Green tomato kimchi making it at home

Here is a recipe for making green tomato kimchi at home. The truth is out, it is finally the end of tomato growing season. I have loads of green tomatoes harvested from the garden as a result. Growing tomatoes in temperate (cold) climates have a tendency to produce loads of green tomatoes at the end of the season. The tomatoes just get much chance to ripen. Yes, one can ripen them indoors but it takes a long time. Also in the process of ripening them, quite a bit of them will go moldy and have to be binned. Green tomatoes can also be bought from small independent grocers.

The recipe I use the same recipe as runner bean kimchi Kimchi runner bean I made earlier. Except that I tone down the spices a bit here. However, the strong chilli hot spices help to counteract the bitter taste of raw/ unripened green tomatoes. This green tomato kimchi once fermented is great to serve with salad, rice and other meat dishes.

Recipe green tomato kimchi

500 grams of green tomato

2 tablespoon of salt

1 medium size carrot

3 cloves of garlic

2-3 cm of ginger

a half teaspoonful of chili powder (or enough to taste, omit if you don’t like too strong spice)

a big (about 1.5 liters) pyrex mixing bowl

3 normal size (about 500mls) jam jars sterilzed (or rinsed in hot boiling water with cap on)

Method

Slice the green tomatoes as finely as you can. Then cut and slice the carrot into thin sticks or quarters slices. Peel and chop the garlic up. Using a garlic or any small grater, grate the ginger finely.

Put them into a Pyrex mixing bowl. It will fill the bowl to the brim. Not to worry too much about it as the salt will shrink and draw the fluid out of the vegetables. Sprinkle the salt. Using your hands rub the salt into the cut and sliced vegetables, garlic and ginger.

Leave it for half hour to one hour so as to let the fluid drawn out of the vegetables. Make sure there is fluid drawn out of the vegetables as this will act as preservative fluid.

Put them into jars packing them in as tightly as you can. While making sure there is enough salt drawn vegetable liquid when pressed down with a spoon. This will prevent mould from forming on top as the salt acts as preservative.

Close the jar with lids. Leave outside at room temperature. In about 3 days’ time, the jars will start bubbling that is when the kimchi is ready to eat. To prevent any more fast fermentation put them in the fridge. It will still ferment but at a much slower rate.

Thank you for reading and dropping by. Have a look at my other salt fermentation recipes like making classic kimchi using napa/ chinese cabbage.