Sugar and grain free Kimchi?

You dont have to use any sugar or grain products to make kimchi. It can be as simple as gochugaru, salt and cabbage if you wish. I use some Asian pear puree as my sugar source and it works very well.

Honey is a mild antibacterial so its not the best choice for lacto ferments.

My paste is fish sauce, onion, garlic, pepper flakes and Asian pear. It works great. Puree everything but the pepper flakes with a little water or kombu stock. Add pepper flakes to the puree until you have a thick paste.

Freeze any leftover paste.

I use Redboat40n and its excellent fish sauce. Chung Jung One also has a good fish sauce with no sugar. Its the one with the gold label. Its just anchovies and salt.

Asian or even Bosc pear are fantastic for ferments. You wont even taste it after its well fermented. Even fresh the flavor is very subtle. IMO its a must have for kkaktugi especially if you like it semi fresh.

You can make kimchi without sugar and grain/thickener, for that matter. That’s how I used to make it. However I do use fine gochugaru instead of coarse, which is not traditional, but that is the only type available to me. I guess that has the effect of thickening the paste, so I can skip the porridge. Garlic and onions contain some natural sugars, as well as the cabbage and other vegetables to a smaller extent. I liked it this way, once well fermented.

I have now started using sweet rice flour porridge, sugar and pear, and this is also nice, and tastes better fresher, to me. But both are good.

For what it’s worth, I skip all seafood also, as I have a lot of vegetarian friends. But all my kimchi tastes better than the versions I’ve had from a pack or at a restaurant (in the UK) so I don’t mind!