Hi everybody! I’m introducing “mak-kimchi” to you today! It’s made with napa cabbage (baechu in Korean), pre-cut into bite size pieces, so you can serve it without cutting. This way of making kimchi is really time saving compared to making whole cabbage kimchi. But the taste is exactly the same as whole cabbage kimchi because the ingredients are the same! So I am translating “mak-kimchi” into “easy kimchi.” I hope this recipe makes your life easier! : )
Since I posted my whole cabbage kimchi recipe in June 2007, so many people have surprised me with their kimchi related stories and questions. A lot of my readers make their own kimchi on a regular basis and they email me the photos of their delicious kimchi! Some people modify the recipe to their taste and some people add more ingredients to invent their own kimchi!
For example, Julie made vegan kimchi. She skipped fish sauce and used a little soy sauce and salt instead. Smart! Isn’t it? Some people like Reinier, James, Sylvia, Clyde, Sara make kimchi on a regular basis. They say, “oh, my kimchi runs out, I will make it this weekend.” If any of you reading this might want to be included the list of people who make kimchi on a regular basis, please email me. I will include your names here. : )
I’m surprised to see all these mouth-watering looking kimchi photos!
But as you know, the kimchi recipe was not using exact measurements. You remember? I said, “use 2 medium napa cabbage and 2 radishes.” The size of cabbage is actually huge by American standards! ; ) And the amount of kimchi paste you need to make is for both cabbage kimchi and radish kimchi. Some people only want to make only cabbage kimchi. They sometimes ask me, “Maangchi, can you tell me how much salt do I have to use for only 1 napa cabbage?”
How can I know?
I didn’t measure when I filmed the first video recipe years ago. : ) Anyway, whenever I was asked the similar questions, I felt kind of bad and a little bit guilty and I always thought I should post a more accurate kimchi recipe.
Here you go! : )
So this recipe will be for a total beginner. Just follow the recipe step by step. This recipe is mine that I have been using for my kimchi for decades and popular among even my Korean friends.
If you want to use whole cabbage kimchi, you can check my whole cabbage kimchi recipe and this easy kimchi recipe, then you will figure out what to do. Only difference is how to handle cabbage: cutting , salting, and how to put or mix the kimchi paste with the cabbage!
Did you see how many questions and answers were made for my whole cabbage kimchi? So far 831 comments! These questions are the most frequently asked, so I’m letting you know this.
FAQ
Q: Maangchi, do I have to make porridge to make kimchi? If I don’t want to use porridge, what shall I do?
A: No, you don’t have to. Some people don’t use porridge, but I always make porridge to make good kimchi paste. Porridge helps hot pepper flakes, fish sauce, garlic, ginger and all spices mix together. Otherwise, the kimchi paste will be too thick to put it between cabbage leaves easily. So you can use sweet pear juice instead of making porridge if you want. I sometimes use pear to make kimchi paste, too.
Q: Why do you give a shower to the cabbage before salting? : )
A: If you sprinkle salt on cabbage directly without pre-soaking in water, the salting process will take too long: this is “osmotic pressure.”
Q: Maangchi, kimchi never goes bad? How come there is some white stuff on the top of my kimchi?
A: If you keep your kimchi properly, it won’t go bad months and months. Don’t forget to press down the top of kimchi in the container with a spoon whenever you take some. It will prevent your kimchi from being exposed to air. If you see the top of your kimchi already has white stuff (mold), remove the top layer of the kimchi and you still can eat the rest of the kimchi.
Q: Maangchi, you used squid this time! Last time your kimchi was made with raw oysters! My other Korean friends never use oysters or squid.
A: Kimchi recipes vary from region to region, so some ingredients will be different. You can follow a few different recipes and choose the best recipe that suits your taste.
Q: I’m interested in adding raw oysters or squid in my Kimchi, but afraid that it might go bad so that I may have a stomachache.
A: You should use very fresh oysters or fresh frozen product, then it will ferment along with your kimchi.
Q: Ok, Maangchi, can you tell me how to make the salty, fermented squid for kimchi?
