
Did you ever wonder how to easily make great fresh tasting kimchi? Well, today we will experience the quick and easy way to make kimchi – if there is such a thing. In the past, I posted a recipe for making a more traditional napa cabbage kimchi. I was not 100% happy with that result, so I kept trying different things, and I am finally ready to share this good recipe with you. :
The last kimchi recipe I made was “whole cabbage kimchi,” which is called PoGi (포기), or Tong Baechu (통배추). People use that method for making winter kimchi. It is only cut into four pieces. This time, we will cut the cabbage into bite sized pieces. This will make serving easier since you will not have to cut the kimchi. This way of making kimchi is also good if you only have one or two heads of napa cabbage. There are some more differences between the two recipes. You can figure out what they are. hehe.. Try this recipe someday. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Short Korean Lesson: *^^*
- NalSsi (날씨) = Weather
- GaeJeol (계절) = Season
Main Ingredients:
- 2 Napa Cabbage Heads (about 4 lb each)
- 1 Onion
- 4 Green Onions
- 1 Handful Garlic Chives
Cabbage Brine Ingredients:
- 1⅓ Cup Coarse Sea Salt (Sprinkle)
- 20 Cups Water
- 1 Cup Coarse Sea Salt (For Salt Water)
Kimchi Paste Ingredients:
- 20 Dried Red Hot Peppers
- ½ Cup Cooked Rice
- About ½ Cup Fish Sauce
- ¼ Cup Water
- ½ Onion
- 14 Garlic Cloves
- 1 Piece Ginger (Unshelled Brazil nut sized, cut into 3 pieces)
- ⅔ Cup Red Pepper Powder
- 2½ Tbsp Sugar
- 1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds
Yield: 1 Gallon

Remove any bad parts from the napa cabbage.

Divide the cabbage into 4 pieces.

Remove the heart from the cabbage as in the picture. (Now the cabbage has a broken heart. ㅋㅋㅋ)

Cut the remaining cabbage into 2 inch pieces. Cutting the cabbage will reduce the soak time of the cabbage. Plus, it’s easier to mix the cabbage with the kimchi paste.

Put some cabbage into the big bowl and sprinkle 1 handful of coarse sea salt onto the cabbage. In the same way, add another layer of cabbage on it and sprinkle more salt. I used 1⅓ cup of coarse sea salt in this step. Keep adding more layers in this prescribed manner until the supply of cabbage has been exhausted.

In another bowl, pour 20 cups of water and 1 cup of coarse sea salt. Stir it until the salt dissolves.

Evenly pour the salt water onto the cabbage bowl. Soak the cabbage in the salt water for 3 hours. Every hour, mix the cabbage (up and down), so all the cabbage can get well salted.

After 3 hours, rinse the cabbage in cold water 3 times.

Drain the water for about 2 hours.

Wash the dried hot peppers once. Remove the stems from the peppers if they are present. Cut them in half with scissors.

To make the kimchi paste, in a mixer, grind 20 dried red hot peppers, ½ cup of cooked rice, about ½ cup of fish sauce, ¼ cup of water, ½ of an onion, 14 garlic cloves, and 3 pieces of ginger. Leave out some of the fish sauce. You can add the remainder later to adjust the saltiness to your tastes. I used a little less than ½ cup of fish sauce for my kimchi.

Cut 1 onion, 4 green onions, and 1 handful of garlic chives as in the picture.

Pour the mixture into the big bowl, and add the rest of the ingredients for the kimchi paste: ⅔ cup of red pepper powder, 2½ Tbsp of sugar, and 1 Tbsp of sesame seeds. In this step, depending on your taste, you can add some of the left over fish sauce you saved from the grinding mixture. Add the onion, green onion, and the garlic chives into the paste. Mix well.

Add the napa cabbage.

Mix the cabbage with the kimchi paste. Put the kimchi in a glass jar or container. Leave it outside (room temperature) over night, and then put it in the refrigerator. It will take several days to a week until it is properly fermented.

Of course, you can eat fresh kimchi with the freshly cooked rice. Yummy! hehe. Thank you for visiting my blog. I’ll be back with more delicious recipes later! God bless you all.
p.s Aha! If you are a vegetarian, you can substitute the fish sauce with salt and water. I recommend sea salt.







