Kimchi

Kimchi Recipes

163 recipes. Page 7 of 7

Kimchi and Korean pickle recipes

Tofu Umezu-zuke (Plum Vinegar Pickled Tofu)

Golden grilled slices of momen tofu soak for about a week in umezu, the salty, sour liquid that rises when plums are cured. The result pairs bright acidity and strong salt with a dense, almost creamy interior. This Kochi side dish is eaten in thin slices with drinks. For home use, the recipe calls for bottled food-grade umezu and tofu heated through before it goes into the refrigerator to cure.

🍺 Bar Snacks

Prep 20min Cook 15min 4 servings

Kimchi Easy

Korean Cherry Tomato Jangajji

A few fresh basil leaves in the jar give this soy pickle an herbal note that ordinary jangajji does not have. The brine is cooled completely before it is poured over, because peeled cherry tomatoes turn soft under hot liquid. The skins slip off from a shallow cross cut, since a deep cut makes the flesh split open in the boiling water. Once the jar has chilled for a day, the vinegar settles and the tomatoes' own sweetness comes forward, and the texture holds for about a week when refrigerated. Serve them with rice or rich grilled meat, or on cheese and crackers with drinks.

🍺 Bar Snacks

Prep 25min Cook 8min 4 servings

Kimchi Medium

Korean Pickled Taro Stems

With taro stems, the work is in the prep rather than the pickling. Fresh stems are peeled wearing gloves, boiled, then soaked well in cold water before they go into a soy and vinegar brine with garlic and ginger. It is a fridge side dish meant to be eaten within three or four days of making it.

At least 2 days 31 min 4 servings

Kimchi Easy

Sansho Leaf Tsukudani with Dried Whitebait

A small spoonful is enough to flavor a bowl of rice: young sansho leaves bring a bright, citrusy aroma and a faint tingle on the tongue, and dried whitebait adds salty savoriness. The preserve comes from the mountain villages of Kyoto, where sansho trees grew wild and the spring shoots, called kinome, were cooked down with sake and light soy sauce until almost no liquid remained. Spoon a little over rice, onigiri, ochazuke, udon, or chilled tofu.

Prep 15min Cook 15min 4 servings

Kimchi Easy

Korean Soy Pickled Burdock

Burdock browns the moment its cut face meets air. The bowl of vinegar water sits right beside the cutting board, and each stick goes in as soon as it is cut. A brief blanch takes off the raw, earthy edge and leaves the surface just slightly translucent. The soy brine is steeped with kelp, dried chili and peppercorns only briefly so it stays clean rather than bitter, then poured on hot before the jar goes straight into the fridge. Two days later the sticks are seasoned through, and the jar stays in the fridge from then on as a refrigerator pickle, not a shelf-stable preserve.

At least 2 days 13 min 4 servings

Kimchi Hard

Umeboshi (Salt-Cured Sun-Dried Ume)

Fully ripe yellow ume are packed with coarse salt at 20 percent of their weight, aged for about a month in the plum vinegar that rises, then dried in direct sun, which leaves them intensely sour and salty with chewy flesh. Throughout aging every plum has to stay wet with brine. Drying happens only on rain-free days, and the fruit comes back into the refrigerator each night.

Prep 90min 0 20 servings

Kimchi Hard

Uri no Teppo-Zuke (Chili-Stuffed Soy-Pickled Melon)

A hollowed white melon is packed with green chilies wrapped in shiso leaves, and each slice shows pale melon around a green center. The look of a gun barrel loaded with ammunition gives teppo-zuke, gun pickle, its name. It began as a winter preserve around Narita and Katori in Chiba, became a crisp, spicy side for rice and sake, and is a well-known souvenir near Naritasan Shinshoji Temple. The salted melon first spends two days in water, changed as it goes, to draw out the salt. Reboiling only the marinade and returning it cold each day for several days is how the seasoning reaches the center of the dense melon.

🍺 Bar Snacks

Prep 60min Cook 50min 4 servings

Kimchi Easy

Zuiki Sweet Vinegar Pickle

Blanched taro stalks (zuiki) turn bright and keep a light crunch at the center when they are slipped straight into sweet vinegar. In Niigata this is a summer side dish, made from the leaf stalks of yatsugashira taro harvested from June to September. Both the outer skin and the stringy fibers come off first, and the stalks are weighted under water while soaking so none float. The temperatures run the opposite way from a hot-brine pickle: the brine is cooled ahead of time, while the zuiki is added hot from the pot, which sets the color and texture. Overcooking breaks the fibers down, so they come out as soon as they bend without snapping, and a little grated ginger is spooned on top when served cold.

Prep 45min Cook 8min 4 servings

Kimchi Medium

Wasabi-Zuke (Wasabi Pickled in Sake Lees)

Finely chopped wasabi stems and root are folded into sake lees sweetened with sugar, and after a few days the sharp nasal heat of wasabi cuts through the fermented aroma of the lees. After Shizuoka Station opened in 1889, the pickle began selling inside the station and became a standard regional souvenir; it is still eaten in small amounts with hot rice or sake.

🍺 Bar Snacks

Prep 30min 0 2 servings

Kimchi Easy

Korean Cabbage Kimchi (Crunchy Green Cabbage Kimchi)

Green cabbage leaves are thinner and firmer than napa, so they take salt quickly and turn tough rather than soft when left too long. Wide leaves and thick stems are cut to a similar size so one part does not finish salting before the other. The moment to stop salting is when a leaf bends but still snaps between the teeth. Draining matters more than it seems: leftover rinse water slides the chili paste off the leaves and thins the brine that forms later. Julienned carrot and scallion keep the color bright, and the jar moves to the fridge once liquid starts pooling after a short room-temperature ferment.