A: Choose about 300 grams (⅔ pound) of very fresh squid. Then:
- Remove the guts and backbone and rinse it.
- Add 3 tbs kosher salt and mix it with a spoon.
- Put it in a container or glass jar and keep it in the refrigerator for a week.
- Rinse the squid thoroughly until not slippery and drain it (you can skin it if you want).
- Dry the squid with paper towel or cotton and chop it up.
- Add it to your kimchi paste!
I answer many other frequently asked questions about making kimchi in this video.
Ingredients
- 10 pounds baechu (napa cabbage)
- 1 cup kosher salt
- ½ cup sweet rice flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- water
- 1 cup of crushed garlic
- 1 to 2 tbs ginger, minced
- 1 cup onion, minced
- 1 cup fish sauce
- salty, fermented squid (see FAQ, above)
- 2½ cups Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru) (to taste)
- 2 cups leek, chopped
- 10 green onions (diagonally sliced)
- ¼ cup of carrot, julienned
- 2 cups Korean radish, julienned
Directions
Prepare the cabbage
- Trim the discolored outer leaves of the napa cabbage.
- Cut the cabbage lengthwise into quarters and remove the cores. Chop it up into bite size pieces.
- Soak the pieces of cabbage in cold water and put the soaked cabbage into a large basin. Sprinkle salt.
- Every 30 minutes, turn the cabbage over to salt evenly (total salting time will be 1½ hours).
- 1½ hours later, rinse the cabbage in cold water 3 times to clean it thoroughly.
- Drain the cabbage and set aside.
Make porridge
- Put 3 cups of water and sweet rice flour in a pot and mix it well and bring to a boil. Keep stirring until the porridge makes bubbles (about 5 minutes).
- Add ¼ cup sugar. Stir and cook for a few more minutes until it’s translucent.
- Cool it down.
Make kimchi paste
- Place the cold porridge into a large bowl. Now you will add all your ingredients one by one.
- Add fish sauce, hot pepper flakes, crushed garlic, minced ginger, and minced onion.
*tip: it’s much easier to use a food processor!
- Wash and drain the salty squid. Chop it up and add it to the kimchi paste.
*tip: how to prepare salty squid is posted on the FAQ above!
- Add green onions, chopped leek, Korean radish, and carrot.
- Mix all ingredients well and your kimchi paste is done.
Action! Mix the cabbage with the kimchi paste!
- Put the kimchi paste in a large basin and add all the cabbage. Mix it by hand.
*tip: If your basin is not large enough to mix all the ingredients at once, do it bit by bit.
- Put the kimchi into an air-tight sealed plastic container or glass jar.
You can eat it fresh right after making or wait until it’s fermented.
You can eat it fresh right after making or wait until it’s fermented.
I usually put all my kimchi in the fridge except for a little bit in a small container. I like fresh kimchi, so this way the kimchi in the fridge ferments slowly and stays fresh, while the smaller container ferments faster and gets sour. I use this sour kimchi for making things like kimchi jjigae where sour kimchi is better. Then, when the small container is empty, I fill it up again with kimchi from the big container. It takes a little management, but experiment and you’ll get the hang of it!
How do you know it’s fermented or not?
One or 2 days after, open the lid of the Kimchi container. You may see some bubbles with lots of liquids, or maybe sour smells. That means it’s already being fermented.
Buy this recipe's ingredients online
I really like Weee! they deliver quality packaged and fresh Korean ingredients to the continental USA. Cheaper and better than Amazon! Check them out!
My friends and I love your recipe! This kimchi that we made was so easy and tastes so much better than the store bought ones. Could you tell me how I can use salted shrimp when making kimchi? We tried adding it to the recipe but it turned out too salty. Should we choose not to use fish sauce? Thank you!
“Could you tell me how I can use salted shrimp when making kimchi?” yes, you can use saewoojeot (salted shrimp) too, but use less than ¼ cup because it’s very salty. https://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/salted-shrimp Chop it up and add it with some juice. You could also use fish sauce together with salted shrimp. Taste your kimchi paste and control the saltiness.
anything i can rescue my overly salty Kimchi, and the red pepper powder is not spicy at all.
