Kimchi Recipes

Prep 40min Cook 10min 4 servings

Korean Mustard Leaf Kimchi

Mustard greens (gat) carry a nose-tingling mustard bite that is harshest right after mixing and settles over 2 to 3 days of ripening into something rounder and tangier. This style comes from the southern Jeolla region and has a much sharper kick than napa cabbage kimchi.

At least 45 min 4 servings

Swiss Chard Kimchi

Swiss chard has two textures in one leaf: thick, crunchy stems and soft greens that wilt fast. The stems go into the brine first and the leaves join later; salted together, the leaves turn mushy before the stems are seasoned. Firm, thick-stemmed bunches keep their crunch longest after salting. The paste is built on cooled glutinous rice porridge with plum syrup for a soft sweetness, and half a day on the counter before chilling helps it ripen.

Prep 15min Cook 10min 4 servings

Korean Pickled Green Peppers

Pouring boiling soy brine straight over whole green peppers lightly blanches the skins to a brighter green while the flesh inside stays raw and crisp. Toothpick holes in each pepper let the brine past the thick walls to the seeds. The finished pickle tastes salty, gently sour and still hot, since the capsaicin mellows in the brine but never disappears, and two or three peppers are enough to carry a bowl of plain rice. Cheongyang chilies make a sharper version, and kkwari peppers give a milder, more tender one.

Korean Green Chili Kimchi

Thick-skinned green chilies hold their crunch through salting and a short ferment, and the heat concentrated around the seeds bursts out when you bite down. Only about half the seeds are shaken out, and the pods are best eaten within 2 to 3 days while still crisp.

Prep 25min 0 4 servings

Prep 15min Cook 8min 4 servings

Korean Soy-Pickled Green Chili Peppers

Brine poured over whole green chilies just 5 minutes off the boil sears their skins, knocking the heat down a notch while the flesh inside stays crisp. Each bite brings salty soy savor first, then the pepper's clean sting.

Prep 15min Cook 5min 4 servings

Shredded Chili Pickle

Equal parts hot Cheongyang chili and mild, crunchy cucumber pepper, sliced into thin strips, balance heat against crunch in every bite. The brine is simply soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and water in the same amounts, boiled and briefly cooled, so the result is sweet, sour and salty at once. Because the strips are only 2 to 3 mm thick, they take on the brine far faster than whole pickled peppers and are ready the next day to serve with grilled meat.

At least 3 days 5 min 4 servings

Korean Pepper Leaf Soy Pickle

Pepper leaves, the tender greens picked from chili plants, have almost none of the fruit's heat; what they offer instead is a fresh, grassy flavor with a faint bitterness. Packed in a soy, vinegar and sugar brine with garlic and a Cheongyang chili, they become a summer side dish that needs 3 days of refrigeration before it is ready. Lay a single leaf over a spoonful of rice and fold it like a small wrap.

At least 1 day 5 min 4 servings

Korean Pepper Leaf Kimchi

A quick thirty-second blanch strips the raw bitterness from pepper leaves and wilts them enough for the chili seasoning, thickened with glutinous rice paste, to coat them evenly. Even under that spicy dressing they keep a green, almost herbal note that sets this kimchi apart from napa cabbage or young radish kimchi.

Prep 60min Cook 10min 4 servings

Korean Lettuce Root Kimchi

A good soak in salted water draws much of the harsh bitterness out of godeulppaegi greens. What stays in the finished kimchi is a gentle bitter undertone beneath the fermented tang. The roots stay chewy while the leaves turn soft, giving two textures in one stem. In parts of Jeolla and Gyeongsang provinces it is traditionally made in autumn and eaten through the winter. After at least 2 days of ripening it goes to the table as a side for rice.

Prep 35min Cook 10min 4 servings

Korean Sweet Potato Stem Kimchi

Sweet potato stems need their tough outer skin peeled away, a fiddly job, but it is what lets a 2-minute blanch leave them bright and pleasantly crisp. Plunging them into cold water straight from the pot, until no warmth remains, is what holds that color and snap. Mixing the glutinous rice paste into the other seasonings first helps it coat the stems thinly between the fibers. Thin onion and scallion round out the dressing with sweetness and fragrance. The stems snap easily, so the seasoning is worked in with fingertips rather than pressed, and even packing the container takes only a light touch.

Prep 18min Cook 7min 4 servings

Korean Gomchwi Leaf Jangajji

Broad, thick gomchwi leaves soak up the soy brine evenly and are seasoned through after just 2 days of chilling. The leaf's bold, wild mountain-herb scent blends with the soy, and vinegar trims the finish so the pickle never feels heavy. Only the thick stems are blanched, for 20 seconds, which softens them while the leaves stay fresh. Excess water is pressed out leaf by leaf, since wringing tears the leaves and drains their scent. Wrap a leaf around a spoonful of rice to eat it like ssam, a Korean lettuce wrap.

At least 2 days 7 min 4 servings

Korean Thistle Greens Pickles

Gondre, a thistle-family mountain green gathered in spring in Gangwon Province, has a quiet aroma that grows clearer once it is pickled. The tough stems get only 20 seconds of blanching, and the greens are squeezed hard afterward so the brine stays clear. Grain syrup (jocheong) softens the sharp edge of the soy sauce, while brown rice vinegar and kelp stock add tang and savory depth. Half a Cheongyang chili leaves only a light heat at the end. After 2 days in the fridge, spoon it over rice with gochujang and sesame oil, or use it as a bibimbap topping.

