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If you’ve been with me for a while, you’re well aware of my undying love for kimchi. Yes, it is stinky and bubbly and more than a little wild, but WOWZA the taste and the texture are so worth it.
If you’re new to the Foodie with Family family and you aren’t familiar with kimchi, I can give you a super condensed description; it’s essentially spicy, aromatic Korean sauerkraut. Today, I’m bringing you a fool-proof Easy Fast Kimchi recipe {Mak Kimchi}.
What is Kimchi?
Kimchi comes in almost as many forms as there are vegetables because nearly any vegetable can be fermented. They range from super mild smell to mega funky and mellow to melt-your-face-off spicy and there is one for every possible point in between.
The kimchi recipe that I’m sharing today is my family’s favourite version. It’s chock full of fabulous pro-biotics (as most kimchi is) and the longer it ages (translation: ferments) the stronger it becomes in both flavour AND pro-biotic content.
It’s like yogurt on steroids, people. That’s how good it is for you!
Is Kimchi Good For You?
Health Magazine named kimchi one of it’s Top 5 World’s Healthiest Foods. It is is low in calories and fat and high in dietary fiber and wicked high in Vitamins A, B, and C.
Many (if not most) Koreans eat a little kimchi with each meal or at least once a day. Kimchi is credited with helping most Koreans avoid obesity by virtue of its ability to satisfy even while being low calorie and low fat.
Seoul National University conducted a study and claimed that chickens infected with the H5N1 virus, also called avian flu, recovered after eating food containing the same cultured bacteria found in kimchi. That’s good enough for me!
How to Make Kimchi
Let’s get cracking and make some kimchi, shall we? The variety we’re making today is an Easy, Fast Kimchi recipe or Mak Kimchi…
In other words, it’s already cut up and ready to shovel into your mouth. Unlike what is usually just called ‘kimchi’ which is whole heads of napa cabbage smeared with the kimchi paste and allowed to ferment all wrapped up.
This version is FAR easier to make and far faster to be ready. Bonus, it is way easier to eat straight from the jar with a pair of chopsticks or a fork.
Do I need special tools to make kimchi?
In short, no. All you really need is a knife, a cutting board, and a big bowl. You will need a couple of ingredients that you may not have purchased before, but never fear, they’re not hard to find these days and I’ve included links to them below.
To begin with, you’ll need a big old head or two of Napa cabbage. I had two heads like the one above weighing in at about 3 pounds each.
It yielded, when all was said and done, about 3 quarts of kimchi, so that was perfect for me. You can cut that back if you think you can’t consume that amount of our Easy, Fast Kimchi recipe or Mak kimchi.
But I find all sorts of places to tuck it in, so it’s not an issue here and it’s only my husband, myself, and two of our boys who eat it. We love our kimchi.
Kimchi Recipe
Lob your cabbages in half lengthwise. Use a paring knife to remove the gnarly core from them before cutting in half lengthwise again, leaving you with quarters.
Cut across the quarters to make bite-sized squares of cabbage. I usually shoot for 2-inch squares.
Add the cabbage to a monstrously huge bowl (or bowls), top with the julienned carrots, and sprinkle salt over the whole works. Toss the veggies and massage the mixture until the cabbage just starts to wilt.
Pour in enough cold water to over all the cabbage and carrots by a bit. It doesn’t have to be swimming in water, just covered.
Stir it up with your hands and let it rest at room temp for a couple of hours.
After a couple of hours, when the sturdier pieces of cabbage have become flexible, pour the whole lot into a strainer and let the brine water drain away.
Now you’re going to whizz up the good stuff. Garlic, ginger, the white parts of scallions, Korean Red Pepper Powder*, fish sauce, unsweetened pear or apple juice, miso paste, and whatnot go into the food processor or blender.
Obliterate and smash it all into a lovely, red, fabulous smelling paste. It’s worth noting that you shouldn’t just up and increase the garlic because it can make kimchi linger more on your breath than you’d like it to do.
It also tastes out of balance if you add a lot more. Be aware.
