You know when you see something online and you get this boost of motivation to make it? That’s what happened to me with kimchi. I love eating it but I’ve never tried making it before. I know it takes days and some hands on time but I thought it would be fun to do. So I did it.. or at least I tried.

I found this online (Kimchi Recipe) and it seemed simple enough to follow. I had all the ingredients except for the korean red pepper flakes (these give kimchi the classic bright red colour and heat). I figured I could substitute sriracha for those because it would provide the same spice component. I think I missed out on some flavour though. I also swapped out daikon for carrot.

Anyways, I followed that recipe to a tee, aside from those other things. I let my kimchi ferment for 2 days, tasted it at that point and then put it in the fridge. I thought it tasted “ripe” enough. So now, it’s been in the fridge for a week and I’m honestly impressed with the taste, it almost tastes like real kimchi.

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This was my first time dealing with food fermentation so who knows if I actually did it right though. If you’re going to make kimchi, I would recommend getting all the correct ingredients because that really increases your chances of success. I looked afterward and saw that you can buy the red pepper flakes (gochugaru) online so I will definitely do that if I try again. Overall, it wasn’t a bad experience and now I just get to enjoy a big jar of kimchi – you can see I’ve already dug in haha.