Easy Korean Cubed Radish Kimchi Recipe (Kkakdugi)

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This spicy Korean Radish Kimchi is salty, crunchy, and oh-so-satisfying, with gut-healthy probiotics and ingredients that boost your metabolism!

Korean Radish Kimchi Recipe

Also known in Korean as “kkakdugi”, this kimchi uses cubed daikon rather than the standard cabbage kimchi. This side dish, or banchan, is great served alongside fattier Asian meals, such as Spicy Korean Pork Belly.

Kimchi comes in many shapes and forms.

The most common is probably cabbage kimchi, which you can find at most Asian grocery stores.

However, my very favorite kimchi is kkakdugi, the spicy radish kimchi, as it has more of a satisfying “crunch” than the cabbage variety.

A kid-friendly radish kimchi recipe

Kind of like caviar…only much, much stinkier!

There are several variations of radish kimchi. Some variations use more sugar. Others incorporate shrimp.

This was the recipe I used when I first started making kimchi, which I then changed up a bit to suit my taste.

Because this is our family kimchi recipe, I have purposely made it a little milder and slightly less sweet…my whole family love this stuff, including my 3-year-old and 5-year-old!

They actually beg for it when I have a jar in the fridge. I would have never guessed in million years that kimchi would be one of my kids favorite foods, but there you go!

Besides being tasty, radish kimchi also has health benefits.

Because it is fermented, it contains bacteria and probiotics that aid in digestion and gut health. Purportedly, it also has such benefits as lowering cholesterol, helping one to lose weight, preventing certain cancers, etc.

To make Korean Radish Kimchi you will need:

Here are the ingredients you need to make radish kimchi.

Ingredients:

• 2-2.5 lbs daikon
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1/2 a red apple
• 1/2 small brown onion
• 3Tbsp fish sauce
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 2 Tbsp + 2 Tbsp gochugaru (FYI, this is a pound of it!)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 Tbsp rice flour

You are also going to need to have the following appliances and tools:

Tools:

• Airtight jar (I used an old kimchi jar that looks exactly like this; DO NOT use plastic)
• Colander
• Food processor
• Several bowls of varying sizes
• Food safe vinyl gloves

Authentic Korean recipes use raw sugar and rock salt, but because I like to keep things simple, I just use regular old Morton salt and white sugar. I have never had a complaint about the taste of my kimchi 😉

Preparing the radish kimchi base

When you are preparing the spicy kimchi base paste, you will first mix the rice flour into the water and microwave.

Before microwaving it will look like this:

After microwaving it will look like this.

Start with the first stated amount of time on the microwave and increase in small increments until you get a gooey consistency.

The secret to good radish kimchi

One key factor in making great radish kimchi is to make sure you get as much water out of the daikon as possible.

This is achieved by coating the cubed daikon in a salt/sugar mixture for an hour, which through the process of osmosis will draw the water out of the daikon. *Woohoo for science!*

Look how much water came out of my daikon from the salt soak!

Removing water from radish kimchi

After the salt/sugar soak, you need to rinse the excess salt and sugar off of the daikon with cool water. You will still need to try and squeeze out as much water as possible out following that step.

My trick is to place it in a colander over a deep mixing bowl and use another bowl to push down GENTLY to squeeze out the excess water.

Gently is the key word here.

I was still able to get quite a bit of water out of my daikon with this extra step.

Seperating the gochugaru

Also, you will notice that I had you separate the 4 Tbsp of gochugaru into 2 + 2 Tbsp.

The first 2 Tbsp will be mixed into the spicy base paste and the second into the daikon itself.

Now you are ready to make some awesome kimchi.

Make sure you share with you non-kimchi-loving friends to convert them into kimchi lovers 🙂

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Korean Radish Kimchi Recipe (KKakdugi)

This spicy Korean Radish Kimchi Recipe (also known as kkakdugi) is salty, crunchy, and oh-so satisfying as a side or a quick snack. It also features gut-healthy probiotics and ingredients that boost your metabolism.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Korean

Prep Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Author Marissa

Ingredients

• 2-2.5 lbs daikon
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions 1/2 inch pieces

Dry soak

• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 Tbsp sugar

Spicy base paste

• 1/2 small red apple peeled, cored, and chopped
• 1/2 small brown onion peel removed and chopped
• 3 Tbsp fish sauce
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 2 + 2 Tbsp gochugaru (Korean chili pepper flakes) 4 Tbsp total; keep seperated

Rice paste

• 1/4 cup water
• 1 Tbsp rice flour

Instructions

Prepare the rice paste

1. Mix the 1 Tbsp rice flour into the water and microwave for 1 minute. Remove and stir. If not solid, replace and microwave for another 30 seconds. Repeat until you have a semi-solid, gooey paste. Place aside to cool.

Prepare the daikon

1. Peel the daikon and cut off both ends. Cut the daikon into small cubes, about 1/2 by 1/2 inches. 

2. Place the cubed daikon in a large bowl. 

3. Mix the sugar and the salt together and add to the cubed daikon, stirring with your hands until combined and daikon is completely coated with the dry soak.

4. Set aside for 1 hour.

Prepare the spicy base paste

1. Place the chopped onion, chopped red apple, garlic, and fish sauce in the food processor and blend at fast speed until pureed.

2. Add the rice paste mixture and 2 Tbsp of gochugaru to the food processor as well and blend on medium speed until all ingredients are combined. Set aside.

Rinse the daikon

1. Once 1 hour has passed, rinse the daikon under cool water until all the excess salt and sugar have been removed. Drain in a colander and repeat several times.

2. Place the colander over a mixing bowl so that it it suspended over it without touching the bottom. Taking a smaller bowl, gently press upon the daikon so that all excess water is squeezed out of the daikon. Move the bowl all around while pressing to get all the water out. Be careful not to crush the daikon.

3. Leave to rest over the bowl to drain an additional 5 minutes.

Prepare the kimchi

1. Place the cubed daikon in a different bowl and add the remaining 2 Tbsp of gochugaru. Mix with a gloved hand until the daikon is coated with the gochugaru. 

2. Add the green onions. Finally, add the spicy base paste and mix with your gloved hand until thoroughly combined.

Ferment

1. Place the kimchi in a large, airtight container on the counter at room temperature for approximately 6-12 hours. Then, place in the fridge.

2. Wait at least 1 day for the fermentation to improve the flavor of the daikon and enjoy with your favorite meal. Best after 3+ days.