Kimchi paste

10 min

This magic paste could be used not only to make kimchi but also to roast vegetables (try potatoes!), meat, chicken, or in soups.

Ingredients

Yields 600 ml

1 cup of chile flakes
2 tablespoons of kosher salt
1 tablespoon of coconut sugar
2 heads of garlic
100 g of horseradish or ginger
1 onion
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
2 tablespoons of vinegar
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
½ cup of water

Warnings

Soy sauce is likely not gluten-free and contains wheat.

You will need

blender

Directions

In a blender, combine all dry ingredients: chili flakes, salt, and coconut sugar. Mix until you have a consistent powder.
Peel the garlic, horseradish or ginger, and onion. Quarter the onion.
Add the remaining ingredients to the blender: garlic, horseradish or ginger, onion, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, and ½ cup of water. Mix until they form a smooth paste. Add more water if the paste is too thick.

Notes & tips

We use a mix of dry chilis we brought from Mexico (5–7 arbol, 2 guajillos, 1–2 ancho). You could use gochugaru or any spicy chili flakes you can find.

The paste will keep forever in a sealed container in the fridge.

The easiest way to peel garlic is to smash it: put a clove of garlic on a cutting board, put your chef’s knife on top of it so the blade side lays on the clove, and hit the side of the knife with your hand. Now you could peel the clove.

This recipe is based on Roy Choi’s recipe from MasterClass.

Explore ingredients

Ingredients explorer

Name	Kind	Contains
Chile flakes	Vegan
Coconut sugar	Vegan
Fish sauce	Fish
Garlic	Vegan
Ginger	Vegan
Horseradish	Vegan
Onion	Vegan
Oyster sauce	Fish
Salt	Vegan
Soy sauce	Vegan	Gluten
Vinegar	Vegan
Water	Vegan