Quick Vegetarian Kimchi

Kimchi is a Korean fermented side dish. It is made out of different vegetables and various seasonings. It is traditionally kept in jars to ferment underground for months, but this recipe allows you to eat the kimchi after just 2 days. When we went to Korea last year we tried a lot of different kinds of kimchi.

Sofi eating a traditional Korean meal that always includes a few different types of kimchi side dishes.

One of the temples we visited had a collection of fermentation jars.

So now we wanted to try to make our own kimchi. It is really easy to prepare and make, then all you need is to wait for as long as you can before you eat the kimchi to make fermentation process as long as possible.

Our recipe is inspired by Jennie Walldén, winner of Sweden’s Masterchef 2013.

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Ingredients
Cooking time: 1 hr 40 mins

• 1 large Chinese cabbage
• 1 carrot
• 10 cm radish
• half a cucumber
• half an onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 5 spring onions
• 2 tbs salt
• 150 ml water
• 1 dl gochujaru (Korean chili powder)
• 1 tbs sugar
• 2 tbs rice flour
• 50 ml teriyaki sauce
  

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1. Chop the cabbage into 4 cm pieces.
2. Put the cabbage in a large bowl and add the salt. Mix thoroughly.
   
3. Put a heavy weight on top of the cabbage to draw out more water. Let it rest for 1 hr 30 min.
4. Chop the radish, cucumber and carrot into matchstick-size pieces.
5. Chop the spring onions finely.
6. Grate the onion and garlic.
7. Mix the water, sugar and rice flour together in a saucepan.
8. Boil the mix until it is thick and smooth.
   
9. Let it cool for a few minutes.
10. Mix in the garlic, onion, teriyaki sauce and gochujaru and stir thoroughly.
11. Put the mix in a large bowl and add the carrot, cucumber, spring onions and radish.
    
12. Rinse the cabbage thoroughly in cold water to wash off excess salt.
13. Add the cabbage to the mix.
14. Stir everything together with your hands to keep the vegetables from breaking. Use plastic bags on your hands since the paste is very strong.
    
15. Put the kimchi in mason jars, Don’t fill them up completely.
16. Cover the top with cling film and close the jars,
17. Leave them at room temperature for at least 48 hours, They can last up to 2 months.
    
18. Enjoy!