How to Make Vegan Kimchi No Fish Sauce, No Jeotgal — Tested 1:1 Swaps
Traditional kimchi almost always contains fish sauce and salted shrimp. This guide swaps both out with soy sauce and shiitake or kelp powder, tested side-by-side against the traditional paste — same crunchy, sour-umami napa cabbage kimchi, zero animal products.
Is Kimchi Vegan? And How Do You Make It Vegan?
Not by default. Traditional kimchi uses fish sauce and often salted shrimp (saeujeot) for savory depth. To make it fully vegan, swap the fish sauce for soy sauce (roughly 1:1) and replace the salted shrimp with finely chopped shiitake mushroom or a pinch of kelp (dashima) powder. Everything else — salting the cabbage, the gochugaru amount, garlic, ginger, radish, spring onion, and the full fermentation timeline — is identical to the traditional recipe.
How to Make Vegan Kimchi
Vegan kimchi takes about 45 minutes of hands-on time plus fermenting: salt the cabbage, build a vegan paste with soy sauce and shiitake or kelp powder, mix and pack, then ferment.
- Salt: brine quartered napa cabbage in salted water for 2 hours.
- Rinse: rinse three times, then drain thoroughly.
- Paste: bloom gochugaru, stir in soy sauce, shiitake or kelp powder, sugar, garlic, ginger.
- Mix & pack: massage the paste into the leaves with radish and spring onion, pack into a jar.
- Ferment: 1–2 days at room temperature, then refrigerate.
Substitution Check — What to Swap for Vegan Kimchi
Kimchi looks like a plant dish at a glance — cabbage, chili flakes, garlic — but two ingredients in the traditional paste come from animals. Swap these two and everything else stays identical.
What Changes When You Go Vegan
Beyond the two swaps, going vegan changes very little about how the recipe behaves in the jar — fermentation doesn’t care whether the umami came from a fish or a mushroom.
Key Terms — Vegan Kimchi Entities
How Difficult Is Vegan Kimchi?
The technique is identical to traditional kimchi — the only new step is measuring two substitute ingredients instead of the originals.
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Fermentation Stage Guide
Vegan kimchi ferments on the same timeline as traditional kimchi. For the full science behind these four stages, see our dedicated Kimchi Fermentation Stages Guide.
Tastes mostly like seasoned raw cabbage — crunchy and spicy but flat.
✗ Too Early
Required room-temperature window before refrigerating.
△ Required, Not Ready
The target flavor this recipe is built around — crunchy, balanced, ideal for eating raw.
★ Correct Stage
Great for cooking into jjigae or fried rice. See what to do with sour kimchi and fresh vs aged kimchi for more on how flavor keeps changing past this point.
△ Best for CookingIngredients
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Substitution Guide
These two swaps are all this recipe needs. For a fuller comparison of fish sauce alternatives (sodium, gluten-free, halal/kosher notes), see our Fish Sauce Substitutes guide.
| Ingredient | Best Substitute | Ratio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fish sauce | Soy sauce | ~1:1 | Best structural match for salt/umami. 🛒 Shop |
| Fish sauce (alt) | Tamari or coconut aminos | 1:1 | Tamari also covers gluten-free. 🛒 Shop |
| Salted shrimp | Minced shiitake | 1 tbsp per recipe | Rounder, meatier umami. 🛒 Shop |
| Salted shrimp (alt) | Kelp (dashima) powder | 1 tsp per recipe | Cleaner, no added texture. 🛒 Shop |
| Napa cabbage | Regular green cabbage | 1:1 by weight | Denser, firmer result. |
How to Make Vegan Kimchi
Quarter and core the cabbage. Dissolve the salt in the water and submerge the cabbage quarters, turning occasionally so they wilt evenly. Rest for about 2 hours, until the thick stem ends bend without snapping.
Rinse the cabbage three times under cold water to remove excess surface salt, then drain thoroughly in a colander for at least 20 minutes, squeezing gently.
