---
title: 'How To Make Kimchi At Home...Easy Mode'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=aXhJcdXPyYI'
video_id: 'aXhJcdXPyYI'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 428
---

# How To Make Kimchi At Home...Easy Mode

> Source: [How To Make Kimchi At Home...Easy Mode](https://youtube.com/watch?v=aXhJcdXPyYI)

## Summary

Kimchi is a trendy fermented food, but making it at home is easy and much better than store-bought. This video demonstrates a simple, step-by-step recipe using napa cabbage, daikon, carrots, and a flavorful paste.

### Key Points

- **Preparing the cabbage** [1:08] — Slice napa cabbage into 1-inch wide strips, season heavily with kosher salt, squeeze and toss, then let sit for at least 30 minutes (ideally 1.5 hours) to release water.
- **Preparing other vegetables** [1:57] — Cut green onions into half-inch segments, julienne carrots, and cut daikon into baton-sized pieces.
- **Making the paste** [3:09] — Blend 2-inch ginger, 1 Asian pear (peeled and cubed), 6 cloves garlic, and 1/4 cup fish sauce into a smooth paste. Then mix with 1/4 cup Korean red pepper flakes (gochugaru).
- **Combining ingredients** [3:56] — Rinse the salted cabbage thoroughly, squeeze out excess water, then combine with other vegetables and the paste. Mix evenly.
- **Fermenting and storing** [4:42] — Pack the mixture into a glass jar, press down to remove air bubbles, and cap loosely. Ferment at room temperature for 4–7 days, tasting daily. Then refrigerate.

