Today we will experience a quick and easy way to make fresh and great tasting kimchi, if there is such a thing. 
In the past, I posted a recipe for making a more traditional napa cabbage kimchi.
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.
Yield: 1 Gallon
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
Directions
Remove any bad parts from the napa cabbage.
Divide the cabbage into 4 pieces.
Remove the heart from the cabbage. (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 into 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 tastes, 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. If you are a vegetarian, you can substitute the fish sauce with salt and water. I recommend sea salt. Thank you for visiting my blog. I’ll be back with more delicious recipes later! God bless you all.
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hi..aeri..
i was wondering if i am to use pepper flakes instead of the dried hot red peppers how much would be the right amount if i want my kimchi to be not that spicy..and also i live in a hot country will keeping out side ruin my kimchi??
and also but the pepper powder do you mean cayenne pepper??
thank you!
[i know this so late but CONGRATS on your newborn ^^]
hi ayumi,
Oh.. since I don’t know how much is spicy to you.. I will say.. use half amount of red pepper flakes that I used for red pepper powder..and taste it.. and start to from that.. if you can add more later after taste it.. i meant to keep in a roomtemperature.. so if it’s hot over there.. rind some place that it’s not that hot.. or you can keep outside..just few hours instead of over night.. nope.. red pepper powder is not cayenne pepper.. it’s hot pepper.. thanks for your congratulations.
Hi Aeri.. i am an Indian living in Hong Kong, but luv Korean food ever since i visited Korea last year. Want to learn more. Your blog is a great knowledge for this. Thank u so much for the yummy recipe. I tried out tonight and looks wonderful but tastes little bitter. The variations i did were used dark soy sauce (as i dont have fish sauce) , used cucumber(instead of radish) and the most foolish thing was i have put vinegar , lime juice(as it was not sour when i tasted, i did not realize it ferments
what an idiot i was) and put little rice wine(on one of my frenz suggestion). Plz let me know what would be my mistake to turn bit bitter? i hope it tastes good to my husband tommorrow 
all my prayers for this. Congrats on ur baby boy! my luv to Bryson! 
hi Divya,
I’m very happy to meet you. !!! Oh… you changed it a lot ~~~ sorry..but I thought what you did are cute… but.. I think.. you invented totally different food.. I don’t know what to do.. to make it not bitter..oops..sorry not that helpful. I will just give you some advice for next time.. if you don’t have fish sauce..use salt.. no soy sauce… yep.. as you said..once it’s fermented it will be sour.. so no vinegar or lime juice.. we don’t put rice wine either.. what else you didn’t have ??? If you only didn’t have fish sauce… and had all other ingredients this recipe said.. as I mentioned.. just use salt instead of fish sauce..and follow my other instruction..then you will not get bitter kimchi next time. thanks
Oh! I really want to try this out. Usually, I buy kimchi from H-Mart, but it doesn’t really have much flavor like homemade kimchi. Hopefully I don’t fail >_< I'll try making it later in the week. Thanks so much for the tutorial.
hi Andrew,
You are welcome ~~~ Yep..try homemade kimchi… it’s worth to try. thanks
Hi Aeri,
Love your recipes. I was wondering.. If I were to only want to use 1 Napa Cabbage would it be safe to halve all the ingredients, only some or should I leave it the same?
Keep up the great work!
hi Jamie,
I will say.. cut the amount of all the ingredients half.. thanks
Hey, I bought Kimchi and don’t know how to prepare it. Can i eat it cold right from the frige? or warm it up in the microwave? pleas help.
hi Silkia,
You mean.. you bought already made kimchi from a store ?? aha.. you can just eat that kimchi with rice or other food.. yes.. you keep it in the refrigerator.. or you can cook something with your kimchi..such as.. kimchi fried rice… kimchi soup… and so on.. I will give you some links..
http://aeriskitchen.com/2008/09/kimchi-fried-rice/
http://aeriskitchen.com/2008/12/kimchi-soup-김치-찌개kimchi-jjigae/
Enjoy your kimchi
hi aeri, i made kimchi with this recipe and is now waiting for it to ferment. but it smells really good already! hopefully it turns out great! How’s Bryson? God bless you and your family
hi WKKeoh,
Our son is doing great. Enjoy your kimchi..hehe thanks
Hi Aeri,
I am going to try this recipe tomorrow. Hopefully, this will turn out well.
hi Catherine,
I hope it turned out great too..thanks
Hi Aeri,
It’s me again. As my mum can’t take too spicy kimchi, I have used only 5 dried hot pepper. Hence, the colour isn’t as nice as the previous batch I made for Nappa Cabbage Kimchi. I used less than 1/2 cup fish sauce but I am worried this batch may be too salty.
hi Catherine,
The more you make kimchi.. the better you can adjust the amount for the ingredients depending on your taste. Enjoy your kimchi.. give me some..hehe
Hi Arei
I was wondering is kimchi suppose to taste really sour? I bought some from my nearby supermarket and it tasted kind of funky ._.
