Mom's Kimchi Recipe | Korean Food 김치 (2024)

Mom's Kimchi Recipe | Korean Food 김치 (1)Pin

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Want to make home made kimchi? Here’s an easy recipe to follow.

While my mom was in town this month, she taught me how to make her kimchi recipe. I’ve been feeling an urgency to learn the basics, because I never know when I’ll have the chance again. I can always go off of recipes online, but it can never match the same nostalgic taste of a Korean home cooked meal growing up.

P.S. I started a new recipe blog with my mom calledMom’s Korean Recipes.

Mom's Kimchi Recipe | Korean Food 김치 (2)Pin

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Last Updated: August 31, 2023

Content Menu

  • Kimchi Recipe Ingredients
  • Directions on How to Make Kimchi
  • Chef’s Notes
  • More Korean Recipes

Mom’s Authentic Kimchi Recipe

A friend of ours recently documented her grandmother’s life story on video, and it made me wish I had done that for my grandma before her Alzheimer’s set in. It’s been really hard to shake the fact that life is so temporary.

All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off.”

I used to be impatient about life and be anxious about what’s coming next, but now I feel like everything is passing by so fast. I regret not sitting down with my grandmother to hear her stories. Not just stories of her being a grandmother, but ones as a mother, as a wife, and as a child. I often forget that she once was like me, too.

It also seems that with each passing generation that is raised in the States, we lose more of the stories, we lose more of our culture, and we lose our family recipes.

I’m what they call a 1.5 generation, but probably closer to second generation since I moved to the U.S. when I was two and a half. I hardly speak Korean anymore and don’t cook much Korean food. Making my mom’s kimchi was abucket listitem that I’ve been putting off for a long time, but this month we decided to make it happen!

Kimchi Ingredients

  • One napa cabbage
  • 2 tablespoon of salt
  • 1 tablespoon ofsweet rice flour
  • 1/2 cup ofKorean hot chili pepper flakes
  • 4 tablespoon fish sauce (my mom lovesthis onebest)
  • 2 tablespoon sugar
  • 3 green onions
  • 1/4 medium-sized onion
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tsp of ginger, minced

Pro Tip: Use gloves to keep your hands from getting stained.

See More: Korean Banchan Dried Squid Recipe

Mom's Kimchi Recipe | Korean Food 김치 (3)Pin

Directions for Making Kimchi

  1. Dissolve salt in 1 and 1/2 cups of water.
  2. Chop up napa cabbage and soak in salt water for 3-4 hours or until soft. (Can take up to 6 hrs.)
  3. To make the paste, add the sweet rice flour and one cup of water to a pot.
  4. Put over medium heat and continue to stir until thickened (about 5 mins).
  5. Transfer paste to a large bowl and add the korean chili pepper flakes, fish sauce, and sugar.
  6. Mix well and let the paste cool.
  7. Add green onions, onions, garlic, and ginger to the paste and mix.
  8. Once the cabbage is soft, remove from salt water and rinse thoroughly (we rinsed 3x).
  9. Massage paste into the cabbage and store in a jar.
  10. Serve immediately if you like fresh kimchi. If you like it more fermented, wait until it fits your tastes.

If you need to see a more detailed process through photos here they are:

Step 2:This is the chopped napa cabbage.

Mom's Kimchi Recipe | Korean Food 김치 (4)

Soak the napa cabbage until it’s soft and limp like the photo below.

Mom's Kimchi Recipe | Korean Food 김치 (5)

Step 4:This is what the rice flour paste looks after you stir it over heat.

Mom's Kimchi Recipe | Korean Food 김치 (6)

Step 7:All the ingredients mixed into the paste.

Mom's Kimchi Recipe | Korean Food 김치 (7)

Step 9:This is what it looks like to massage the paste into the kimchi.

Mom's Kimchi Recipe | Korean Food 김치 (8)Pin

Chef’s Notes

  • If you don’t like your kimchi really spicy, put less hot chili pepper flakes. I put double the amount my mom puts in (1 cup). She likes her food milder while nothing tastes too spicy for me.
  • Depending on the size of the napa cabbage, you might not need to use all the paste. If you have extra paste, you can make cucumber kimchi or try mixing it into other veggies.
  • Whenever you take out any kimchi, press down the remaining kimchi and submerge it in the liquid, or the kimchi will become very bitter and alter the flavor.

Do you like how I put them in mason jars? It’s my Korean heritage combined with twelve years of living in the South. ;)

Let me know if there was anything confusing about the recipe, and I can try to clarify. If you end up making it, let me know how you like it! Do you have any family favorite recipes that you’ve learned lately or want to learn?

Kimchi is definitely an acquired taste. One that Jacob has not acquired yet. haha

See More: Korean Chicken Soup Recipe

More Korean Recipes

  • How to Make Korean Cucumber Side
  • Korean Perilla Leaf Kimchi Recipe
  • How to Make Beef Bulgogi
  • Korean Spicy Rice Cake Recipe
  • How to Make Doenjang Stew

Have you tried kimchi before? What did you think? Have you tried making kimchi before? Would love to hear what you think if you try this kimchi recipe.