Hi, Aeri!
First i would like to say that i love your website! The first recipe that i’ve tried was the zucchini pancakes and now i wanna try this one. Only one problem, though: i live in Rio de Janeiro and there’s no way i can get red pepper powder or napa cabbage around here
Can i use regular cabbage instead? What is the difference bettwen the two (besides the shape xD)? Is there a way to replace the red pepper powder? If there is so, what can i use?
Also, using cooked rice instead of sweet rice flour is a great tip! (since i can’t find that around here too)
Thank you so much for all those great recipes. Keep it up!
God bless you and your family <3
Hi Aeri,
Thanks for a very detail recipe. I’d like to ask if I want to use salt instead of fish sauce, how much salt should I use for the same amount of napa cabbage? Sorry, I can’t taste to see how much salty fish sauce is …
Thank you.
Phillip
hi Phillip,
Oh.. It’s same with me… unless I make the kimchi and taste the paste again.. it’s hard to tell the exact amount.. what i can tell you is.. when you make the kimchi paste.. add 1/2 cup of water to the grinder with other ingredients… grind them without salt..then start to add about generous amount of 1/2 tbsp of salt to the kimchi paste.. and taste it.. if it’s salty enough it’s good.. you can adjust the amount salt there.. hope it works great.. ^^
p.s I checked my fish sauce container.. per serving (1 tbsp ) it contains 850 ml.. my recipe asks 1/2 cup of fish sauce .. which means 8 tbsp.. 8 servings.. so it was about 6.8 g of salt.. a little over 1/2 tbsp… ^^
Thanks for your response, Aeri. Wish you the best.
Hi Aeri!
I’ve made this twice now and each time the kimchi has turned out delicious. This will definitely be my kimchi recipe! Instead of using cooked rice, can I use sweet rice flour instead? If so, how much water and how much flour do I need?
hi SMCK,
wow.. great you like this recipe. Thanks for trying my recipe. Yes, you can use sweet rice flour instead.. you can look at my other kimchi recipe that is using sweet rice flour.. here is a link for you.
http://aeriskitchen.com/2009/01/napa-cabbage-kimchi-배추-김치baechu-kimchi/
hi Aeri ^^
i love kimchi and i love making it and i think your recipe is the simplest. you even use dried chilies. i like it. and you use cooked rice.i’m going to try your kimchi recipe. what i to know why do we have to put, in your case a cooked rice or sweet rice flour to make kimchi paste? what if i just leave it behind. will it effect the taste?
thanks…
i’ll tell you how my kimchi taste using your recipe. can’t wait! ^^
hi mizzmuna,
Yes, since I usually make small amount of kimchi (because of small family) … I really want to make it simple and easy.. quick.. not only flavor.. the rice flour helps fermenting process too.. I recommend you use it… yep.. please let me know how yours turns out.. thanks
Hi Aeri,
I tried making kimchi using this recipe. Didn’t have any dried hot peppers so I just added more red pepper powder instead. Is that okay? Anyway, I think I might have added a little too much fish sauce, it tastes horribly salty.. Will the saltiness go away if I put it way longer?
hi Alicia,
If you don’t have .. yes you can use red pepper powder instead .. my other kimchi recipe uses only red pepper powder.. oh.. how much more fish sauce you added… well..it will be still salty,,, what you can do is.. make it sour kimchi..and use it for kimchi soup or kimchi jeon.. later.. or.. you can add more fresh nappa cabbage in your kimchi.. or big pieces of korean radish between your kimchi piesces… it will help a little..
juhu, it was a big succes, but how long will it last in the fridge, it has started to smell a bit funny but still taste great!
i guess a bit fermented smell wont do any harm?
thanks!
hi Rune Brink Hansen,
great.. happy for your success.. yes.. even Koreans don’t like kimchi smell.. but love the flavor.. it can last as long as you want.. I mean.. if you like really old.. sour kimchi.. you can keep even months.. no farm from fermented smell.. thanks
Hello Aeri,
I’m going to make kimchi for the very first time this weekend. I first looked at your Napa kimchi and you included radish and green onions which I thought it was great. I think I prefer this recipe as it is bitesized, but was wondering if it would taste good if i include some radish too like with your other recipe
Thanks~~
hi K,
Yep.. you can add radish for this kimchi also.
thanks..
Good luck for your first kimchi.
how do i know when the cabbage is properly fermented?
thanks for the recipe. i hope it tastes nice
hi Chantelle Ann,
Sorry for late reply. I missed your comment. Hm.. about your question, if you never tried fermented kimchi before..it’s a little difficult to describe the taste. When you make kimchi, it will be spicy, salty, and raw cabbage taste… but once it’s fermented.. (takes about 10 days to 15 days depending on the refrigerator temperature..) it has slightly sour flavor..but not much.. and not raw cabbage flavor anymore.. at the beginning.. the spicy flavor and cabbage flavor is seperated..then after it is fermented.. you can taste the spicy and other seasoning flavor in the cabbage.. I hope you can understand what I want to say.. thanks..
Thank youuu cant wait to try it, i loooove kimchi
hi Rune Brink,
I love kimchi too.. hehe thanks
thank you for the recipe. i’ve made kimchi before, but during the process i knew sometihng wasn’t right…i was right. it tasted horrible. can’t wait to try it. down part my family wants me to finish the horrible one i made
hi Chantelle Ann,
oh.. sorry to hear that.. it was not my recipe..right ?? Try mine.. I hope you and your family like it.. thanks
Hi, Aeri I love korean food and I made Kimchi before with sweet rice flour but never with cooked rice. Thank you for this new recipe, I will try it sometimes.
hi DBSK,
Yes, it’s more convenience to use cooked rice instead of sweet rice flour..so if you make small amount of kimchi.. actually it’s good way to go..hehe I hope you like this. thanks