I will try to make this kimchi recipe asap
Hi Sandy,
I think that you bought kind of old kimchi.. new kimchi is not sour at all.. once it’s fermented.. slowly it changes to sour kimchi.. the older kimchi taste more sour. ^^ thanks
Heyyy…..Just a quick question about one of your steps. Step #9 says “Drain the water for about 2 hours.” Does that mean drain the water from the cabbage and then leave it for 2 hours?
Hi Mandy,
yes.. after rinse the salted cabbage, leave it for 2 hours, then you will get some water from the cabbage. or you can squeeze out the water to save the time. thanks
hi!!!!!!! I am littobubbo from you tube and i LOVE your site. I am just wondering, is it okay to not add the whole peppers since I only have the korean chili flakes..
Hi Judy,
Oh.. if you don’t have whole peppers, it’s find to use the chili powder or flakes. Just adjust the amount of them depending on your taste. Good luck.
Hey Aeri,
Thanks for the kimchi recipe. I’m gonna try it now.
I heard that sea salt must be used instead of iodized salt. I’m wondering what would the result be if I used the fine iodized salt. Would it still be the same? I kinda forgot to buy sea salt and I have lots of fine salt here in our home.
Since I’m just starting, I got 1 head of the chinese cabbage weighing around 1lb. Since it’s kinda difficult dividing the recipe by 8, I’m wondering what the taste of the salt water is. XD Since I haven’t made it before, I’m kinda clueless in gauging the correct amount of saltiness in the salt water.
And still on the important salt part, what’s the difference if I left the cabbage soaked for more than 3 hours? I have searched other recipes on the net and some call for soaking for at least 24 hours.
Thanks for the reply! I’m looking forward to it, since currently the cabbage’s soaking.
T_T well, I think your reply’s not gonna come until tomorrow. Oh well, hope in the time being my kimchi works. XD
p.s. How’s your baby? I believe 3rd trimester’s gonna end soon; or has it? God bless you!
Hi Arvin,
Sorry for late reply. The day you left this comment was my delivery day..hehe anyway.. about your question.. hm..
It’s a little hard to explain..but the salt water will be.. salty but eatable.. it should be a little more salty than you feel like you can drink it.. oops sorry for poor explanation..
the time for soaking is depending on how much cabbage you are making..and how salty the salt water is..and how big pieces did you cut for the cabbage.. just soak some hours..and check if the cabbage became soft and got salty flavor.. I hope your kimchi turned out good. thanks !!!
Hi,im sri lankan.i was lookng for korean kimchi recipe,for long time.finaly i got it.but i never ever try it and taste it.when ever i waching arirang TV chenal,i saw so meny people are eating this kimchi..the same time i also felt to tast it…anyway thank you very much for your recipe.now i gonna try it….
Hi sanjeewa,
Yes, it’s the most common side-dish in Korea. We serve kimchi for every meals. I hope you can try it someday. 
thanks !!!
Nice to meet you !!!
Hi!! i just want to know that,what is the red peper powder, in your recipe for making kimchi?is that we called red chilli powder?I alredy made that kimchi.it is still in the refrigerator.but i felt that is too hot.is becouse of that i add red chilli powder?please gide me.thank you!
Hi sanjeewa,
I did some research to give you better answer on wikipedia. yes, the red pepper powder is.. red chilli powder..but since there are so many different kinds of chilli pepper in the world.. depending on what kind of pepper they used, the powder can be more spicy or less spicy. I wonder how well you can handle spicy food.. kimchi can be kind of a spicy food..but if you used really spicy pepper powder, your kimchi will be very spicy. Korean grocery stores sell specific red pepper powder for kimchi. Thanks
oh cool i want to try this out.. but is there going to be any difference if i try using fresh red peppers instead of dry ones? cool page btw
Hi, dee
Thanks for your comment. Yes, you can use hot red peppers instead of dried hot peppers. Since you are going to use red pepper powder also, it will not make that big difference. I hope you will like this recipe.
oh i love it! ^^ thanks aeri! God Bless!
Hi, dee
You are very welcome. thanks
Hi, I am a Singapore Chinese who likes Korean food, songs and drama very much.
just want to say “Thank you so much” for your easy and wonderful recipe. 감사합니다. especially the side dishes.
God bless u and your family.
Hi, June
I’m very happy to meet you !!! It’s really cool to meet people from the world who love Korean food and culture. Thanks for visiting.. hope to see you more often. God bless you too.
Hi ,
(which I love )
I discovered your site quite by chance, and am I glad !!!
I am from India, I was introduced to Korean food by a korean food who cooked earlier ( shared with me ) and isn’t into too much cooking . So I have been missing the flavour and the food. But with your site, I think I will be able to cook my own, and seems I will be able to make my own kimchi
I feel consuming two jars are too much for me, can you possibly guide me to make 1 jar.
