Whole napa cabbage salted, rested, and packed with a gochugaru paste, then fermented at room temperature before moving to the fridge. This is the vegan version — no fish sauce or salted shrimp — a common modern variant of the fridge staple found in nearly every Korean household.
Salt the cabbage
Cut the cabbage quarters through the core, then rub coarse salt between every leaf.
Brine and rest
Submerge the salted cabbage in the water in a large bowl or tub, weigh it down with a plate, and let it sit until the leaves go limp and pliable.
Rinse the cabbage
Rinse each quarter under cold water two or three times to wash off the excess salt, then drain well.
10 minMake the rice porridge
Whisk the glutinous rice flour into the water in a small pot and cook, stirring, until it thickens into a thin porridge, then let it cool.
5 minMix the paste
Stir the cooled porridge together with the gochugaru, garlic, ginger, and sugar into a thick red paste.
Add the vegetables
Fold the daikon and scallion into the paste.
Season the cabbage
Rub the paste between every leaf of each cabbage quarter, working it all the way down to the core.
Pack and ferment
Pack the seasoned cabbage tightly into a clean jar, pressing down so the liquid rises above the cabbage, and leave it at room temperature to ferment for a day before you first taste it.
Refrigerate
Once it's fermented to your taste, store the jar in the refrigerator, where it will keep improving for weeks.
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