Caramelized Kimchi Pasta

Brought to you by my Incoherent Personal Brand

May 19, 2023

With the exception of stress-smoking radishes for a few fevered weeks while I waited for feedback on the first act of my novel, I haven’t been in the mood for big project cooking of late. I’ve had times in my life when glorious bouts of experimental fermentation beget flowy bouts of prose writing and vice versa, but more often than not I’m fixated on one or the other.

This bothers me. I want to have a Coherent Personal Brand. I’m kind of just kidding, but I’m kind of not. Recently in therapy I punched through a wall of the “why do I write when in so many ways it destroys me” question I am continuously obsessed with and realized that it’s deeply satisfying and, like, healing to me to create a coherent narrative out of disparate, confusing things. I won’t go into the potential why’s or the upshot or the possible pitfalls of this motivation just now, but the realization, basic though it may sound, has been helpful and relieving as hell. Therapy, amiright?

When my last big book project fell apart, I made a hard turn into cooking and food writing, partly just to feel like I was still using the creative part of myself for something, partly because the physicality and light precision required of cooking were helpful in distracting me from the asshole in my brain screaming, “You wasted fifteen years writing an untenable book you fuckup, what are you gonna do now!?”

“Now, I will cook,” a nicer, more serene part said back. And I cooked.

Now that I’ve got a book project thrumming again, I feel sometimes like I’m cheating on the food part of me. This might sound so fucking stupid and an entirely useless expenditure of brain energy, but, like, she is what she is, you know what I mean? When I started this newsletter, I had a mind to share more about making cultured cheeses out of nuts; making seitan hams and steaks; I’d hoped to finally give vegan charcuterie, cured and coated with koji another try and share the process here. Instead, these days I’ve been mostly making thirty or forty minute meals so I can squeeze in one last novel sesh between my day job and dinner.

Recently, though, I realized something. I’ve been mostly making thirty or forty minute meals! Vegan ones, obviously! And I remembered, too, that when I first started being more public about food, friends would say, “I’d love recipes for vegan beginners!” “I want to eat vegan more often, but I can’t think of anything easy!” “Maybe you could share some quick vegan lunches for back-to-school?” I considered those ideas, but mostly felt like, “Hmm, that’s just not what I do.” But sometimes it most definitely is. So here’s a serious banger of a kimchi pasta I’ve been making on repeat that happens in thirty minutes or sometimes less. I really hope you make it and love it!

I wish I could tell you that a weekly series of thirty-minute vegan meals will follow, or that I’m now fully comfortable with my vacillating obsessions and energy levels, or that I’ve unlocked precisely what the above musings mean to me, but. I want to send this today, I’ve got to get back to my novel, so I’ll leave it incoherent for now. Maybe my therapist would be proud?

At its most basic, this recipe only has four ingredients, which is kind of a miracle for me. That being said, I’m the kind of vegan who’s into protein, so I typically put tofu on top — it’s a nice, creamy contrast to the savoury, spicy sauce just like in Kimchi Jigae, the classic Korean stew that served as inspiration for this pasta. That link goes to Korean Bapsang’s site, from whom I’ve learned so much about Korean cuisine and flavours. Huge recommend!

Other inspirations include the myriad gorgeous gochujang pastas floating around the town. Eric Kim’s Gochujang Buttered Noodles recently made waves as his recipes often rightfully do. Bettina Makalintal’s beautiful rendition inspired me to add tomato to the mix. But while I love that kind of simply-sauced pasta, it’s too devoid of vegetables for me to justify as a complete dinner unto itself all that often.

In the end it was fermenter extraordinaire, Irene Yoo, waxing rhapsodic about the life-changing properties of kimchi caramelized in butter or oil during KojiCon this year that led me to the pasta of my dreams. Like Yoo said in her presentation, frying kimchi till it caramelizes a bit draws out some of the water; I’d say it also tamps down some of the funk without losing the umami. There’s so much flavour from the cabbage, garlic, ginger, onions, and radishes in there with hardly any work. If you want to up the vegetable content more still, add a handful of shredded cabbage or kale while sautéing. If you buy the ready-shredded kind, you’ve still got a super-fast, no chop meal.

This amount makes enough for two, or just for me if I’m feeling super hungry (ie. two bowls of pasta). It’s easy to scale up or down, though, and the measurements needn’t be too precise. Feel free to experiment to find your ideal ratios!

I miss Eric from KojiCon (left) and I covet Irene Yoo’s sweatshirt (right).

Ingredients:

6 ounces pasta of your choice (about two cups dry pasta)
1/2 cup vegan kimchi (chopped if it’s in huge pieces)
2 tbsp olive oil or vegan butter
2 tbsp tomato paste (I use the kind in a tube; you could replace some or all with gochujang if you like it super-spicy!)

Optional Extras

A handful of shredded cabbage or kale if you like extra veggies but can’t handle more kimchi (plus salt or a little soy sauce to season)
A few scoops of soft tofu (I like Korean soon tofu best; shelf-stable silken tofu is also great)
Chopped green onion
A sprinkling of powdered or torn seaweed
Sesame seeds, black and/or white, toasted and/or raw

Method:

In a large or medium pot that you can later fry things in, cook the pasta according to package directions until al dente. When draining, reserve at least 3/4 cup of the pasta water (I just dip my pyrex measuring up in the pot to scoop it out before I drain).
While the pasta cooks, assemble the rest of your ingredients. Chop the green onion and/or cabbage or kale if using (and not pre-chopped).
Once the pasta is drained, put the pot back on the burner over medium-high heat. Heat the olive oil or butter, then add the kimchi (and extra cabbage or kale if using; if you are, season with salt or a little soy sauce as well) and sauté, stirring often, until the edges begin to caramelize and brown a teeny bit, about 5-7 minutes.
Add the tomato paste and fry, stirring, until it turns a bit darker and smells really good. Turn the heat down a little and add a few splashes (about a quarter cup) of the reserved pasta water. Stir until it comes together into a thickish sauce. Mix in the cooked pasta and stir to coat, adding more pasta water little by little until you have a nice sticky sauce that coats all of the pasta.
Serve as is, or top with a few scoops of soft tofu, sprinkle with sesame seeds, chopped green onions, and/or seaweed.