Have you ever tried making kimchi at home? This vegan kimchi is a great place to start. It’s mildly spicy with a hint of sweetness and all the pungent flavours of kimchi! Purchase our Kimchi Making Kit, where Korean red pepper flakes (gochugaru), Sweet rice flour, Dehydrated seaweed powder, Large fermenting bag are readily available for you, so you don't have to get them in-store! No more confusion on what to buy!
The process of making kimchi is not as intimidating as it may seem, though it does require time and patience—at least a week. By the end of week, however, you’ll be rewarded with a batch of tasty, pungent kimchi!
There are essentially 4 phases to making kimchi: brining, seasoning, fermentation, and storing. For many kimchi recipes, you’ll need to brine a head of napa cabbage in salt water overnight. Brining is important for breaking down the cabbage, allowing it to absorb the seasonings that you’ll add in the next phase. It also helps develop deeper flavor for the kimchi.
The next phase is seasoning the vegetables. The seasoning for baechu kimchi is usually made with a starter rice flour paste that is blended with Korean chili pepper flakes (gochugaru) and other spices.
After mixing the vegetables with the seasoning, we move on to the fermentation phase. Because the vegetables contain naturally occurring yeast, you don’t need to add bacterial cultures to ferment the vegetables. Store the vegetables away from sunlight at room temperature in tightly sealed jars. However, you may use our specialised fermenting bag found in Kimchi Making Kit as well.
Ideally, the room temperature for storing should be somewhere around the 60s and low 70s fahrenheit during the initial fermentation. If the temperature is any warmer, just pop the jar into your fridge. The colder temperatures mean a longer initial fermentation period (around a week instead of 3 to 4 days at room temperature).
As the vegetables ferment, do not be tempted to open the jar.
When you open the jar, you expose the vegetables to oxygen, which disrupts the fermentation process and can cause mold. You may also notice juice building up inside the jar and bubbling within the liquid. That’s perfectly normal. It’s an indication that lactic acid is active, and the vegetables are fermenting properly.
Once you have fermented the kimchi at room temperature for a few days, you’ll transfer it to the refrigerator for final fermentation and storage. I usually let the kimchi sit in the refrigerator for another 3 or 4 days before tasting it.
Again, I know this seems like a long process, but the actual steps aren’t too complicated.
Click here to the link for Kimchi Making Kit, and we look forward on your kimchi!
Watch video for the step-by-step kimchi making process. Serve the kimchi with jasmine rice or scallion pancakes!
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