Your kimchi is too salty? How about adding some radish to the kimchi. Just cut some radish into disks and insert them into the salty kimchi.
Hi Maangchi, how are you today? I need your advice I want to make this to my boyfriend and friends. But where I live I cannot find hot pepper flakes can you tell me with what can I substitute this ingredient? Thanks a lot!!! ^^
Hi, my other readers have already talked about this topic. Check this out. https://www.maangchi.com/talk/topic/chili-powder-versus-red-pepper-powder-or-flakes
Thanks a lot Maangchi!!!! ^^
Hi maangchi. I made my first kimchi using this recipe last weekend. I only used 1 kilo, because I was worried it might not turn out right. Napa cabbage with fish sauce and pepper flakes? It sounded so weird! But guess what? My mom and I finished it ALL within 2 days!!! We loved the taste of cold kimshi so much. I left home to go to the university the other day. But before I left, i made another batch of kimchi for mom. Isn’t that kind of strange? Even when I’m away, there is a jar of kimchi that connects me and my mom. haha
“Isn’t that kind of strange?” yes, I totally understand what you mean. Just as you said, food connects people very closely. Your mom should learn how to make kimchi sooner or later. You are such a good daughter.
Just wanted to add that this recipe will yield just over 4 quarts of kimchi in case you’re wondering about the size/quantity of jars you may need. I packed (4) 1-quart jars and had some leftover fresh kimchi to eat right away. Delicious!
Thank you for sharing your tip!
hi maangchi :)
i cant find hot pepper flake at my nearby store,but i bought gochujang.
so can i use gochujang to make kimchi instead of hot pepper flake by reduce the quantity of porridge?
Hello Maanchi,
I have frends who does not like the spicy taste of kimchi. I wonder if you also have a recipe for white kmchi. Can you post it some other time? Thanks.
ok, white kimchi called baek kimchi recipe will be posted in the future. Thank you!
Hi Maangchi,
Your kimchi tastes a lot better than those commercially prepared, imported from Korea kimchi.
Hi Maangchi!
Yesterday was my fourth time making easy kimchi and it seems to get better (and easier) every time I make it. We have so many friends that like your kimchi that I end up with only about a quarter of the finished product.
We have a Korean friend that works in a asian restaurant here in town and she makes the kimchi that they sell. Her co-workers were amazed when they found out this white guy makes kimchi at home. LOL. Her kimchi is very good and she has given us a lot of it over the years. We dropped off a small container for her at the restaurant last night but she was very busy and couldn’t talk to us or try it out at the time. I can’t wait to hear back from her.
I used to have minor difficulties making kimchi because I didn’t really have appropriate size tubs or bowls for 10 lbs. of cabbage and I don’t consider my double sink to be in a suitable condition to put cabbage directly in. I was using an ice chest for salting and a large old plastic basin for washing. Washing and draining the salted cabbage was a chore requiring multiple trips through a collander.
I finally got smart and bought 2 15 qt. rectangular plastic tubs with lids and drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom of one of them for drainage. They fit perfectly in my sink basins without touching the bottom so the one with the holes drains easily. Wash in one tub, lift it out and dump into the other tub to drain and then dump it back into the first tub to wash again. So easy now!
Ooh. I’m so gabby this morning. Thank you so much for this wonderful kimchi recipe.
harry
harry,
Thank you for sharing your experience about kimchi making! It makes me smile and I’m sure many of my other reders will smile when they read your post. They may want to say, “you are not only white man who makes kimchi at home. So do I! “! “I was using an ice chest for salting and a large old plastic basin for washing. Washing and draining the salted cabbage was a chore requiring multiple trips through a colander” lol
Good luck with your Korean cooking!
ok so what im wondering is, ive heard someone tell me that he has a friend thats korean and his mom makes kimchi but she buries it in the ground when she is done making it for a cpl months or so. is that a way to make better kimchi or does it ferment and rot too much?
Hey, to answer your question, Koreans traditionally would make extremely large quantities of kimchi at one time, then put it in large jars and bury them underground to refrigerate them. His mom is just doing it the traditional way. In Korea today, I hear that many households have special kimchi refrigerators in addition to normal refrigerators, for the sole purpose of letting kimchi ferment at the perfect temperatures.
