Spicy Stinging Nettle Kimchi Recipe
It’s spring time, so let’s make stinging nettle kimchi! This spicy, umami, salty, funky, herbaceous, fermented goodness can be made in about 15 minutes, and then left on your counter to develop that amazing fermented flavor. Enjoy the best of spring foraging with a little homemade fermentation, in a simple, vegan and gluten-free kimchi, that contains no refined sugar or fish sauce.
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Disclaimer- use caution when foraging wild edibles, and always be certain of your identification. While I assume responsibility for the accuracy of the information provided on this site, I can’t responsible for the accuracy of your information. Consult multiple websites, books and local experts, and when it doubt, do without.
Foraging Stinging Nettles
Stinging nettles (aka Urtica dioica) are a wild growing plant, often considered a weed, that can be found in the northern parts of North America, Asia, and Europe. These highly nutritious greens can be found along roadsides, at the edges of fields, and just about everywhere once you start looking.
Nettles first appear in the New England area around April, and are best for eating while they’re still under 6 inches or so in height. As they grow older into the summer, they get tough and are no longer great for eating although they can still be used for tea. Some people also continue to eat the older tips, but I prefer only to eat spring nettles. Nettles will come back in the same places year after year, so once you find a good patch you can continue to pick there as long as you make sure not to over pick.
Stinging nettles grow from a single stalk, and you will typically find many plants growing together. Young stinging nettles are often purple in color, and as they get older they fade to green. The plants grow small, with jagged, oval or heart shaped leaves that are arranged opposite on the stalk. While the young plants you want to eat are only a few inches tall, they will eventually grow to be as tall as 8 feet high. The easiest way to tell if a stinging nettle is a nettle, is to reach down and touch it’s stalk or the underside of some of the leaves. The plants are covered with thin, tiny hairs, and part of the plants defense to being picked are the array of stinging chemicals that the nettles inject you with when touched. While the sting can be painful or itchy, it will fade and isn’t too big of a deal.
Young plants may not sting you yet, but you can use gloves when handling them if you want to make sure not to get sting. The nettles are rendered harmless by boiling, crushing, or letting them wilt on your counter. Once the sting is gone, you’re left with one of the most nutritious super-vegetables. They are high in vitamin A, C, K, and B vitamins. Additionally, they are high in iron, calcium, potassium, and silica. Nettles have a distinct, herbaceous flavor that add a lot of fun to this kimchi, and, once the sting is gone, cook sort of like spinach.
Looking for Stinging Nettle Recipes? Try one of these!
- Stinging Nettle Recipe: Falafel with Nettle Yogurt Sauce
- Garlic and Herb Vegan Nettle Breadsticks (Urtica dioica)
- Lentil and Nettle Soup: Stinging Nettle Benefits & Recipe
- Spring Stinging Nettle Pasta with Vegan Parmesan
What is Kimchi?
Kimchi is a traditional Korean dish that goes way back in Korean households. It is made of fermented vegetables (most often napa cabbage, although other vegetables are also used), and a spicy paste featuring ginger, garlic, and gochugaru, a Korean chili powder. If you are buying kimchi at a store or resturant, make sure to check the ingredients as kimchi will often contain fish sauce. It’s tangy from fermentation, salty, savory, umami, spicy, and sometimes a little sweet. It has recently gained a lot of popularity in the United States, especially as fermented foods and probiotics have been getting more attention. Unlike some fermented foods, you don’t need to add a culture to make kimchi, you can let you kimchi gather all the microorganisms it needs from the air around you. In Korea, kimchi can be eaten at any meal, as well as used as an ingredient in other dishes like Sundubu-jjigae (a tofu and kimchi stew), fried rice, or in Korean pancakes. Kimchi is fairly similar to sauerkraut, but the main thing that really sets it apart is the gochugaru. The chili pepper gives kimchi it’s distinct flavor, as well as its rich, red color, and is the most important part of making your kimchi taste like kimchi. Look for gochugaru as a powder at your local Korean grocery market, or specialty spice stores. Of course, you can also always find your chili powder online.
Looking for Vegan Korean-Inspired Recipes? Try one of these!
