Hello everybody!
I am so excited to show you how to make vegetarian or vegan kimchi today. It’s from my new cookbook! How long have you been waiting for this recipe? Or maybe you made your own adaptation of my traditional kimchi recipe or my easy kimchi recipe? When people asked me how to make vegetarian kimchi in comments I always suggested to use soy sauce but I wasn’t totally satisfied with my own answer because soy sauce alone couldn’t replace the deep savoriness of fish sauce or salty fermented shrimp that I use in my kimchi.
So I developed this recipe for my cookbook, the secret is in the vegetarian stock I created. It works perfectly. It gives the kimchi a delicious savoriness. Even if you are not a vegetarian you should try this for a change, you will be surprised how delicious it is. Even though I’m not a vegetarian, I love to make vegetarian kimchi because I never miss much of the taste from my traditional kimchi made with fish sauce and fermented shrimp.
It’s also a small portion of kimchi! You need only 1 head of napa cabbage (3 pounds), and then you can modify this recipe to adapt to how much you want to make. Enjoy the recipe! Let me know how your kimchi turns out!
Ingredients
Makes about 4 pounds
Directions
Salt the cabbage:
- Cut the cabbage lengthwise into quarters. Cut away the core of each quarter.
- Cut the leaves crosswise into 1-to-1½ inch bite size pieces. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Toss with 6 tablespoons of the salt and 1 cup water.
- Let stand for 2 hours, tossing the cabbage every 30 minutes to salt evenly.
Make the kimchi paste:
- Combine the glutinous rice flour and 1 cup of the vegetable stock in a small saucepan and place over medium high heat.
- Stir until the mixture begins to bubble, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of the sugar and stir until the mixture is slightly translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool thoroughly.
- Put the cooled porridge, the remaining ⅓ cup vegetable stock, the remaining 3 tablespoons salt, the remaining 1 teaspoon sugar, garlic, ginger, and onion in a food processor and process to a puree.
- Transfer the puree to a medium bowl.
- Add the gochu-garu (hot pepper flakes) and mix it well. Set aside.
Wash the salted cabbage:
- Rinse the cabbage 3 to 4 times with cold running water to remove any dirt and excess salt. Drain well.
Mix it all together and make kimchi:
- Well dry a large bowl with kitchen cloth.
- Add the cabbage, radish matchsticks, green onion, chives (if used), and carrot. Add the kimchi paste and mix all together by hand (wear disposable gloves if you like).
- Transfer to an airtight container or glass jars. Press down the on the kimchi so it’s well packed and no air can get inside, then put the lid on the container.
Ferment the kimchi:
- You can serve the kimchi right away, sprinkled with sesame seeds. Or you can let the kimchi ferment. It takes about 2 weeks to ferment in the refrigerator; for faster fermenting, leave it at room temperature for 1 to 2 days, depending on the warmth of your kitchen, until the kimchi smells and tastes sour.
- Once the kimchi is fermented, store in the refrigerator until it runs out. After 2 weeks, the kimchi will have fermented nicely, and it will continue to ferment and become more sour as time goes one. It never goes bad and you can enjoy it at every stage.
- Whenever you take some kimchi out of the container, be sure to press down on the remaining kimchi with a spoon to prevent it from being exposed to air.
Posted on Saturday, November 2nd, 2019 at 11:39 am.
Tagged: cabbage kimchi, chaesik kimchi, 비건김치, 채식김치, kimchi, no fish sauce kimchi, small batch kimchi, vegan kimchi, vegetarian kimchi
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Nov 13th
Hey! I love all the ingredients in this recipe and how much it makes, but I am not a vegetarian so I would like to use fish sauce instead of vegetable stock. How much Fish sauce should I use? and do I need to add any water as well?
Hello, Thank you so much for this recipe. I cannot tollerate any kind of seafood, so shrimp or oyster sauce traditionally used means i cannot eat Kimchi, i have never tried it before, but have been wanting too so badly, now i can make my own so thank you thank you thank you!
Hello!
You said that kimchi will never go bad – what is the longest time you would recommend leaving in the fridge for? a few weeks/months?
This is actually a good recipe for people who have diabetes. The sugar in the recipe is minimal when you think about portion size. If you don’t want sugar, add an apple to the processor or an Asian pear. The sweetness really helps with flavor.
If you are pre diabetic or diabetic, Kim chi is not a problem and is good for you. Eating barbecued meats that are sweetened along with rice is a bad combination, as it spikes
an insulin response. The combination of foods plus high fat and high sugar is the problem.
Hi Maangchi! I love all your recipes and have made your easy kimchi before. Love love!! Anyway, my family is allergic to fish and shrimp so I’m making this for them. We have no vegetable stock so is it possible that I can use chicken stock instead?
Yes, you can use chicken or beef stock! Good luck!
hi there
May I know the actual size of 1 cup water ?
1cup = 200ml or xxx ml ?
It’s 237 ml.
On each of Maangchi’s recipe sites you find a conversion calculator to the right.
Just scroll down a bit from the top.
Actually my 1 cup is 240 ML.
I just made this tonight and it looks and smells so good already! It’s going to be hard waiting for it to fully ferment :) Thank you Maangchi for the wonderful recipe!
See full size image
Wow!
Hi, Maangchi!
Thank you for posting this recipe! I am an experienced vegetarian cook and was recently also experimenting with homemade vegan kimchi. After trying a few different things, I found the best substitute for the fish sauce and/or shrimp is actually “powdered kombu (kelp) dashi.” without msg. It is a Japanese, freeze-dried kelp powder, used for making instant broth. This adds the missing “fish” flavor and makes it really flavorful. It’s sold in many Japanese supermarkets, in a package of small envelopes. I use 1 envelope for about 2lbs of cabbage. I just add it dry, add the same time as the gochu-garu. It’s available online on Amazon, although of course the price is higher than buying at the store.
Also, I wanted to thank you because I recently found your website and YouTube channel. I love watching and learning how you cook, and I’m currently eating a lot of homemade Korean food, thanks to you! :D I also sent your videos to my Korean-food loving friends. So now you have 4 new readers.
Happy Cooking!
is there a version (for kimchi and Korean cooking) for “pre-diabetes/diabetes” that is vegan (therefore kosher) and emergency kimchi (because Israel dosnt always have Napa cabbage?
This is actually a good recipe for people who have diabetes. The sugar in the recipe is minimal when you think about portion size. If you don’t want sugar, add an apple to the processor or an Asian pear. The sweetness really helps with flavor.
If you are pre diabetic or diabetic, Kim chi is not a problem and is good for you. Eating barbecued meats that are sweetened along with rice is a bad combination, as it spikes
an insulin response. The combination of foods plus high fat and high sugar is the problem.