Hi Mangchi!
This is the 2nd or 3rd time i’ve made your mak kimchi and was wondering:
I made this kimchi on wed. afternoon, left it out to ferment until early friday morning and put it in the fridge. This means it fermented 1.5 days. I live in Hawaii and the temperature outside gets to be in the 80s.
I tried it after the first night of fermentation and it was still “fresh” and not fermented, so I left it out some more. After the second night, the kimchi was “sour” and i put it in the fridge. I like the sour taste, but my family gets a little worried/not used to sour kimchi (in hawaii, kimchi is more watery, not as paste-y, and i dont think it is fermented).
My question is: how can you tell the difference between a properly fermented, “good” sour taste vs. a bad batch? Do you think I left it out too long? Thank you for your time :)
So I made this kimchi as an example of fresh kimchi, for my history of a food class project, but I had to leave out the fish sauce because a few people are allergic to it. It smells really awesome, but it just tastes like chili, it doesn’t really have any other taste but veggi…. Is that normal? or does it have to sit overnight? I added a quarter cup of soy sauce should I have added more?
You can modify the recipe to your taste. I recommend using more garlic and green onions if it’s too bland.
Thank you! I added more garlic and green onion with a little bit of salt to enhance the flavors, and I got a lot of compliments on it!
I’m going to make more when it’s gone. but I’m going to add the fish sauce this time!
Hi maangchi 10 pounds of cabbage is a lot. i hope you can post a recipe on how to prepare small batch of kimchi. thanks!
you can use just one kilo. Divide all ingredients by 4. That’s what i did.
hi, Maangchi! I would like to THANK YOU, bec. i just discovered your EASY KIMCHI RECIPE.and amazing style of menus and dishes. I love korean food. Well, i am just curious regarding the sweet rice flour, is this the (glutenous rice flour ). and mind to advice me for a better SUSHI RECIPE also. Thanks a lot and God bless!
Yes, sweet rice flour is glutinous rice flour. https://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/sweet-rice-flour
hi maangchi, i really love your recipes, but can i make kimchi without adding garlic and green onion? i can’t eat those:(
Hi Maangchi!! I’m so excited to make your kimchi. I made your kimchi pancakes from store bought stuff that was pretty tasty, but I’ll bet they would be ay better with homemade kimchi! I don’t really need 10 pounds of it though. I don’t have THAT many friends who really like kimchi! lol! I have 1 head of cabbage which weighs about 3.5 lbs. Should I just use 1/3 of the amounts you suggest, or can you suggest better amounts for just one head of cabbage? I want to make the porridge too… If I’m gonna do it, I might as well do it right!
Thank you!! Cheryl :)
Hi maangchi! I used green apples instead of sweet rice flour, will it be ok? I am wondering why the top layer of my kimchi turned darker in color but the cabbage underneath still looking bright red. And I have let them fermented for 2 days already.
Hi maangchi!
I made kimchi for the third time a few weeks ago. I made the mistake of using chili powder the first time and made a bad batch. But fixed the mistake a made a delicious second batch. I did everything the same in third batch, but for some reason there is a weird tingly feeling when i eat it, like it’s carbonated. I can tell the batch is fermenting because of the bubbles, but is the carbonation normal?
i’m having trouble finding the hot pepper flakes here, can i use fresh ground chili instead?
Delicious, as always. I added a little ginger to this. Sat on the counter overnight and now it’s in my fridge getting ready for our picnic. Leftover Dubu buchim yangnyumjang, black rice and cabbage and soy bean paste soup with kimchi = our lunch :D
Mangchi could i use large chinese cabbage and chinese/japanese radish to make this?
Hello Maangchi!
