I love fermented foods, especially since they help my gut. So I am always looking for new ways to add them to my diet, and one way of doing this is to create different styles of things I love so that I can eat them more often with more cuisines.
I spent a lot of time in Vietnam and also have visited South Korea, I love both cuisines and I felt they’d fuse pretty well! So, here we have it, Vietnamese kimchi.
Ingredients:
- 1 Chinese cabbage
- 1 Jicama cubed. or you can use daikon, mooli or any kind of radish
- 3 tbsp Salt
- 1 Onion
- 2 Spring onions
- bunch Morning glory or you could use spinach
- 4 tbsp Gochugaru chilli flakes 3 if you like it less spicy
Paste Mix
- 1/2 Onion roughly chopped
- 3 cloves Garlic peeled and chopped
- 5 cm Fresh ginger peeled and grated
- 1 tsp Golden caster sugar
- 3 tbsp Lemongrass finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp Black pepper
- 1/2 Pineapple chopped
- 3 tbsp Vegan fish sauce or you could try any similar vegan stir fry sauce
Instructions:
- Chop the chinese cabbage into large chunks (approx. 3 cm) and place into a large bowl with the chopped jicama
- Massage the 3 tbsp of salt into the cabbage jicama mix and set aside for 1 hour
- Whilst waiting, blend the paste ingredients in a blender or by using a hand blender until smooth
- Slice the onion, the spring onions and the morning glory finely and set aside
- After the 1 hour, wash and drain the salted veg and leave to dry just a little
- Mix in the other chopped vegetables with the gochugaru chilli flakes and then massage in the paste using your hands (use gloves if you want to avoid getting chilli everywhere)
- Place the kimchi into a sterilised jar making sure there is a few centimetres of space at the top of the jar to allow for any expansion during the fermentation process. Also make sure to push down any air pockets in the jar so that the mix is tightly packed
- Keep the jar in a dark cool area and check on it every day for 3 days, pushing out any more air pockets and bringing the liquid to the surface
- After the 3 days put the jar in the fridge, it is okay to start eating but it will definitely get better with more time so try to keep away from it?(I like to keep mine for a few weeks)
- The kimchi will then keep for up to 6 months, not that it ever lasts that long in my fridge, yum!
Other vegan Vietnamese recipes
What can you eat vegan kimchi with?
If you are eating the kimchi raw, I recommend eating it as a side dish to most Asian rice dishes or mixed into a cold noodle salad. Maybe even try filling some vegan spelt bao buns with some vegan kimchi – yum!
Check out all of my ideas on cooking with vegan kimchi here.
Leave a Reply to Nhan Tran-To Cancel reply