- Vegan Korean Corn Dogs from Carrots
- Stir-Fried Korean Sweet Potato Noodles (Japchae)
- Vegan Chili Braised Tofu, Korean-Style
- Vegan Spicy Korean Radish Salad
How to Make Stinging Nettle Kimchi
I know a lot of people find the idea of making fermented foods at home intimating, but if you’re willing to forage your own nettles, you probably also are brave enough to try your own kimchi. And it’s really not that scary, I promise! Here are a few tips, for homemade ferment safety:
- Sterilize your jars- in order to make sure you’re not starting out with anything suspect, you can use hot water to sterilize your container. You can do this by running your jar through a dish washer, or by letting it sit in boiling water for around 10 minutes.
- Don’t adjust a recipe! Adjusting the flavors and add ins a little is one thing, but don’t try and skimp or add to the salt, sugar, or acid in a recipe, especially the salt, as those ingredients are included strategically to encourage the microorganisms you want, and exclude any bad bacteria you don’t want.
- Remember this catchy saying- “In brine, all fine. In air, beware”. Your vegetables (stinging nettles, in this case) should be fermenting in an anerobic environment. So if the nettles are weighted down under the brine, you’re A-OK. But if they are floating at the surface, or there isn’t enough liquid to cover them, they are exposed to the air and may be growing some bacteria that are not safe for humans.
And that’s about it for fermentation. For this recipe specifically, we start by adding salt and nettles to a bag, and rolling over it with a rolling pin before letting it sit. This step will deactivate the sting of the nettles, and also soften and release moisture from the leaves. To give our kimchi a little more flavor, texture, and body, we also added radish and scallions, cut into matchstick-sized pieces. The third element is a paste, made with pear, onions, ginger, garlic, miso paste, and gochugaru all blended together. To put it all together, rinse the nettles from excess salt and mix them with the radish, scallions, and chili paste. Massage it all together, and pack it into a jar, making sure the nettles are really packed down. Use a weight (I use ones like this) to make sure your nettles stay down, and then take a step back. Let those microorganisms get in there and do their work. Give them a check every day, making sure it’s still packed down and covered in brine. After a few days, give it a taste. The longer you leave it, the more intense the flavors will get. Once your kimchi reaches peak deliciousness according to you, throw it in the fridge. It should last a good long time, and can be added to all sorts of meals.
Spicy Stinging Nettle Kimchi Recipe
Ingredients
- 100 young stinging nettle tips
- 2 tbsp. salt
- 100 g. Korean radish or daikon
- 3 scallions
- ½ fresh pear
- ¼ medium-sized onion
- 1 tbsp. miso paste
- 3 cloves garlic
- Piece of ginger, about an inch long
- 4 tbsp. gochugaru (Korean chili powder)
Instructions
- Rinse your stinging nettle tips. Place them in a large ziplock bag, along with the salt. Remove extra air, and roll over the closed bag with a rolling pin several times. This will help to remove the sting from the nettles. Let the nettles sit in the bag with the salt for about an hour, as they release moisture.
- In the meantime, cut the radish into pieces about the size of a matchstick. Cut the scallions in half, and cut them to a similar length. Set your veggies aside. To make the spicy paste, combine your pear half (stem and seeds removed), onion, miso paste, garlic, ginger, chili powder, and 2 tbsp. water in a blender. Blend until smooth. Also sterilize a clean jar, wide-mouth, half gallon mason jar. You can do this by letting it run a full cycle in your dishwasher, or placing it in boiling water for 10 minutes.
- Once your nettles have sat, rinse them under cool water to remove excess salt, and shake dry. They should be sting-free by now. Place the nettles, radish, scallions, and chili paste into a bowl, and mix well to cover all the nettles in the chili paste. The best way to do this is with your hands- many people like to use gloves to avoid getting chili in any little cuts on your hands.
- Pack the kimchi into your sterilized jar. Use a weight to make sure all the nettles remain submerged in the chili brine. Top with a lid, and find a home for it for the next few days. Somewhere warm and not directly in sunlight is ideal- I just leave mine on my countertop. Let it sit at room temperature for 4-7 days, opening the jar once a day so pressure doesn’t build up. Check daily to make sure the nettles are still submerged. At the fourth day, taste a little kimchi and decide if you want to let it ferment longer. Once the flavor is where you like it, transfer the jar to the fridge and enjoy.
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