And by the same token, you shouldn’t increase the ginger willy-nilly because that can make the final product a little more bitter than you’d like it to be. Start with the mixture and proportions I’m giving you and then play with it in subsequent batches.
*It’s important to note that you cannot use American or Mexican Chili Powder in place of the Korean pepper powder here. They’re COMPLETELY different animals. It may end up tasty, but I haven’t tested it so I cannot speak to it.
Now you’ll CRAM this stuff into jars or food-safe plastic containers. When I say cram it, I mean shove it in there as firmly as you can without putting your fist through the bottom of the jar.
I do prefer glass canning jars, if you’re wondering, because they don’t retain odors like plastic does, and, well, this stuff is odiferous! You can use a dedicated plastic kimchi bucket if you’d prefer, though.
Gently place a lid and ring on the jar, but don’t screw it tightly into place because BOOM. It’ll pop. This is active stuff, mes amies!
Place the jar on a rimmed pan or baking dish. The rim is pretty crucial here, because as the kimchi ferments at room temperature (and more slowly but still actively in the refrigerator) it will bubble up and may release a little juice over the edge of the jars.
In other words, you could have a kimchi river a-flowin’ on your counter top unless you take precautions. It’s easiest to use the pan and not worry about your Easy, Fast Kimchi recipe or Mak Kimchi bubbling over onto your counters.
It’s going to spend a couple of days at room temperature getting bubbly and fragrant. Every day, you’ll insert a clean chopstick or butter knife into the jar to help release air bubbles and top the jar off with extra brine if needed to keep everything submerged.
When it’s almost carbonated looking (usually between 24-72 hours after packing the jars), it’s ready to refrigerate. I highly recommend refrigerating it on the tray you used to contain the Grand Kimchi River while it fermented.
There aren’t a lot of things quite as unnecessary as removing everything from a fridge and mopping kimchi juices off of it. Take my word for it.
How long can I keep homemade kimchi?
It’s ready to eat at that point! Of course, it gets stronger and more kimchi-y the longer it sits. I love cooking with the older stuff and eating the newer stuff ‘raw’.
One of my all-time best-loved ways to eat older kimchi is in pancake form. Not like Aunt Jemima pancakes or flapjacks, but savoury, crispy-edged, kimchi-studded, pan-fried, snack cakes that convert even die-hard kimchi skeptics.
It’s the only way my eldest likes kimchi, but OH how he loves it this way. And the smell of kimchi pancakes while they cook is irresistible.
Bonus: This stuff lasts just about forever when you make sure the veggies are submerged in the brine. It’s hard to go wrong.
What can I make with my kimchi recipe? How do I use kimchi?
-Kimchi Fried Rice AND another version of Kimchi Fried Rice (the second one has a fried egg on top. SWOON!)
-Korean Army Stew- Budae Jjigae
-Kimchijeon (Savoury Kimchi Pancake)
Kimchi Ingredients
Kimchi
Cut the napa cabbage in half longways, then in half again longways. Cut the core out of the four quarters.
Cut the cabbage into squares (about 2-3 inches square), pop it in a bowl with the carrots. Sprinkle with the 1/2 cup kosher salt, massage so everything is coated in salt and starting to soften and wilt. Fill with cold, chlorine free water to cover it well and let it soak for at least 1 1/2 hours.
Pour the cabbage and carrots and liquid into a strainer. Let the brine drain away.
Lob off the white bits of the green onions and put them in a food processor with the garlic cloves, ginger, miso paste, and korean pepper powder. Zap it on high ’til it’s smooth-ish. Add in the fish sauce and a couple of slops of pear juice and zap it more until it’s about pancake batter consistency… maybe a bit thinner.
Put the brined cabbabe/carrots in a big, anti-reactive (glass, enamel, or stainless steel) bowl. Rough chop the green parts of the onions and add those to the cabbage/carrots. Pour the chili paste combo over the cabbage and wear gloves to massage it all over the cabbage/carrots green onions so everything is completely covered.
