Homemade Kimchi Inspired Spicy Sauerkraut
What does kimchi taste like? It’s spicy, umami, sour and absolutely delicious! Learn how to make kimchi sauerkraut, a spicy sauerkraut recipe with delicious kimchi flavor.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Fermentation Time: 21 days
- Total Time: 504 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 32 servings
- Category: Fermented vegetables
- Method: fermentation
- Cuisine: Korean
Ingredients
- 500 grams green cabbage
- 20 grams unrefined sea salt
- 200 grams filtered water
- 15 grams kimchi spice blend*
- 75 grams carrots, julienned
- 30 grams green onions, chopped
Instructions
- Wash your fermentation equipment (jar, weight, and lid)
- Remove the outer leaves of your cabbage and lightly rinse with cool water. Using a knife, chop the cabbage to your desired thickness. Chop the carrots and onions.
- Place your kitchen scale on the counter. Turn it on and set it to weigh in grams.
- Place a mixing bowl on your kitchen scale and tare/zero the scale.*
- Add the designated amounts of chopped cabbage, green onions, carrots, and kimchi spices.
- Remove the bowl from the scale and set it aside. Place a small, empty bowl on your scale and tare/zero the scale. Weigh out the salt.
- Add the salt into the bowl with the cabbage, and mix with your hands until the cabbage becomes wet.*
- Place your empty, clean mason jar on the scale, and tare/zero the scale. Make sure your scale is still set to grams, and add the water to your mason jar.
- Add the measured water into the bowl with the cabbage and salt. Mix everything well.
- Starting with the liquid, add the entire contents of the bowl into your jar, and pack everything down using a tamper, wooden spoon, or your hand.
- Place your glass fermentation weight in the jar, submerging the cabbage pieces and weight fully into the liquid. If you don’t have enough liquid, place your glass fermentation weight in the jar and submerge as much as possible. Over the next 12 hours, the cabbage should release more liquid, and you can press down your fermentation weight below the brine.
- Secure the solid lid to the jar. You do not need to tighten it all the way. Just secure the lid but leave it ever so slightly loose, so the gas doesn’t build up too much.
- Ferment for 21-28 days, then remove the weight and refrigerate. Don’t forget to burp the jar daily during the bubbly phase, making sure everything stays submerged.
- If you try this recipe and love it, please leave a five-star review below!
Notes
- My kimchi spice blend recipe is in the body of this blog post, right above this recipe card.
- You need a 32 ounce jar for this recipe.
- Taring/zeroing the scale with a container on it subtracts the weight of the container, allowing you to weigh only what is added to the container. After taring/zeroing the scale, the scale should read 0.0 with the container on it.
- If you are sensitive to pepper, wear gloves when mixing.
- For softer kimchi massage the cabbage vigorously in step 7. For crunchier kimchi, gently mix the cabbage.
