and takes up the paste in a way that green cabbage does not. Green cabbage makes something crunchier and blunter that is perfectly nice but is not kimchi.

Why is my kimchi not bubbling?

Usually the room is too cold, or there is not enough sugar for the bacteria to get started. Move it somewhere warmer and give it another day. A cold kitchen in winter can easily double the time.

Is kimchi good for you?

Kimchi is a fermented vegetable, so it is a source of live cultures, fibre and vitamins A and C. Many people find fermented foods sit well with them, though it varies from person to person and it is also high in salt. If you have a health reason to be careful about either salt or fermented foods, that is a conversation for your doctor rather than a recipe page.

Can I eat kimchi every day?

Plenty of people do, in the small side-dish portions it is traditionally eaten in. It is a salty food, so the portion size is the part worth paying attention to rather than the frequency.

How do I stop my hands staining?

Wear disposable gloves for the mixing step. Gochugaru pigment sits in the skin for a day or two and no amount of scrubbing shifts it faster.

What jar should I use?

A wide-mouth glass jar, half gallon or 2 litres, so you can get your fist in to press the cabbage down. Leave 3cm of headroom and stand it on a plate for the first two days.

Can I make it less spicy?

Halve the gochugaru. It will be paler and milder and it will still ferment properly, because the chilli is for flavour rather than preservation. The salt is what does the preserving.

The short version

Salt for two hours, rinse, coat in the paste, pack it tight, and taste it every day until it is sour enough for you. The salting and the packing are the two steps worth being fussy about. Everything else is patience.

If you want more of this sort of thing, the tteokbokki is the natural next one. And if the pull toward a snack at the same time every afternoon is the more interesting question, that is the other half of this site.

• Kimchi Recipe
• how to make kimchi