Kimichi

Ingredients

For the cabbage:

• 5 pounds (2268 g) napa cabbage, cut into 1-inch, bite-sized pieces

• ½ cup (146 g) sea salt

• 1 cup (236 ml) water

Seasonings for kimchi:

• ½ medium sweet onion

• 1 bulb garlic, peeled

• ¼ cup (59 ml) water

• 1 bundle green onions, julienned

• ½ cup (118 g) red pepper powder

Directions

• Wilt the cabbage by placing chopped cabbage in a VERY large bowl. Mix together sea salt and water until sea salt has dissolved. Pour over cabbage and mix together with your hands. Let sit for 1 to 2 hours.

• In the meantime, blend together onion and garlic with 1/4 cup water to create a puree. Pour into a medium bowl then mix together with red pepper powder and green onions. If you are making a separate radish kimchi, save a bit of this mixture for the radish kimchi.

  1/2 medium sweet onion,1 bulb garlic,1/4 cup (59 ml) water,1 bundle green onions

• Once the cabbage has significantly wilted, rinse cabbage to get most of the salt water off. Place back into the very large bowl then toss the cabbage with the red pepper seasoning mixture until well-coated.

  1/2 cup (118 g) red pepper powder

• Place seasoned kimchi into a large mason jar and using your fist, punch down the cabbage to compress it all in the jar. Keep stuffing the jar until it’s completely full and use another jar, if needed.

• Tightly close the lid on the mason jar(s) and leave out at room temperature overnight. Taste the kimchi the next day and if you prefer to have it more sour, leave out for another day or more. If you think it tastes fine after it has sat out overnight the first night, place in the fridge.

• Kimchi can last for a very long time in the fridge because it’s a fermented dish. I would say probably no more than one year though, but that’s just me haha ;)

I’ve been making this homemade kimchi recipe since 2020, and it’s become one of those recipes I come back to again and again. It’s simple, flavorful, spicy, and surprisingly approachable if you’ve never tried making kimchi at home before.

As a Korean adoptee, learning to make Korean food has also been one of the ways I’ve connected with Korean culture through the years. Kimchi felt like a natural place to start—and after making this recipe for the first time in 2020, I kept coming back to it.

This homemade kimchi is made with Napa cabbage, gochugaru (Korean red pepper powder), garlic, onion, and green onions, then left to ferment until it develops that tangy, spicy flavor kimchi is known for. I’ve also included the YouTube video I originally followed so you can watch the process as you make it yourself.