At PantryBee we like to think that we know a thing or two about food, sourcing it, cooking it, and more importantly eating it. Mark has given us this platform to share some of our favorite food things, be it restaurant recommendations, general know how, our favorite recipes, books and more. For our first post we thought to start with a cuisine we love. If you’ve seen any of our past Korean dishes on site you’d know that we are hardcore Kimchi lovers at the PantryBee kitchen. Kimchi is a traditional Korean staple made with seasoned fermented vegetables and salt that Koreans have with pretty much every meal. The word “kimchi” evolved from the Korean word ‘shimchae’ which means ‘salting of vegetables’.
Kimchi is one of our favorite superfoods out there. Because of fermentation it’s rich in gut healthy bacteria, vitamin A, vitamin C, as well as being low calorie, high fiber, and jam-packed with antioxidants. Though it takes a long time, making kimchi is pretty straightforward and simple and we really recommend everyone give it a go once.
Kimchi can be prepared in a multitude of ways, with different spice levels and using a variety of vegetables. The most classic version is made with cabbage and is super easy to recreate at home. The recipe below is a classic and highly recommended for your first go. If you don’t feel like making your own head over to Singarea to get your fix as they usually have a couple of varieties to choose from.
Easy Kimchi – Yields 3 cups
1 large head Chinese/Napa cabbage approx 500grams (available at lulu, sultan, and Saveco)
1/2 cup salt
1/3 cup rice vinegar
3 Tbsp gochujang (this is a korean red chili pepper paste available at Singarea)
2 cloves garlic minced
2 Tbsp red chili flakes
Cold water
1 inch piece of ginger finely minced
3 spring onions cut into 2 inch pieces
1 daikon radish cut into matchsticks
Directions
1- Cut cabbage lengthwise into quarters removing the core then chop into bite sized pieces.
2- In a bowl add cold water and soak cabbage throughly before draining and transferring to another bowl. sprinkle well with salt turning every 30 mins for 1.5 hrs to make sure cabbage is salted evenly.
3- After 1.5 hrs Rinse well with water making sure to get between the leaves we recommend rinsing at least 3 times .then drain and set aside
4- Mix together the vinegar, gochujang, garlic, ginger in a bowl.
5- Add the cabbage in handfuls to the bowl, squeezing them of any excess water before adding them to the mixture. Add the spring onion and daikon and mix well.
6- Pack into a jar with a tight cover and let sit at room temperature for 2 days then chill in fridge for 4 days before serving.
Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.
11 replies on “Pantry Tips: Kimchi Love”
btw Kimche is considered in the top10 healthy foods. super healthy. its the smell might put off some people but its so healthy you eventually fall in love with.
We love the smell! It may look a bit iffy to some initially but i’m a big believer in the once you pop you cant stop kimchi bandwagon.
So happy that there will be more food posts on here, welcome Hind! 🙂
Tbh I was always a little intimidated by the thought of making kimchi, but if you’ve made pickles this seems pretty doable.
Thank you! Excited to be contributing! Kimchi is a lot less intimidating to make if you just break it down and the possibilities for veggies is endless so you can use whatever floats your boat, I would recommend checking out maangchi for some inspo.
Yessss! Finally a recipe that looks doable. Thank you so much, Hind.. Looking forward to more of your posts!
Definitely a novice recipe, let us know how it goes if you end up trying it out!
It’s perfect explanation about Kimch!
Even I didn’t know the origin of word.
What a shame! as a Korean living in Kuwait and eating Kimchi everyday.
Thank you for posting.
So glad you got to learn something new!
Though the receipt doesn’t seem very traditional, I believe this simplified receipe can easily be used by anyone who is interested in trying making kimchi at home. I came across with many food academies and workshops in Kuwait thesdays, I do hope to see more of Korean cooking classes as, being a Korean blogger living in Kuwait I get asked where to find the best Korean restaurants in Kuwait a lot. Good job Hind, awesome post.
Thank you! I love making kimchi at home so i’ve done a bunch of different recipes over the years, this is kind of a mishmash of the simplest techniques that I thought would be good for a first timer.
I am sure that you’ve done lots of experiments to come up with such simple and yummy recipe. Welll done again.