There is no fish sauce or shrimp paste in this Vegan Easy Kimchi. Simply mix a few kinds of vegetables with the sauce, and let nature do the work for you!
As the majority of kimchi is vegetables, I never bothered to look at the ingredients in the past. Not until when I thought about making my own a long time ago, then I learned that there were animal products among the hidden ingredients in all non vegan kimchi.
I was so disappointed.
To these days, I still can’t believe that I didn’t read or ask about the ingredients before eating it. Ever since then, I only make and eat my own vegan easy kimchi.
From what I often see, there are two methods to make kimchi.
One is the traditional kimchi that has whole napa cabbage leaves attached together. The other one is easy kimchi with napa cabbage chopped into bite size pieces. I have learned to make and like them both.
The traditional kimchi is fun to make and it looks very attractive in the jars. You can see the whole napa cabbage leaves stuffed with the kimchi sauce.
However, after making the traditional kimchi a few times, I realized that this method was not easy to eat. I had to cut the leaves into bite size pieces before I could eat it, and I always ended up with a big mess!
As for the easy vegan kimchi, it is like its name– it’s easy to make and eat. The napa cabbage is chopped into bite size pieces from the start, but it still looks pretty in the jars. So when it comes to making kimchi, the easy vegan kimchi option is what I choose.
How I make it taste so good without using fish sauce and shrimp paste you may wonder. My answer is, it’s not that difficult at all–I replace the fish sauce with soy sauce.
enjoy a small amount as often as you want
To make it tastier and more interesting, I cook kombu and use both water and the kombu pieces for the sauce. Kombu adds a great texture to the easy vegan kimchi,
I used to make easy vegan kimchi in one gallon glass jars. It looked so nice in there and it’s easy to pack. However, it’s not easy to keep big jars in the fridge.
To be able to keep the kimchi in the fridge, I had to repack it to smaller jars again. As I didn’t want an extra step, I changed the method to make it in quart size glass jars instead.
Besides being easy to keep in the fridge, with quart sized glass jars, it’s easier to eat and finish it one jar at a time.
Kimchi is a live food, and it’s super tasty just by itself. It’s also good to eat along with other dishes. It’s another great way to add tasty probiotics into your diet.
Ready to make your own vegan easy kimchi? Let me show you how!
Ingredients:
Note: these are for guidance, feel free to adjust the amount of them accordingly to your preference.
Vegetables. 
- One big head or 2 small head of napa cabbage
- 1 or 2 carrots
- 1 bunch of each green onions
- A small diakon or a bunch of radishes
- A half of red onion
- 2 TBSP (30 ml) of salt
Sauce:
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- About 1 ½ inches (3.8 cm) of ginger
- A half pear
- 2 TBSP (30 ml) soy sauce
- 1 TBSP (15 ml) or more toasted sesame oil
- 2 tsp (10 ml) sugar
- 2 TBSP (30 ml) toasted-ground brown rice
- About 2 tsp (10 ml) toasted sesame seeds
- A handful or 8-10 pieces of kombu (seaweed) depends on the sizes
- 2 cups (475 ml) filtered water for cooking kombu
- 1 TBSP (15 ml) or more of Korean chili flakes. If you like spicy vegan easy kimchi, you might want to use 3 TBSP (45 ml) of it.
Equipment:
- 2 big bowls, one is for salting the vegetables and the other one is for mixing the kimchi
- A bowl for making the sauce
- Quart size glass jars with lids. This depends on how much you make.
Instructions:
Preparing the vegetables:
- Wash and rinse all the vegetables well.
- Cut napa cabbage and green onions into bite sized pieces.
- Thinly slice carrots, radishes, and red onion.
- Sprinkle salt on, massage them thoroughly and set aside.
- Toast brown rice until golden brown. Let them cool, then grind and set aside
- Toast sesame seeds until golden brown, and set aside.
- Cook the kombu, bring it to the boil and set it aside (don’t dump the water yet!).
chop and cut vegetables into bite size pieces
sprinkle salt in
squeeze the water out as much as you can
vegetables after salting
Preparing the sauce:
- Wash the ginger and pear and set them aside.
- Finely chop the garlic, ginger, pear, and put them in a medium size bowl.
- Cut the kombu into small strips and add it into the bowl, followed by the water from cooking it.
- Add soy sauce, toasted sesame seeds, sugar, and ground-toasted brown rice followed by korean chili flakes. Mix well and set aside.
mix all the ingredients together and set aside
Making the kimchi:
- After a few hours of salting the vegetables. With your clean hands, squeeze the vegetables to get rid of water as much as you can, then put it in the bowl.
- Add the sauce to the bowl and mix thoroughly.
- In sterilized glass jars, pack the kimchi up to the jar’s shoulder . Try to push it down to get rid of the air bubbles.
- Use a clean cloth to wipe off the jar rims, and lightly close the lids.
- Let it ferment at room temperature for 3 days.
- After 3 days, you can see a lot of active bubbles from the fermentation. Pack the kimchi down and tightly close the lids.
- Keep the jars in the fridge for a slow fermentation for another week before eating it. It will develop more tangy flavor during this time. (you can eat it after 3 days in the fridge if you want.)
- After 7 days in the fridge, it’s ready to eat. You’ll notice that you have less juice, but don’t worry–it’s normal to have less juice when it’s cold.
- Eat a small portion as often as you want. Try to push the kimchi down under the juice after each time. (keeping it packed under the juice makes it last longer)
- Keep it in the fridge and it should last up to 3 months. Enjoy.
add the sauce to the vegetables and mix thoroughly
sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds in
leaving about an inch from under the shoulder
leave the jars at room temperature to ferment for 3 days
enjoy!
Have you made vegan easy kimchi? Please share it with me, I’d like to hear about it!