Prep 30min Cook 10min 4 servings

Kimchi Easy

Korean-Style Cabbage Pickle

Raw cabbage and carrot are packed in unblanched, and the hot sweet-sour brine poured over them is what keeps the crunch a day later. Whole peppercorns give the brine a mild aromatic bite. Served cold beside burgers or tonkatsu, it cuts through fried food the way a sharp slaw does.

Prep 15min Cook 8min 4 servings

Kimchi Easy

Korean Soy Pickled Onions

Thick wedges cut along the grain are what let these onions stay crisp in soy brine for days; thin slices go limp fast. Sliced cheongyang chilies, a hot Korean green pepper, run some heat under the sweet-salty soy. The seasoning evens out after about three days in the fridge.

Prep 15min Cook 12min 4 servings

Kimchi Medium

Korean Young Radish Kimchi

Thin stems and tender leaves make young radish easy to bruise, and rough handling leaves a grassy, raw smell. Every stage from rinsing to mixing needs a light hand. As the paste settles in, the greens release liquid that becomes a tangy, chili-flecked brine, and pressing the greens down into it keeps the fermentation even. After roughly half a day at room temperature, small bubbles and a sour smell signal it is time for the fridge. In summer, when fermentation runs fast, it can be refrigerated straight away. Chilled, it is piled onto bibim-guksu or naengmyeon through the summer.

Prep 30min 0 4 servings

Kimchi Medium

Korean Young Radish Water Kimchi

The broth stays clear because garlic and ginger are wrapped in cheesecloth and squeezed in cold water for their aroma alone, leaving no solids floating around. Young radish greens (yeolmu) are salted just until they slump slightly, so the stems keep some snap, and thin slices of radish let the broth pick up flavor quickly. Ginger is the one ingredient to hold back on: too much, or left steeping too long, turns the broth bitter. Filtered cold water gives the cleanest taste, since nothing is boiled.

Prep 30min 0 4 servings

Kimchi Easy

Korean Lotus Root Jangajji

A splash of vinegar in the blanching water keeps lotus root slices pale and clean, and a quick dunk in cold water right after locks that color in. After thin peeling, each piece is rinsed right through the holes, where soil tends to hide. The soy brine gets bay leaf and black peppercorns and only a short simmer, because reducing it makes the pickle too salty. Even slices cook and season evenly, and shaking off the water keeps the brine from going thin. Poured on hot, the brine runs into every hole, and after two to three days in the fridge the centers are seasoned while the slices still have a crisp, fibrous chew.

🍱 Lunchbox

Prep 25min Cook 12min 4 servings

Kimchi Medium

Korean Lotus Root Kimchi (Crunchy Spiced Root Kimchi)

Starting with sliced lotus root boiled in vinegar water helps remove bitterness while keeping the vegetable pale and crisp. The seasoning combines gochugaru, minced garlic, and anchovy fish sauce with the addition of fresh pear juice. This pear juice provides natural sugars and necessary moisture so the chili paste coats each slice evenly without becoming dry or clumping. Even after the fermentation process begins, the lotus root maintains its signature firm and crunchy texture. Sliced scallions are tossed in to add a fresh aromatic quality that balances the spicy garlic paste. One full day of refrigeration allows the flavors to settle into the flesh before serving. Because the seasoning gets trapped inside the characteristic holes of the root, the paste should remain thick rather than watery to ensure consistent flavor. When left to ferment for a few more days, the developing acidity helps cut through the richness of grilled meats or fried dishes.

At least 1 day 17 min 4 servings

Kimchi Medium

Gunma Yuzu Maki

Thin daikon rounds, dried for a full day in sun and wind, are rolled around fine strips of yuzu peel and left in sweet vinegar until the citrus perfume runs through the jar. Gunma's dry winter, with its karakkaze wind, supported a wide habit of drying konjac, persimmons and daikon, and this pickle grew from that practice. It appears at winter celebrations and can take the place of red-and-white namasu in osechi. Only the thin colored zest of the yuzu is used, with the bitter white pith cut away. Drying makes the slices pliable enough to roll without cracking while keeping a pleasant chew.

Prep 480min Cook 5min 25 servings

Kimchi Easy

Yubeshi (Sweet Soy-Simmered Dried Yuzu Peel)

Dried yuzu peel, cut into fine strips, simmers until translucent in sugar, dark soy sauce, mirin and dashi, and the liquid turns sticky as the peel releases its pectin. Regional yubeshi elsewhere stuffs whole yuzu with miso or glutinous rice, while this Tokushima version cooks the chopped peel into a sweet and savory condiment instead. Boiling the peel in three changes of water takes off the harshest bitterness while leaving a controlled bitter edge under the soy sweetness. A bit of chili, if used, gives a brief warm finish.

Prep 15min Cook 45min 4 servings

Kimchi Medium

Suzuki (Red Taro Stems in Sweet Vinegar)

Red taro stalks dry-fried without oil turn a vivid red the moment vinegar hits the pan, then soak up a sweet vinegar and soy dressing as they chill. In Toyama this summer side dish is made from the leaf stalks of yatsugashira taro and served at home, at Obon and at autumn festivals. Raw stalks carry an acridity that can prickle the throat, which is why peeling, soaking and thorough cooking all matter more than the color change. A batch is ready only when even the thickest stalk is tender and leaves no sting on the tongue.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 35min Cook 15min 4 servings