Pack super tight in canning jars. CRAM it in there.
Add a two-piece lid, but just set the ring in place to hold the lid down without screwing it in place. Place it on a rimmed baking dish to catch any spill-over.
Let it sit at room temperature for up to 72 hours, until it is bubbly and fragrant. Once every day, insert a clean chopstick or butter-knife to release air bubbles. If needed, pour in some additional brine to keep all the vegetables submerged.
Store on a rimmed sheet in the refrigerator for up to six months, being sure that the vegetables are submerged the whole time. The older it gets, the stronger it will become.
Notes
If you need extra brine to keep your vegetables submerged, please combine 1 quart of cool water with 4 teaspoons of kosher salt in a quart jar with a tight fitting lid and shake until the salt is dissolved. Use it to top off the vegetables as needed.
Easy, Fast Kimchi Recipe {Mak Kimchi}
Rate RecipeIngredients
- 3-8 pounds napa cabbage
- 2 bunches green onions trimmed of the root bits
- 2-3 large carrots peeled, thinly julienned
- 1/2 cup kosher salt
- 1/2 cup korean chili powder
- 15-20 cloves garlic overdoing garlic makes this stay on your breath more than usual., peeled
- 4-6 inches ginger peeled, rough chopped
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- unsweetened pear juice or unsweetened apple juice
- 4 tablespoons white miso paste
Instructions
- Cut the napa cabbage in half longways, then in half again longways. Cut the core out of the four quarters. Cut the cabbage into squares (about 2-3 inches square), pop it in a bowl with the carrots. Sprinkle with the 1/2 cup kosher salt, massage so everything is coated in salt and starting to soften and wilt. Fill with cold, chlorine free water to cover it well and let it soak for at least 1 1/2 hours.
- Pour the cabbage and carrots and liquid into a strainer. Let the brine drain away.
- Lob off the white bits of the green onions and put them in a food processor with the garlic cloves, ginger, miso paste, and korean pepper powder. Zap it on high ’til it’s smooth-ish. Add in the fish sauce and a couple of slops of pear juice and zap it more until it’s about pancake batter consistency… maybe a bit thinner.
- Put the brined cabbabe/carrots in a big, anti-reactive (glass, enamel, or stainless steel) bowl. Rough chop the green parts of the onions and add those to the cabbage/carrots. Pour the chili paste combo over the cabbage and wear gloves to massage it all over the cabbage/carrots green onions so everything is completely covered.
- Pack super tight in canning jars. CRAM it in there. Add a two-piece lid, but just set the ring in place to hold the lid down without screwing it in place. Place it on a rimmed baking dish to catch any spill-over. Let it sit at room temperature for up to 72 hours, until it is bubbly and fragrant. Once every day, insert a clean chopstick or butterknife to release air bubbles. If needed, pour in some additional brine to keep all the vegetables submerged.
- Store on a rimmed sheet in the refrigerator for up to six months, being sure that the vegetables are submerged the whole time. The older it gets, the stronger it will become.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
did you make this recipe?
Make sure to tag @foodiewithfam on Instagram and #hashtag it #foodiewithfamily so I can check it out!
This post was originally published on December 2, 2013 and was updated December 28, 2016, June 2018, and September 2021.
Reader's Thoughts...
Quinn says
Hi Rebecca, I’m a little late to the kimchi party but i still have a question!! when it comes time to put the kimchi in the fridge, do I close the lid or leave it open? I really don’t want shattered, kimchi-scented glass all over my fridge. Thanks a lot for this lovely recipe!
Rebecca says
Hi Quinn- I’d definitely keep it a little loosey-goosey. You definitely don’t want an exploded jar of kimchi in the fridge. It doesn’t have to be completely open, but you still don’t want it to be tightly covered.
Sona says
I always thought making kimchi was a long process, I find the above recipe very easy to follow and it’s quick with not too much fuss and always very tasty.
. Thank you
Rebecca says
You’re very welcome, Sona! I’m glad you love it!