I once saw a video where celebrities were making kimchi and they used shrimps to put in the kimchi paste… If I’m allergic to squid, can I use shrimps?
yes, you can. Pick very fresh shrimp if you want to use it. Chop them up and add them to your kimchi paste. But you will have to wait until your kimchi and the shrimp ferment well before eating. Usually saewoojeot (salty shrimp) is used in kimchi as fish sauce. https://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/salted-shrimp
Hi Maangchi, I tried your recipe today, and I can only say it’s excellent :)
Unfortunately I made much to much Kimchi paste. Can I keep that in the fridge until I can prepare some more cabbage, is there anything else I can do with it, or does it go bad quickly?
Congratulations! Keep the leftover paste in the freezer for your next batch of kimchi! Thaw it out and use it.
Hi Maangchi
I came across your blog when I was searching for some Korean food blog.
I watched your video and I had sudden urged me to make some of your recipes. The first I made following your recipes was easy kimchi.
It turned out delicious! That is saying a lot coming from a Korean girl who grew up eating authentic Korean foods. Even my mom, the very good kimchi maker was impress with my first kimchi. Other Korean cooking book was very hard to follow to make good kimchi because of not having exact salt to water ratio for soaking cabbages. I told my mom about you and she wanted to look at some other recipes and try to make some. Her co-worker ask her all the time to give them the recipes and she has hard time giving them the recipes well because she like most Korean home cooks don’t have recipes. She is excited to find out about your blog and now she tells them just go look in Maangchi.com for the recipes.
I am so happy I found your cooking site and looking forward to cook more delicious food.
What a fantastic story it is! I feel very connected to you and your mom! : ) Happy cooking!
hi maangchi!
tq for the recipe, im just looking around to find how to make kimchi & finally i found yours :)
btw, i want to ask, about the sweet rice flour? can i replace it with regular rice flour?
and the hot pepper flakes? can i use the regular pepper powder?
because its too hard to find those two ingridients at my place…
wish u to reply as soon as possible :)
Yes, you can use rice flour or flour. Regular pepper powder? Check this out please. https://www.maangchi.com/talk/topic/chili-powder-versus-red-pepper-powder-or-flakes
Hi,
I am going to make kimchi with the savoy cabbages, leeks, onions and carrots we grow in our garden. Going to look for types of Asian radishes needed locally. Will omit the squid which I think you said is okay to do
I am researching types of Korean chili pepper to use. In your recipe you have Korean Chili Flake and Sweet Rice Flour.
Can these be ordered online? I can not find these locally.
Thanks so much for your ideas ,
Arlene JL
Good luck with make delicious kimchi! Check this out. http://hmart.com/
This is my 3 times making Kimchi & still in love with it :)
Tq maangchi for the recipe!
Making kimchi is easy but takes a “little” times & ur video making it more easy.
Every times I makes kimchi I always give a box or 2 for my friend & sisters, so this korean pickle is a sisterhood-dishes for me :)
tq again!
I post the recipe here:
http://elieslie.blogspot.com/2011/07/mak-kimchi-easy-to-make-kimchi.html
Your kimchi looks great! I will twit about it!
Tq!!
Becoz of u now I can eat Kimchi almost everyday at home :)
Sometimes when I watch korean drama I will always wondering how can I eat that? The korean restaurant that I use to eat is so far away & it’s on the other city – so eating Kimci for me use to be “a dream”
now becoz of u – it’s a dream come true!
Thank you very” much!
Today I serve kimchi makes soup with squid + tofu and zucchini pancake – & we eat with glad – TQ Maangchi! :)
TQ for your update!
Hi Maangchi,
I made kimchi yesterday following your recipe (except I added salted shrimp and an apple which I thought would balance out the taste). And so far I think it’s fermenting beautifully at room temperature. My question today is this:
Can I blend fresh red chillies to make kimchi instead of korean dried pepper flakes? I’m wondering as the pepper flakes tend to be really pricey where I am and I realised it’s cheaper to buy kimchi than to make it. Really sad since I love cooking and I consider making kimchi one of my proudest achievements! :)
“ Can I blend fresh red chillies to make kimch..” Yes, you can, why not?
I’m making my first kimchi tomorrow, and I have an extra large stainless steel bowl. Can I use this for salting my cabbage? I was wondering if there could be a reaction from the metal?
