Kimchi: Why This
Delicious Korean Staple is Also a Health Wonderfood
(Includes a Kimchi Recipe!)
The next time you take a family picture, point the camera and have
everyone say, "Kimchi!" Koreans use the word kimchi when they
take pictures the same way Americans say "cheese!" This sour,
spicy Korean dish is one of the five healthiest foods in the world,
according to Health magazine.
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Have you heard of kimchi, the Korean fermented food that Health magazine
named one of the "top five healthiest foods in the world?"
If not, then you are missing out on health benefits like: lowered cholesterol,
improved digestion, essential vitamins and minerals, and live probiotics.
What Is KIMCHI?
Kimchi has been a staple of Korean cuisine for centuries and is served with
every meal. With this delicious and nutritious food on the menu, it's no wonder
that Koreans, who traditionally eat a diet based on vegetables, grains, and
fermented foods, are some of the healthiest people on the planet.
Koreans do eat small amounts of protein including meat and seafood, but their
consumption of fermented kimchi is what sets their diet apart.
Traditional kimchi is made from cabbage, garlic, red pepper, and salt. Some
people like to add other flavors, using scallions or ginger. Another option
is to include shredded apple for a touch of sweetness.
Regardless of ingredients, the vegetables are chopped into bite-sized pieces
or are shredded. They are then mixed together with seasonings and fermented
(in the olden days they were buried underground in earthenware pots, where
they fermented at a constant 55-degree temperature.)
The result is a nutrient-dense superfood that is healthier than almost anything
else you can possibly eat.
Kimchi for Life
Koreans have known for many centuries what other cultures are just now discovering:
fermented foods are the key to a healthy digestive system and immunity.
New studies shed light on kimchi's effectiveness in fighting viral infections
and point to kimchi as a potential cancer fighter.
Other evidence shows that the fermentation process multiplies the availability
of the vitamins, minerals and all other nutrients in kimchi and indicates
that the probiotics in kimchi are crucial to our well being.
Here at Body Ecology, we are excited about the attention kimchi is getting
in the media because it increases awareness about fermented foods and beverages
in general.
Body Ecology has always emphasized the importance of a vital inner ecosystem,
with plenty of good bacteria (microflora) in your intestines to boost immunity.
Fermented foods and beverages, like kimchi, provide the necessary microflora
that work to keep you healthy and strong.
Get all the immune-boosting benefits of fermented cabbage and other
vegetables in kimchi, a delicious Korean staple. You can EASILY make
your own kimchi at home with
Body Ecology's Culture Starter
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Try this great Kimchi Recipe to see for yourself how good fermented vegetables
can be!
Korean Kimchi
- 2 heads of Napa cabbage (or another Chinese cabbage variety), shredded
in a food processor
- 5-10 scallions or spring onions (similar to scallions, only stronger and
hotter in flavor), finely chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon crushed, fresh ginger or powdered ginger
- 2 jalapeños, minced fine
- 2 tablespoons crushed fresh red chili pepper
- Half an onion (optional)
- Culture
Starter
- 2 tablespoons of honey or 1-3 scoops of EcoBloom
as food for the microflora (see below)
Instructions:
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.
- Remove several cups of this mixture and put into a blender.
- Add enough filtered water with the mixture in your blender to make a "brine"
the consistency of a thick juice. Blend well and then add brine back into
first mixture. Stir well.
- Pack mixture down into a 1½ quart glass or stainless steel container.
Use your fist, a wooden dowel, or a potato masher to pack veggies tightly.
- Fill container almost full, but leave about 2 inches of room at the top
for veggies to expand.
- Roll up several cabbage leaves into a tight "log" and place
them on top to fill the remaining 2 inch space. Clamp jar closed or screw
on air tight lid.
- Let veggies sit at about a 70-degree room temperature for at least three
days. A week is even better. Refrigerate to slow down fermentation. Enjoy!
To use Body
Ecology's Culture Starter:
- Dissolve one or two packages of Culture Starter in 1½ cup warm
(90°) water. Add some form of sugar to feed the starter (try Rapadura,
Sucanat, honey, Agave, or EcoBloom).
- Let starter/sugar mixture sit for about 20 minutes or longer while the
L. Plantarum and other bacteria wake up and begin enjoying the sugar. Add
this starter culture to the brine (step 3 in the instructions, above).
A Note About Sugar, Salt and Spice
Are you wondering why honey or some type of sweetener would be used in this
recipe?
The reason is that healthy microflora actually need food to grow, just like
us. Microflora like sweets, like sugars, and they "eat" the sugar
up in the fermentation process, leaving us with all the healthy benefits of
fermented foods.
To learn more about feeding healthy microflora with prebiotics, read: How
to Make Your Gut Most Inviting to Healthy Probiotics
Many kimchi recipes have large amounts of chili powder, salt and other spices
that can inhibit the growth of healthy microflora in the initial stages of
fermentation. At Body Ecology, we believe that the most potent method of fermenting
foods is to use a starter culture. As for salt...we do love high quality sea
salt - like the highly recommended Celtic
Sea Salt -- but we add it after the veggies are fermented and before
eating them (if desired). The end product is teeming with the beneficial
microflora that aids our health and vitality.
Since adding salt (even sea salt) and a lot of spices in the fermentation
process as they do in traditional kimchi recipes inhibits the growth of the
healthy microflora in the intial stage of fermentation, we searched for
a better version of a kimchi recipe. We talked to Garrett Scott Altvater,
a Body Ecology
Coach and chef suggested that we replace the spices with fresh jalapenos
and chili peppers so that our kimchi recipe would have the traditional "kick"
of kimchi without inhibiting the healthy microflora.
To learn more about the use of salt and spices in your fermented vegetables,
read: Why
You Should Consider NOT Using Salt to Ferment Your Foods.
Sources:
Raymond, Joan, World's Healthiest Foods, Health Magazine http://www.health.com/health/package/0,23653,1150042,00.html
Victory, Joy, Is Sauerkraut the Next Chicken Soup? ABCNews.com , 8 Nov 2005.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=1289433
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