Sammy Shuford says
Made this twice, and love it!
Can it be scaled up and processed in a fermentation crock
Rebecca says
Hi Sammy- Thanks so much for taking the time to rate the recipe and let me know you love it! I haven’t tried scaling up for a fermentation crock, but I imagine it would work! If you give it a go, please let me know how it works out for you!
Stefan says
HI! Good recipe and all but for duck sakes WHY can’t you just put the recipe on TOP?? Every single recipe online now is a book worths of reading until the you get to what you really want to know!
if you can’t write a recipe without your book put it after so we who just want to know what to get can see that first. You already know this of course as any person would. Its how the money is made with all the commercials one has to scroll through. it just sucks.
Thank you
Shame on you
Rebecca says
Hi Stefan- Actually, if you’re looking toward the top of each post, you’ll see a handy-dandy “Jump to Recipe” option. If you’re in a hurry and would prefer to skip the often helpful information included in the body of the post, you can click that. That option is available on every single recipe post here on Foodie with Family.
The ads are how I make my living, and you’re certainly welcome to scroll past those if you don’t want to avail yourself of the “Jump to Recipe” option. As a gentle reminder, I pay for the web hosting, ingredients to develop recipes, camera equipment, technical assistance, and much more to make these recipes available to you and everyone else completely free of charge. Those ads offset the appreciable costs involved in running a website.
I have written cookbooks, too, Stefan. And if you’d like the recipe with little to no lead-in, you’re welcome to purchase those.
If, on the other hand, you’re just cranky and taking it out on me, I’d invite you to remember that you being cross with me here is like you walking into my living room, eating the food I give you for free, then insulting my decor. You say scrolling past ads sucks; would you prefer to pay a subscription to see the recipes?
Lena Miller says
love your cooking lingo: “lob”, “cram”, “zap” 🙂
Rebecca says
Thank you, Lena. 🙂 Just keeping it real here.
Paul Hurst says
ah what type of fish sauce are you using ?
Rebecca says
I generally use Red Boat. It’s my favourite brand!
Francia B says
Cam I use regular cabbage to make this?
Rebecca says
Hi Francia- I have not tried using green cabbage to make this, but I’ve seen a few folks in the comments section have! I’d read through those and see what folks have to say.
Sonia says
Hi Rebecca, thank you for this lovely recipe. My hubby and son loves kimchi. We find it very costly to buy, of course understand the work that goes into it. Just a quick question though…when you mention “top the jar off with extra brine if needed to keep everything submerged”, what extra brine is this? How do we make it?😅
Rebecca says
Hi Sonia- Thanks so much! The brine is 4 teaspoons of kosher salt dissolved in 4 cups of water. You can mix it up and keep it in the fridge for when needed!
Kimteron says
Excellent kimchi recipe! I love the deep flavour. Didn’t have pear or apple juice so I just added a Tb of coconut sugar.
Rebecca says
That sounds like it’s going to be lovely, Kimteron! Thanks for letting me know you love it!
Tracy says
This looks great! May I substitute pear juice with orange juice? I’ve put everything together and wonder if I can omit that or use orange juice in my fridge right now…?
Rebecca says
Hi Tracy- I’d leave the juice out altogether. I’m not sure how orange juice would work in here flavour-wise. 🙂 Add a splash of non-chlorinated water if you need to get the paste to the right consistency.
Iseult says
Hi Rebecca. Thanks for this recipe.
I have a question about proportions: 3 – 8 lb of napa cabbage is a huge variation in quantity! What quantity of cabbage are the other ingredients proportioned to? I don’t want to end up with too-salty/too-spicy kimchi (or the reverse).
Looking forward to making this.