## Transcript

yeah so kimchi is very trendy people are
putting on their fries and which I'm
here for but you can't understand Kim
she's full potential until you've made
it yourself and it's really easy so uh
there's no excuses
[Music]
hands down kimchi is one like very
favorite OG fermented foods fermentation
gang typically made with various veggies
like
napa cabbage daikon radish green onion
and in my case carrots its flavor is
totally one-of-a-kind get extremely
versatile you know hence the whole
kimchi fries and kimchi omelette and
kimchi fried rice there's there's all
sorts of ways that this thing can be
used if you've had kissed you before and
you like kimchi then you need to know
that it's incredibly simple to make and
so much better when you do it at home
like many things so without further ado
let's do this now this recipes pretty
simple so this should go by pretty
quickly gonna start with one large napa
cabbage head which is about two pounds
in two ounces or 980 grams and you're
gonna slice that in half lengthwise then
you're gonna cut each of those halves in
half sort of getting quarters and you're
gonna cut each of those quarters into
1-inch wide strips now gonna take all
that cabbage and place it into a large
bowl and season it heavily with kosher
salt and when I say heavily I mean I
want you to over season that bad boy it
is okay you're gonna rinse off the water
and you're gonna wring out that
saltiness but you needed it in order to
pull out the excess water so that it
ferments properly now you're just gonna
squeeze and toss the cabbage in the salt
make sure that you're squeezing the
cabbage real hard it's okay you want to
bruise it up and you're gonna let it sit
for at least 30 minutes but ideally
about an hour and a half while it's
sitting you'll notice that it releases a
ton of water which is a good thing
now while the cabbage is sitting we're
gonna cut the rest our vegetables so
you're gonna start with one bunch of
green onion cut the root bottoms off and
then cut the green onion into half inch
segments then you're gonna roughly
julienne your care
now if you don't want to do that I'll
give you a brief little tutorial all you
got to do is cut the carrot into the
desired length of the segment so I chose
about an inch and a half maybe two
inches and you're gonna cut that segment
into little planks and those planks are
gonna be probably about an eighth of an
inch thick once you have your planks
you're then going to cut the planks
lengthwise with the same width so that
you sort of end up with a long skinny
rectangle now they don't really have to
be perfect you can see that mine or not
in my opinion it's it's kimchee you know
it's supposed to be like a rough chop
just throw it together don't worry about
it too much and also you can always just
buy a mandolin that has a julienne
attachment if you don't want to do this
which I will put a link below in the
description oh and by the way this
portion is gonna be 2 carats worth of
julienne carrot just heads up and you're
gonna peel a medium-sized daikon you're
gonna cut that into sort of the same
thing as the carrots but much thicker
into sort of like batons sized pieces
now you can also do a julienne with this
as well I prefer a little variance in
texture so that's up to you
now we're gonna make our paste you're
gonna start by slicing it a two-inch
segment or 82 grams of peeled ginger
have that to food processor along with 1
large Asian pear peeled and cubed which
will be about 250 grams 6 cloves are 20
grams of peeled garlic and a quarter cup
or 60 milliliters of fish sauce my
personal favorite brand you'd be red
boat I'll put a link in description for
the one that I use and then you're gonna
blend that until it's as smooth as you
can get it'll hit a certain point where
it won't really get much more smooth and
that's okay transfer that pace to a
medium-sized bowl and mix that paste
together with a quarter cup or 52 grams
of Korean red pepper flakes you can use
a little more if you like I actually
ended up using about a third cup in 65
grams but my red pepper flakes weren't
too spicy so just be careful because it
will get super spicy
what's the cabbages sat in the salt
you're gonna drain it through a colander
and then rinse it with water while
squeezing at the same time rinse toss
and squeeze until you've washed off the
majority of the salt that's on the
cabbages okay if it's still a little bit
salted but you don't want it to be
overwhelmingly salty if your batch ends
up too salty it is because you did not
wash the cabbage enough so beware of
that drain the water that you rinse the
cabbage with and then add all the
vegetables that you cut to the cabbage
in a large
from there you're gonna add all of the
pace that you just made to the
vegetables and they're gonna toss too
thoroughly and evenly coat with the
chili paste now you can use your hands
with this I use my bare hands not
advisable very spicy you'll get a
burning sensation in your hands and if
you have a problem with that maybe wear
gloves or just use a rubber or wooden
utensil once the mixture is thoroughly
and evenly coated you're gonna pack that
into a half gallon glass jar or some
sort of container that is large enough
to fit them just make sure that it's
glass the problem with metal is that it
reacts with the acidity that this is
going to develop later on that's no good
so you want something that's nonreactive
then using a spoon or a wooden muddler
you're gonna press down all that
vegetables so it's just packed together
as possible you don't want any air
bubbles in there and if there's any
juice in there to get it to cover the
vegetables and then you're gonna loosely
cap it off make sure that you don't
tighten it all the way down cause it's
gonna release some gas we don't want to
turn this into a bomb and you're gonna
let it ferment for four to seven days
now I want you to taste it at day four
and see if you want it to go longer the
longer it goes the more acidic and the
more sort of fermenting it's gonna taste
so just depends on how ripe you like it
the longer the more ripe I let mine go
for six days now you might notice along
your little journey that there are
little air bubbles becoming present or
may start to bubble that is totally
normal that is just the lactobacillus
and various other good bacteria that are
releasing carbon dioxide in there and
that's totally normal just keep pressing
it down to keep that juice compact once
your kimchi has reached the desired
flavor point you can then tighten the
cap all the way and store it in the
refrigerator and then at this point it's
good and ready to eat it'll stay good in
the fridge for a long time I've had
stuff to stay in there for like three
months I mean it's not gonna probably
you're gonna eat it all before it goes
bad all right guys and that is it this
recipe turned out perfectly and it was
so wonderfully hands off like I really
didn't have to do anything I just let it
sit there Kim she was really high up on
requests from all you guys so thank you
for that I really appreciate you telling
me what you like to see you know and
luckily there are things that I like to
make so it works out it's a symbiotic
relationship that right symbiotic
they're gonna they would destroy me in
the comments if I got that wrong
it's okay I'm just gonna seize nails I
scratch your back you scratch mine okay
well then I just won't say anything with
all that said if you enjoyed this video
or you learned something leave a like
subscribe and I will see you next week
[Music]