Bloom the gochugaru in a little reserved brine, then stir in soy sauce, your chosen shiitake or kelp powder, sugar, garlic and ginger until fully combined.
Massage the paste into every leaf, along with the julienned radish and spring onion — food-prep gloves keep the gochugaru stain off your hands. Pack tightly into a clean fermentation jar, pressing out air pockets. Rest at room temperature 1–2 days, then refrigerate — ready to eat lightly fermented after about a week, best between 1 and 4 weeks.
Test Kitchen Results
Tested against a traditional fish-sauce-and-saeujeot control batch.
The 1:1 swap matched the traditional recipe’s salt level closely.
Keep the 1:1 ratioBoth rated close to the traditional saeujeot version — texture preference decides.
Either worksVegan and traditional batches reached the same fermentation markers on identical timelines.
No timing difference
Vegan Kimchi
No fish sauce · No jeotgal · 100% plant-based
- 1400g napa cabbage, quartered and cored
- 1/2 cup coarse salt + 2.5L water (brine)
- 1/3 cup gochugaru
- 3 tbsp soy sauce (replaces fish sauce)
- 1 tbsp minced shiitake OR 1 tsp kelp powder (replaces saeujeot)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 5 cloves garlic, minced + 1 tsp ginger, minced
- 1 small Korean radish, julienned
- 4 spring onions, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2–3 tbsp reserved brine
- 1Brine quartered cabbage 2 hours, turning occasionally.
- 2Rinse 3 times, drain thoroughly 20+ minutes.
- 3Bloom gochugaru in reserved brine; stir in soy sauce, shiitake or kelp powder, sugar, garlic, ginger.
- 4Massage paste into leaves with radish and spring onion, pack tightly, ferment 1–2 days at room temp then refrigerate.
Per 1/2-cup serving. Reviewed by Dr. Sarah Mitchell RD, PhD.
Tools & Ingredients We Recommend
What to Make With It
Once your jar is fermented, fold it into Vegan Kimchi Fried Rice or a bowl of Vegan Kimchi Jjigae, top a Vegan Kimchi Burger with it, or make a batch of its radish-cube sibling, Vegan Kkakdugi — every recipe below is built around exactly this batch.
Press-and-sear crispy tofu, 380 cal.
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Shiitake-kombu stock, 200 cal.
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A plant-based patty topped with this batch.
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The radish-cube sibling recipe, same swaps.
Full recipe →
Rather buy it? Label-checked options.
See the brands →
Every vegan guide on the site.
See all guides →Storage
Rest packed jars at room temperature 1–2 days to kickstart fermentation, then refrigerate. Sealed in the fridge, vegan kimchi keeps well for 1 to 3 months, souring gradually the whole time — the same shelf life as traditional kimchi. Once it’s aged past your preferred eating point, fold it into jjigae or fried rice rather than eating it raw — see what to do with sour kimchi for more ideas.
Vegan Kimchi FAQ
Usually not. Traditional kimchi is seasoned with jeotgal — salted fermented fish or shrimp — and often fish sauce. This recipe replaces both with soy sauce and shiitake or kelp powder.
Soy sauce is the simplest swap, roughly 1:1 by volume. It won’t taste identical to fish sauce’s briny funk, but it brings the same salty umami backbone the paste needs.
Finely chopped shiitake mushroom or a pinch of kelp (dashima) powder both add savory depth without any seafood.
Yes — lactic acid fermentation is driven by bacteria already on the cabbage and in the environment, not by fish sauce or shrimp, so the same salt-then-ferment timeline applies.
Plain gochugaru is naturally vegan. Most gochujang brands are vegan too, though a small number add honey — worth a one-time label check per brand.
Stored in a sealed container in the fridge, it keeps well for 1 to 3 months, continuing to ferment and sour gradually the whole time.
Yes — see our Best Vegan Kimchi Brands guide for which store-bought jars are genuinely fish-sauce-free and label-checked.
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