How to Make Kimchi: Easy Kimchi Recipe and Tips

Kimchi is a Korean side dish made from salted, seasoned, and fermented vegetables—most commonly Napa cabbage with radishes, green onions, and gochugaru, or red pepper flakes. It is commonly found in many Asian restaurants.

Baechu-kimchi, or cabbage kimchi, is the most common type of kimchi. Originally developed as a way to preserve fresh vegetables well into winter, kimchi is an example of basic fermenting at work: depriving the vegetables of air prevents spoilage and allows the naturally occurring bacteria to transform the available starches and sugars into an acid that’s particularly well-suited for preserving.

The resulting lactobacillus bacteria gives kimchi its signature sour crunch and fizzy tang—and boosts gut health, too.

Kimchi is a true expression of the complexity of umami, that elusive savory fifth taste. It has a well-rounded, tempered heat from fresh ginger, garlic, and gochugaru set off by peppery Daikon radish.

Fish sauce or salted shrimp paste brings a mouth-watering, pungent brine, and the cool crunch of fermented cabbage (or vegetable of your choice) rounds out the texture. A Mason jar crammed full of those classic fiery red-orange ribbons of cabbage is a welcome sight in any refrigerator door.

Traditional kimchi is not strictly vegan or vegetarian, thanks to the fermented seafood products central to its pickle, briny, umami flavor.

To create a vegan version, substitute red miso paste, a close but not exact substitute for the fish sauce or dried shrimp in kimchi. Red miso paste is packed with glutamic acid, the same element that gives kimchi its signature burst of brightness.

There’s a reason kimchi has been dubbed the Korean superfood: Kimchi is easily one of the world’s healthiest foods, thanks to the presence of lactobacillus, that gut-healthy lactic acid bacteria you get in yogurt. High levels of vitamins A and B, as well as calcium and iron, are among its many health benefits.

If you refrigerate kimchi, it will last in the fridge for a couple of months. Since it’s already fermented, it can’t technically go “bad” in the usual sense. (In much the same way that sauerkraut cannot.)

As time goes on, kimchi is said to “ripen” in the salt water rather than rot, bringing with it a more aggressively sour flavor profile—when that happens, it’s the perfect time for cooking kimchi fried rice or savory pancakes, which can soften the acidity.

Try these kimchi variations next time you whip up a batch.

1. 1. In springtime, wild ramp kimchi is a favored variation on pa-kimchi, which uses scallions or green onions instead of cabbage.
2. 2. Baek-kimchi follows the same process, but leaves out the spicy red pepper powder, giving a much milder flavor.
3. 3. Yeolmu-kimchi makes use of young summer radish greens, with their miniature roots still intact.
4. 4. For a nuttier flavor profile, add 1 tbsp sesame oil to the spice mixture.

Kimchi is a game-changing addition to ordinary recipes. Try adding kimchi to:

• Kimchi soup
• Kimchi-infused steak butter
• Kimchi grilled cheese

It’s incredibly easy to cook with, but it’s more than dynamic enough to eat straight: either as a banchan (side dish) alongside rice, or right out of the jar.