Also , I made the crab pancakes yesterday, came out good, but will try with shrimps next time.
Thank you and keep it up !!!
Hi, Goodyeah
aha… yep..shrimp will be also delicious for it. thanks !!!
I’m very happy to meet you. Since I have some really great Indian friends, I like Indians.. and my husband and I like Indian food too. hehe Just use one cabbage instead of 2..and cut the recipe half..
I don’t know if you read my wish to you but Congrats on you baby!!! (:
Hi, Lala
Yep.. of course I read your message. Thank you ver~~~y much.
Hi Aeri! I love your website! Even though I hardly comment, I always read your blog.^-^
I have a blog
http://letstalkaboutkorea.blogspot.com
and I hope you’ll visit my blog.
Thank you.
Hi, Lala
Nice to meet you !!!
Oh.. I will visit your blog. thanks
Hope to see you again~~~
Hello Aeri,
I just find out about your website. It’s so great! Thanks for sharing your recipe with us. I love Korean food very much!
Hi, Candy
Nice to meet you !!!
wow.. another Korean food lover..hehe
Thanks for visiting my blog..hope to see you more often here.
mat kimchi!!! i make this more than the other kimchis. but this recipe is something new to me. i never use dried chillis or cooked rice in my kimchi. thanks aeri for the idea. can;t wait to make my next batch with ur recipe
Hi, layping
thanks !!!
hehe.. yep.. you have to try this way~~~ You will like it.
i did i did! u are so right, it taste very good. thanks master ^^
Hi, layping
AWESOME !! I’m proud of you..hehe thanks
hi, aeri unni!
I’m a Filipino but I have mastered kimchi-making. There is not a day in my life (since I learned how to make kimchi) that I did not eat any Korean food. I love being a Filipino, but I love Korean food. I think I was a Korean in my past life. hehehe!
I always make my napa kimchi this way. But I salt my cabbages before I cut them, and I use the dried crushed red pepper, as it is more convenient for me.
Congratulations on your baby! Stay healthy and God bless!! I LOVE your videos.
Hi, MheAnn
God bless you too.
Nice to meet you !!!
Wow.. you really love kimchi.
Thanks for your comment. Hope to see you more often.
Hi, Aeri, how is the pregnancy coming along? I just gave birth to a baby girl this summer. I was so thrilled to read that you were pregnant too. Are you feeling better these days? You must be entering the second tremester now, right? It is probably the highlight of the whole pregnancy. Anyway, I am enjoying your recipes! Take good care.
Hi, DJ
I just entered third tremester now..My belly is getting heavier and heavier..and he kicks me and sometimes it hurts..but I think he is still lovely and cute.. 
Thanks for telling us your happy news. Come back again~~~ 
You also take good care ~~~~~
My pregnancy is okay… hehe CONGRATULATIONS !!!! So you and your daughter are all great right ??? How cute and lovely your girl is !!!
This looks great!! One of these days I will make it and have my parents try it.
Hi, Patty
Yep.. try it.. and make your parents happy. hehe thanks
I am so going to try this again!!!!!! I failed twice to make kimchi!! XD Thank sis!!!!!
Hi, chuiyew
Yep..I hope you get success this time. Can you get dried hot peppers over there ? I remember you had problem to find right kind of red pepper powder before. anyway.. good luck ~~
Hi Aeri,
) I;m just wondering if I could substitute the cooked rice with something else since I don’t have a food processor? Can I make the ‘porridge’ (rice flour mixed with water) instead?
Thank you for this recipe
Thanks, again!
oh, and also the dried red peppers, can I use something else instead?
Thank you, Aeri!
Hi, fran
thanks !!!
Those two things you asked me if you can change are the parts that I changed from my first kimchi recipe. I think you can use follow my first recipe then.
I used cooked rice flour mixture (not cooked rice) and red pepper powder (not dried red pepper) in the old recipe.
I will give you a link.
http://aeriskitchen.com/2009/01/napa-cabbage-kimchi-배추-김치baechu-kimchi/
You can cut the cabbage pieces and follow the directions to brine the cabbage with the new recipe..just follow the rest of the direction from the old recipes.
can you please send me one of those kimchi jars?? haha joke.
i can’t wait to try your recipes!
my kitchen will be done in a week or so. i’ll make sure to show you some pictures.
i’ve been sick so i haven’t been on the computer lately. i miss you! i’ll be in touch soon.
*hi bryson! i love you*
Hi, farleen
haha… Only empty kimchi jar without kimchi right… =P hehe..joke~~ If you lived around here, I really want to share my kimchi with you. I’m so excited to see your new kitchen. Yep.. show me some of the pictures.
What was wrong ?? So you are okay right ?? phew~~~~ I felt thanks …that the hurricane didn’t hurt Hawaii.. anyway.. See you soon again.
Bryson said hi too.. . <3<3