Description
This vegan kimchi is easy to make, made without fish sauce or shellfish products, and tastes just like regular napa cabbage kimchi. It’s perfect for eating as a side while fresh and once it’s well fermented, it’ll be mouthwateringly tangy.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 head napa cabbage (average 4 lb/1800g per head)
- Kosher salt (about 1 cup or as needed for salting)
- 1 cup water
- ¼ cup rice flour (regular or glutinous)
- ½ large apple
- ½ medium yellow onion (peeled cut into smaller chunks)
- 15 cloves garlic (trimmed)
- 1 inch knob of ginger (peeled and cut into smaller pieces)
- 1 tablespoon mushroom powder
- ½ tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 cup gochugaru (coarse)
- 8 ounces Korean radish (peeled and julienned)
- 4 ounces carrot (peeled and julienned)
- 3 ounces Asian chives
Instructions
- Peel away and discard any undesirable outer layer leaves of the napa cabbage.
- With the napa cabbage laying on its side, quarter the cabbage long ways.
- Trim away excess part of the cabbage core. Rinse and wash each quarter of the napa cabbage with water to remove dirt.
- In a clean area, salt each quarter of napa cabbage by sprinkling salt between each layer of leaves.
- Arrange and stack the cabbages in a large bowl. Cover and weigh down the cabbages with something heavy and let them salt for 1½ to 2 hours.
- Check if the napa cabbage is done salting by ripping off a small leaf and tasting.
- Once done salting, rinse the cabbages with fresh water to remove excess salt.
- After the final rinse, gently squeeze each quarter of napa cabbage to remove excess water.
- Make the rice flour paste by whisking together water and rice flour and cooking until it thickens.
- In a blender, blend apple, onion, garlic, ginger, mushroom powder, and salt until smooth. Add half of the gochugaru and blend again.
- With gloved hands, mix the paste with the remaining gochugaru, Korean radish, carrot, and Asian chives.
- Work with one quarter of napa cabbage at a time, slathering the marinade in between each leaf and packing it into jars.
- This vegan kimchi can be enjoyed fresh or fermented for about 1 week.
Notes
- Keep ½ to 1 inch of space between the top of the kimchi and the lid for fermentation.
- Let the kimchi sit out at room temperature for 1 to 2 days before refrigerating to speed up fermentation.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Fermentation
- Cuisine: Korean
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 407.7
- Sugar: 6 g
- Sodium: 1500 mg
- Fat: 12.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 1 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 11.6 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 79.7 g
- Fiber: 10 g
- Protein: 18 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: vegan kimchi, napa cabbage, fermented vegetables, Korean side dish