Do you eat kimchi hot or cold? Is kimchi good for me? What you need to know about this versatile fermented food
You know that fermented foods like kimchi are growing in popularity for good reasons (they’re delicious and good for you!) but you want the details. You’ve come to the right spot. We will help you get better acquainted with this versatile ferment, and give you answers to questions like “do you eat kimchi hot or cold,” and more!
At Hosta Hill, we love kimchi and value traditional methods of fermentation. The unique and bold flavors of our cultured veggies develop slowly through wild fermentation, a natural preservation process that ensures delicious and nutritious results in every batch. Check out our offerings in the Hosta Hill Shop. We now offer a 6-pack option so you can buy bulk and save money!
Getting to know this favorite ferment
Let’s start with a little backstory. Kimchi is a traditional Korean dish made from fermented vegetables. Originally created to preserve vegetables over the winter, kimchi has been eaten in Korea for generations.
Kimchi is a super versatile dish that can be eaten on its own - seriously, straight out of the jar - as a condiment, or worked into almost any recipe. It compliments many flavors in sometimes surprising ways and has enough flavor to stand out on its own. A truly simple Korean meal is just steamed rice and kimchi, and it’s mighty yummy.
Hosta Hill’s kimchi aims to honor the Korean original. We use napa cabbage and an array of root veggies, all mixed up into a hearty rice paste featuring fish sauce, peppers, garlic, and ginger. It’s moderately spicy and has a nice crunch. The distinctive flavor of our 2015 Good Food Award-winning kimchi is a point of pride.
Fermentation for preservation
To understand kimchi, you should know something about fermentation and how it came to be. Around the world for thousands of years, many cultures have relied on fermentation to produce and preserve a wide variety of foods, from bread-making to vegetable and meat preservation.
During the vegetable fermentation process, good bacteria help convert starches and sugars in the veggies to lactic acid, and that works as a natural preservative. Lacto-fermentation also prevents harmful bacteria from growing and extends the shelf-life of food.
So one important thing to remember about kimchi is that it will last a long time. And another thing is that Kimchi and other ferments are raw, live foods.
Eating kimchi hot or cold for health benefits
The answer to “do you eat kimchi hot or cold” is really about health, not flavor.
Kimchi tastes great cooked into almost anything. But heating kimchi kills the healthy, helpful bacteria that are a product of the fermentation process.
So if you are using kimchi in a recipe that requires cooking, be sure to serve a little extra raw on the side to maintain the benefits of the live cultures for your health (there are many!). Or, for something like kimchi fried rice, fry the rice, then add cold kimchi to the hot rice right before serving.
You can read more about the benefits of kimchi for your health here.
So do you eat kimchi hot or cold?
If you are eating kimchi because of the amazing live cultures and nutrient availability it offers, we recommend eating it cold.
Try some of our own favorite cold kimchi recipes to get started:
A lot of folks are wondering how to incorporate fermented foods into their daily meals. Well, a great place to get started is to get yourself a jar and try it on everything! We recommend giving a kimchi and peanut butter sandwich a whirl. Really!
Get yourself a jar of Hosta Hill’s handmade, award-winning kimchi today and start exploring the possibilities!