If you love Kimchi, you’ll love Kkadugi (radish kimchi). It’s one of my favourite Korean side dishes and is really easy to make. You can eat it straight away or leave it to ferment in the more traditional way. We quite often have a jar of it in the fridge to eat alongside our dinner – be it ramen, rice and curry or something else.
Kkakdugi is made with cubed daikon radish (although I think it would work well with any type of firm, fresh radish) and is a little sweeter than the cabbage version. Because of this, in South Korea it’s often the preferred choice for children. When Dave was living in Seoul teaching English, his kindergarten class would have it every lunchtime on the side of whatever they were eating which is how I first found out about it!
Ingredients to make one large jar of kkakdugi
- 2 kg daikon radish, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
- 75g salt (for salting the radish)
- 150g gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes)
- 250g sliced spring onions
- 3 tbsp chopped garlic
- 2 tbsp grated ginger
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp salt (for the kimchi paste)
- 3 tbsp sugar
Method
- Salt the radish and cover with water. Leave to stand overnight.
- Drain the water and rinse to remove salt.
- Mix all of the rest of the ingredients together and then add the cubed radish, mixing well.
- Place the mix into a jar or airtight container. Leave it on the side overnight and then transfer to the fridge.
- You can eat this immediately but it’ll get better with time and is optimum after about a week.
Serve this radish kimchi as a side dish with roast meats, rice dishes, bbq, pretty much anything you want. I also sometimes add it to noodles or as an accompaniment to salads and sandwiches at lunch times. Plus, when you get to the end of the jar, just like kimchi, you can use this as a base for a spicy Korean stew like this one.