Hi Maangchi, Thanks for showing good recipe and video. I did my Kimchi today for the first time and very excited. I am making BBQ for dinner and will have kimchi and Kimchi fried rice as side dish.
Good morning Maangchi,
My Korean friends mom use to make anchovy kimchi. When I ate it, I don’t remember seeing whole anchovies. Did she take stock-grade anchovies and grind it up into a powder to be mixed into the kimchi porridge? If so, how much ground powder would I need for your recipe above (10 lbs)?
Thank you.
Tim
Hello there :)
Visiting a korean restaurant a few weeks ago reminded me of my childhood. I had alot of Kimchi back then. My aunt made it (she is korean, i am not, sadly).
I really got stuck to the though of learning my favourite korean dishes. Well Kimchi is one of them.
I only have a very small Kitchen and not much Space in general.
So i wanted to ask if you have your recipe somewhere with kilo,gramm or tea/table spoon information. So i could calculate it down to a size i will be able to make (like around 2 Cabbages in maximum) I know its usualy not worth the time it takes but… well i dont have another choice i dont want to buy canned Kimchi from a Store or online and i cant buy small portions from the restaurant nearby (wich si sad theire Kimchi is really awesome)
Oh my ^^ i wrote alot more than i wanted. ^^ Last thing: I really love this site and already know i will read around for a few days here ^^.
best wishes
~berry
Hi berry,
My measuring cup says 240 ml. I checked out Wikipedia and it says mine must be American United States “legal” cup. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_(unit)
The cup currently used in the United States for nutrition labeling is defined in United States law as 240 mL.[1][2][3]
1 U.S. “legal” cup = 240 millilitres
= 16 international tablespoons
= 12 Australian tablespoons
≈ 8.12 U.S. customary fluid ounces
≈ 8.45 imperial fluid ounces
And here is the link for converter that you could use from pound to kilograms. http://www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/converter.asp
I wish the measurements were the same all over the world!
Make kimchi and let me know how it turns out.
Oh thank you so much for this fast reply <3
As soon as i was able to get all the tools i need i definetly will try my best to make Kimchi :3 First this one next radish kimchi <3 and bulgogi ^^
I hope i can make it and can let you know as soon as possible ^^ Its not that easy to get Korean ingredients in Germany or more… where i live ^^
I have another Question.
Can i make Kimchi without Garlic? or is that a total must?
(No one around me eats much garlic so it maybe could become a problem for me u_u )
Thanks alot again :)
Must i use napa cabbage to make kimchi?Because,I don’t think i can find napa cabbage here…can i use green cabbage instead of napa cabbage?
Check this out, https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/yangbaechu-kimchi The kimchi is made with regular cabbage.
Hi, Maangchi!
I am a 2nd gen. Korean American grad student living away from home. I never liked kimchee much but had to start eating it recently for medical reasons (probiotics). I am on a restricted diet (blood type diet) which caused me to modify your recipe.
I cannot thank you enough for the basics!!!
I used – regular savoy cabbage, made my “poohl” with brown rice flour in kefir whey (it becomes super fermented), sea salt, sweet apple cider (instead of Asian pear), go choo kah rooh, vidalia onions, and garlic.
I can’t eat too spicy (never got used to spicy Korean food) but my version has a bit of a sweet tang to it. It is similar to mango salsa. Your recipe was super helpful. I can’t wait to try out your other recipes.
Gam sah hap nee dah!!!
Hi Maangchi. I did a very stupid mistake..It has been a while since I read this post and I finally found red pepper paste in the supermarket, somehow I thought that it is used to make kimchi and bought it>< Thanks in advance for your help.
oh, no! I know how you feel! Frustrated! But as long as you now know what ingredients you need for kimchi making, it is still great. For kimchi, you will have to use hot pepper flakes. https://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/hot-pepper-flakes
There are many recipes on my website that call for hot pepper paste (gochujang). Check them out.
How about making spicy stir-fried pork? It’s very easy and delicious recipe. https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/doejibulgogi
And this recipe: ojingeochae muchim needs lots of hot pepper paste. https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/ojingeochae-muchim
Oh alright. Thanks a lot, Maangchi!:DDD