Vegan Kimchi: an easy Korean vegetarian flavor bomb condiment!

Step 1

Remove the stems and foliage of the radishes. Clean the daikon, red radishes and scallions by rubbing them while running warm water over them. Rinse the napa cabbage, and discard any withered looking external leaves.

Step 2

Cut napa cabbage in half and remove its core. Use the sharp tip portion of your knife to cut out a triangular section from the bottom of each half cabbage to discard it’s core where the leaves connect to each other. Cut the cabbage into 1 inch thick slices, including all the rib parts. The ribs are actually extra-special-great after they are fermented, so don’t waste nothing!

Step 3

Using a vegetable peeler, skin the daikon.  Dice the daikon into 1 cm. cubes.

Step 4

Slice the radishes thin (1-3 mm. slices).

Step 5

Remove the roots of the scallions and any withered end parts. Then cut those lovely freshened-up-looking spring onions into inch-long sections.

Step 6

Place all the drained veggies into a clean large bowl and sprinkle them with ½ cup of salt (you heard that right, but don’t worry, trust me!). Pour 12 cups of cold water over the veggies until they are covered.  Place a heavy plate over the veggies in the brine to weigh them down and keep them submerged. Place a cover over the bowl so that no dust, insects, or stuff floating through the air of your kitchen can possibly enter the bowl while the veggies are in the brine.  I use a baking pan to cover my bowl and a tea kettle on top of it to weigh it down, but you can use whatever as long as it is clean.

Step 7

Allow the vegetable to brine for 5 hours.  This time allows the salt to draw moisture out of the veggies and also kill off some of the unwanted bacteria that may be present.  It is an essential step, so don’t rush it!

Step 8

After 5 hours, drain the brined vegetable in a large colander in your sink.  Massage the veggies under cold running water to get off as much of the salt as possible.  It should take a couple of minutes.  No need to squeeze the living daylights out of your veggies.

Step 9

Allow the veggies to drip dry in the colander while you get the chili paste made.

Step 10

Place the onions, ginger, garlic, gochugaru, sugar, salt and water into a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. You may need to stop the blending once or twice to scrape down the inside of the blender/food processor pitcher with a rubber spatula to ensure no big fragments of onion remain.

Step 11

Place the drained veggies and chili paste into a bowl and massage the paste into the veggies by hand until it is well combined, and no clumps of plain veggies remain.

Step 12

Pack the kimchi into a sanitized glass gallon jar, or multiple clean mason jars.  Press the kimchi down to push out air pockets.  Cover the top of the kimchi in the jar with a layer of plastic. Wipe down the inside and outside of the jar so no kimchi juice is visible above the plastic-covered top layer.  Place a lid onto the jar(s) and allow the kimchi to sit at room temperature (68-72 degrees is ideal) out of direct sunlight.  It should ferment at room temperature for 24 hours if the temperature in your kitchen is over 72 degrees, 36 hours if the temperature is between 68-72 degrees, and 48 hours if the temperature is below 68 degrees.

Step 13

After the 24-48 hour room temperature fermentation, you can use the kimchi, but it’s best to let it ripen a bit more under refrigeration. Before placing the kimchi in the fridge, press the kimchi down using a clean metal spoon to remove any pockets of gas which have built up. You can use the kimchi any time now, or let it continue to ripen and ferment slowly under refrigeration for up to a month.