I’m so proud of this recipe! I spent a lot of time researching kimchi while in Korea. In the end, I made my own kimchi paste recipe & it is gooo-ooo-d! Now I’m playing around with using the paste & fermenting various vegetables. This was my first time trying this and after living in Korea for 3 years, it was the first & only time I had seen brussels sprouts in the country. I bought all of them.

No joke. I was so excited that I bought all they had in the store & ate them for a week straight. Then I took what was left of my prized brussels & fermented them into kimchi.

To make this kimchi, you will need either a medium sized jar, cylindrical in shape with a large mouth & an air tight seal or a rectangular shaped, thick plastic storage box with locks on all four sides. Or if you’re feeling fancy, get yourself a kimchi pot!

This is the jar I used. I found it at Daiso, possibly the greatest dollar store ever! It worked fine for my five days of fermentation.

You will also need Gochugaru, Korean red pepper powder. I do not recommend substituting with other types of pepper powders as gochugaru has a very distinct taste. Gochugaru can be found at Korean or Asian marts.

These are some of the other ingredients needed: fish sauce, rice flour & sugar.

The sprouts will need to pickle in salt & water for a few hours.

While they are pickling, you can prepare the kimchi paste. Put the above ingredients along with onion, ginger & garlic in a blender & puree.

Once the sprouts are softened from soaking, drain them, preserving the pickling liquid & rinse them twice. Then coat each sprout half with the paste.

Pour the sprouts & paste in your jar (or pot or container) & cover with the pickling liquid leaving 1 inch of space at the top. Seal tight & keep in a dark space away from sunlight. Open the jar once every day to stir the sprouts around a bit.

During the fermentation process you will see bubbles form from the kimchi releasing gases. This is a good thing! It creates the tangy flavor & as the kimchi ferments it is forming its own vinegar, in away, preserving good bacteria. Do be aware of the pressure that builds from these gases. If you are using an appropriate container you should be safe from this. However, I once over filled a much smaller jar & experienced kimchi explosion! Talk about a stanky-stank mess. I will be sharing pictures from that in a later post.

Below you can see the difference in my sprouts kimchi from day 1 of fermentation to day 5. The paste is thicker & the sprouts have absorbed it. It was ripe for eating by day 5.