Rebecca says
Hi Iseult- It is a huge variation in quantity. 🙂 I’ve addressed this a couple of times in the comments, but basically, you don’t need to worry over the salty issue since you’re draining the brine off of the cabbage before you add the chili paste into the mix. 🙂 The paste in the recipe is enough to take care of anywhere between 3 to 8 pounds of cabbage. Also, the cabbage and carrot can only “absorb” so much heat. The only real difference in outcome in this range will be how much kimchi you end up with. 🙂
James says
I had to split this between 2 large bowls to start. Do I divide the amount of salt to 1/4 cup per bowl to keep it at a total of 1/2 cup per the recipe? Or do I still use 1/2 cup per bowl?
Rebecca says
Hi James! If the bowls are the same size, divide the salt evenly… If not, you can still do 1/2 cup per bowl and then rinse it. 🙂
Alla K says
I am using this recipe for years, this was my first one and it always works- excellent! Thanks a lot for sharing.
Rebecca says
Thanks so much, Alla! I appreciate you taking the time to rate the recipe and let me know you love it!
Homecookingmama says
Hi! Do I need to fill jars to the top or can I leave room? The paste tastes so good. I’m excited!
Rebecca says
I’d leave a wee bit of room. 🙂 It’s going to bubble, bubble, toil, and trouble. HAHA
Homecookingmama says
Thanks! I am so excited to try it! It’s day 2. Any advice on how to keep the smell from overtaking the home… and fridge???
Rebecca says
Hi Homecookingmama! I’m afraid there may be a bit of the smell overtaking the home while it’s active. 🙂 If you’re super concerned about everything taking on the eau de kimchi and you eat a lot of it, you may want to keep it in a separate dorm fridge type set up. 🙂
Homecookingmama says
Thanks so much for this recipe and responding to my questions. It’s so delicious! I found a way to lessen the scent while it ferments by putting some ground coffee in a container next to the jars. Helped a lot pre and while in the fridge.
The kimchi was a hit with my family this weekend. Thanks for sharing this recipe! It’s the first time I tried it and definitely will not be my last!
I did not have kosher salt so I used sea salt and used half the amount. I also about doubled the fish sauce after tasting the paste because I like it more salty! So YUM!
Rebecca says
Thanks so much for taking the time to rate the recipe and let me know you love it, Homecookingmama! xoxo
Janice says
I made this over the weekend, it was so easy but does take time. DEFINITELY put the jars in a baking pan right away, they were slopping over the top within hours. What I loved the most about this recipe was all the little tips as you go along the process, very helpful. The tip to use a chopstick to release the air was bonus. A chopstick is long and can make it to the bottom of the quart jars I used, the knife would have been messy. I am going to try some of your recipes that use Kimchi next, cannot wait. SO EXCITED that I found your website! Kimchi is expensive where we live and it is so much more economical and healthy to make your own. Never buying in canned in the store again. Thank you!
Rebecca says
Oh, Janice! You’ve made my day. Thank you so much for taking the time to rate the recipe and let me know you love it!
Hitch says
Hi there, what can I use in place of the white miso paste? Thanks!
Rebecca says
Hi Hitch- You can omit this if you’d like. 🙂 Or use red miso. Either is fine.
Gretchen says
I live in Ecuador and I am dying to make kimchi,I don’t have the miso or the korean chili powder, are there any alternatives that I could try?
Rebecca says
Hi Gretchen! The miso can be skipped easily, but the chili powder is tricky to replace. It’s a very mild chile pepper and not roasted like the guajillos, pasillas, chipotles, etc… Indian kashmiri peppers might be your closest bet (according to my research), but I really think maybe mail ordering the gochugaru might be your best bet!
Vivie says
I’m a newcomer to your site and I’ve already made this recipe, as is, twice. It’s really very good, flavours are well balanced, and am appreciating the probiotics. Thank you so much!
Rebecca says
Hi Vivie- Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know you love it! Welcome!
Barbara Patitucci says
OMG!!!! I can’t get enough of this. Even though the recipe made 3 quarts it doesn’t last long enough. This time I am adding a daikon radish.
Rebecca says
Hi Barbara- Thanks so much for taking the time to rate the recipe and let me know you love it!
Tracey says
I would love to make this because I used to date a Korean man and his mother used to make this. I just love the taste and want to learn to make it.