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Esther + Jacob

Esther and Jacob are the founders of Local Adventurer, one of the top 5 travel blogs in the US. They believe that adventure can be found near and far and hope to inspire others to explore locally. They explore a new city in depth every year and currently base themselves in Las Vegas.

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Tags: Asian Recipes, Banchan Recipes, Korean Food Recipes, Tried and True Recipes

Mom's Kimchi Recipe | Korean Food 김치 (2024)

FAQs

Does kimchi count as one of your 5 a day? ›

Nutritional figures will vary depending on the ingredients used. An 80g serving contributes a portion towards your five-a-day.

How long do you soak napa cabbage in salt water for kimchi? ›

The vegetables need to soak in saltwater for at least 6 hours and preferably overnight. The kimchi can sit at room temperature for up to 2 days and is ready to eat after 2 to 3 days. For longer fermentation, refrigerate.

What is the difference between sauerkraut and kimchi? ›

Vegetables: You can make kimchi in many different ways, whereas sauerkraut has more defined limits. Baechu-kimchi is the closest to sauerkraut in that it has a simple cabbage base without any additional veggies. Sauerkraut is always cabbage, whereas kimchi can encompass a panoply of fermented vegetables.

What are the health benefits of eating kimchi? ›

Because it's a fermented food, it boasts numerous probiotics. These healthy microorganisms may give kimchi several health benefits. It may help regulate your immune system, promote weight loss, fight inflammation, and even slow the aging process. If you enjoy cooking, you can even make kimchi at home.

Can eating kimchi every day destroy gut bacteria? ›

Along with fiber, vitamins, and minerals, kimchi contains natural probiotic bacteria. If you eat them regularly, the probiotics in fermented foods can be beneficial to your gut microbiome. Studies suggest that eating kimchi on a daily basis could help to improve some digestive problems.

Is kimchi good for losing belly fat? ›

Researchers from the Chung Ang University in South Korea have found that men who ate kimchi several times a day were less likely to be overweight or carry belly fat, the riskiest type of fat most often linked to diabetes.

Which salt is best for kimchi? ›

I want to take a moment here to emphasize that selecting the right type of salt for kimchi is incredibly important. Natural sea salt is the salt of choice for most Koreans making kimchi, but I've found that kosher salt is a very good substitute.

How many days do you leave kimchi out to ferment? ›

The kimchi fermentation process is very short in comparison to making sauerkraut. Kimchi ferments at room temperature in only 1-2 days or more slowly in the refrigerator. For safety, kimchi should be stored refrigerated and is best eaten within 1 week, as the quality of kimchi deteriorates with longer fermentation.

What if kimchi is not enough brine? ›

In recipes such as sauerkraut or kimchi, it is the salt that soaks the vegetables. If the vegetables you are using are dry and do not create enough brine, simply add a little salted water to cover them properly (see Salt and Brine in Lacto-Fermentation: The Ultimate Guide).

Is kimchi or kefir better? ›

The winner? Kefir, and by a long shot. It clocked in significantly higher than the rest with a whopping 27.7 billion CFU per 1 cup serving. Other heavyweights are yogurt and kimchi at 3.6 billion CFU per 1 cup serving and 2.6 billion CFU per ½ cup serving, respectively.

Does Costco sell kimchi? ›

Original Kimchi, 2 L | Costco.

What to eat with kimchi? ›

Make kimchi and use it to make fried rice, hot dogs, pancakes, co*cktails, braises — basically any dish — even better. As the national dish of South Korea, kimchi is a staple in kitchens around the world.

Do Koreans eat kimchi every day? ›

In the modern world of today, many Koreans still live by sticking to the ancient wisdoms and traditions, including eating kimchi on daily basis and participating in kimjang.

Is kimchi anti-inflammatory? ›

Research suggests that regularly eating fermented foods, including kimchi, may lower inflammation.

Does kimchi count as a vegetable serving? ›

Kimchi is a Korean fermented vegetable side dish and has been increasingly recognized as a functional food and gained popularity when listed among the “World's Healthiest Foods” in the magazine “Health”. Health benefit of kimchi is a low-calorie (18 kcal/100 g) and low-fat (0.5 g/100 g) plant-based food.

How much kimchi do you have to eat to get full benefits? ›

Eating up to three daily servings of kimchi could reduce men's risk of obesity. Also, radish kimchi is associated with a lower prevalence of abdominal obesity in both men and women, according to a new study. The findings were published in the journal, BMJ Open.

Is it okay to eat kimchi every day? ›

Kimchi is often served as a side dish alongside other healthful vegetables and proteins. Researchers noted in the study that consuming more than three servings of kimchi a day could have the opposite benefit. Participants who ate more than five servings of kimchi per day were more likely to be at a risk for obesity.

Which foods do not count as the 5 A Day? ›

Potatoes don't count towards your 5 A Day. This is the same for yams, cassava and plantain, too. They're classified nutritionally as a starchy food, because when they're eaten as part of a meal they're usually used in place of other sources of starch, such as bread, rice or pasta.

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