Prep 20min Cook 12min 4 servings

Korean Bracken Fern Pickles

Bracken fern, usually served as a seasoned namul, goes into a sweet-sour soy brine in this recipe, and its boiled stems stay springy and chewy with a nutty flavor that builds as you chew. Vinegar clears away the fern's earthy smell for a clean finish, while dried chili and garlic add a gentle warmth. Once cooled, the jar rests refrigerated for about 2 days before eating.

🏠 Everyday

Korean Salted Oyster Jeotgal

Salt pulls water out of raw oysters and tightens the flesh. After two to three days of cold curing they turn firm, and the red seasoning liquid soaks right through. The result tastes denser and saltier than a fresh oyster, closer to a seasoning than a side dish. Chili flakes give it the red color and a spicy aroma, and the acidity of plum syrup holds back the fishy smell that rises during curing. A small spoonful goes a long way over warm rice, and a little folded into napa cabbage kimchi filling adds an oyster savoriness that fish sauce alone lacks. The washed oysters are blotted dry before mixing, because leftover water thins the paste and softens the flesh.

Prep 25min 0 4 servings

At least 1 day 1 min 4 servings

Korean Pickled Celtuce Stems

Dried celtuce stems, soaked until they bend but keep a firm bite, give this soy pickle its springy chew. The 300 g in the ingredient list is the soaked and drained weight. Soaking that much dry gungchae would swell far beyond what the brine can cover. Plain dried stems are the right buy, because fresh wosun stalks and pre-seasoned jars behave differently. Garlic and dried chilies steep in the hot soy, vinegar, and sugar brine, adding a mild warmth behind the sweet-salty taste. Rather than waiting for the hot jar to cool on the counter, split it into shallow containers and chill it right away, and the flavor starts to come through after a day.

Prep 22min Cook 5min 2 servings

Korean Zucchini Kimchi (Summer Fresh Gochugaru Quick)

Korean zucchini holds so much water that it keeps weeping after it is seasoned, and a pool of liquid gathers at the bottom of the container within a day. This kimchi is therefore made to be eaten fresh, within two days, rather than left to ferment. Salting stops at 15 minutes for the same reason: any longer and the slices give up too much moisture and turn soft instead of crisp. Plum syrup stands in for sugar, and garlic chives add a green, grassy note against the chili.

Iburigakko (Smoked Daikon Pickle)

The daikon hangs in hardwood smoke for days until the skin turns an even amber and the radish is dry enough to bend, and only then does it go into the rice bran bed. That smoking needs a dedicated outdoor smokehouse with fire control, never a home oven or an enclosed room, because of fire and carbon monoxide risk. Bran, steamed broken rice, salt, coarse sugar and a little turmeric must fill every gap between the radishes and cover the top, since the pickle then sits through winter for 50 to 60 days. Any mold, off smell or unusual stickiness rules it out for eating.

Prep 60min 0 48 servings

Prep 20min Cook 5min 4 servings

Ika Ninjin (Dried Squid and Carrot Pickle)

Fukushima's winter side dish steeps dried squid and carrot, cut into matching fine strips, in sake, soy sauce, and coarse sugar for 12 hours, until the squid softens and the carrot soaks up the soy while keeping its crunch. The boiled marinade has to cool to room temperature first; poured hot, it cooks the carrot limp.

Korean Red Cabbage Kimchi

Red cabbage leaves are thicker and denser than napa and stay crunchy after salting, though salting them longer only makes them tough. During about 12 hours in the fridge the cabbage bleeds its purple into the chili paste, and the kimchi comes out a deep violet rather than the usual red.

Prep 30min 0 2 servings

Prep 50min Cook 40min 4 servings

Authentic Jeolla-style Kimchi

Two fermented fish products go into this southern Korean kimchi, anchovy fish sauce and salted yellow croaker, layered for a saltier, deeper flavor than most napa kimchi. Finely chopped sea staghorn, a branching seaweed, adds a cool, briny savoriness that grows as the kimchi ripens. The chili flakes soak in glutinous rice paste first, which brightens the color and helps the paste cling to each leaf. The seasoning goes in generously, as is typical of Jeolla kimchi, and the heads are pressed down hard in the container because air contact gives fermenting kimchi a stale smell.

Prep 30min Cook 20min 4 servings

Jeolla-style Green Onion Kimchi

Instead of salt, this Jeolla version seasons the scallions with thick fermented anchovy sauce, myeolchi jinjeot, which gives them a funky, deep saltiness. The sauce goes only on the white stalks at first, since they are thick and need a head start, and whatever drains off is stirred back into the chili paste rather than thrown away. Pear juice sweetens the paste in place of sugar for a cleaner finish. The green tops get only a light swipe of seasoning, because squeezing them makes the kimchi taste grassy.

Korean Scallion Kimchi (Whole Stalk Anchovy Shrimp Paste)

Salted shrimp and anchovy fish sauce layer two kinds of seafood savoriness, and glutinous rice paste thickens the seasoning so it clings to the scallions even after they release water. Six hours at room temperature plus a day of chilling make it ready for grilled pork belly or bossam, and after three days or more its lactic sourness suits stews and stir-fries.

Prep 25min 0 4 servings