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Make This High-Quality Kimchi At Home

Text: Homemade Kimchi with a photo of freshly made kimchi

Why I Love Fermented Kimchi


To start, kimchi is a great source of vitamins as well as probiotics. People who suffer from gut issues may find eating kimchi to be very beneficial. Furthermore, kimchi is ridiculously expensive, and can be made easily, and cheaper, at home!


My recipe was adapted from Attainable Sustainable by Kris Bordessa. If you don't already own this book, I seriously recommend getting it. This book is full of easy things you can do to make yourself more self-sustainable.


Angie's Top Tips For Kimchi


Tip # 1 - Use Sea Salt - this is important for the brine and how quickly the salt dissolves. Sea salt dissolves gradually compared to regular table salt.


Tip # 2 - What To Do If You Don't Have A Glass Weight - simply make a mixture of 4 cups bottled water and 3 Tablespoons Sea Salt. Mix well and pour into a small zip lock bag. You'll need to play with the amount of water to weigh down the ingredients and fit the bag into the jar. This mixture of bottled water to salt will ensure that if the bag breaks, you won't impact your ferment. I suppose you could also fill a bag with marbles and use that, just be sure the marbles are clean in case the bag rips.


Veggies are chopped for kimchi

Additional Kimchi Tips


Tip # 3 - No Fermentation Lid - if you don't have a fermentation lid, don't sweat it! You'll have an added step every day to "burp" the jar. Simply unscrew the ring, lift the lid, and then replace the lid & ring. This allows any gasses to escape. I leave my fermentation lid on even while in the fridge and recommend continuing to burp your container until you've eaten more than half of the kimchi in the jar.


Tip # 4 - To Buy Tools Or To Not Buy Tools - you'll notice my recipe contains many "optional" pieces of equipment. While these tools certainly make fermenting recipes easier, they are not needed if you aren't sure about how many fermenting recipes you will try.

Hopefully, these tips will help you in your kimchi (and fermenting!) journey.


Make Kimchi Your Own


My first tip for making kimchi your own is if you have a kimchi you enjoy, look at the ingredients! Kimchi can have many different veggies (or fruits!) as well as spices.


Below is a list of suggestions that you may want to try in your kimchi.


  • Sub the onion for green onions

  • Add fish sauce

  • Try purple cabbage, note this may turn your kimchi a funny color


I hope you will try kimchi, and come back next week for my next post in this series. I've included a video of how I broke down my veggies.


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