Cure your winter blues with a steamy pot of Japanese Kimchi Nabe. Made with anchovy broth, kimchi, pork belly and vegetables, this soup pot is hot and sour with a good kick of spice that warms you right up!

Kimchi Nabe

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb kimchi (454 g; cut if necessary)
• Handful bean sprouts
• ½ onion
• ½-1 pack medium-firm tofu
• 6 leaves napa cabbage
• 1 Negi (long green onion) (or 3 green onions/scallions)
• ⅓ carrot
• 3 stalks garlic chives (Chinese chives or Nira)
• 1 pack enoki mushrooms
• 13 oz sliced pork belly (63 g; or use thinly sliced pork loin - to learn how to thinly slice the meat, see Notes)
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted)
• 4 cups dashi (Japanese soup stock; click to learn more) (960 ml; recipe below OR use chicken broth)

Seasonings

• 1 Tbsp sake
• 1 Tbsp gochujang (Korean chili paste)
• 1 tsp gochugaru (Korean pepper flakes)
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 4 Tbsp kimchi juice (60 ml)
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp miso (I use awase miso)
• ½ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Use half for table salt) (¼ tsp table salt)

For Dashi

• ¼ cup iriko or niboshi (dried baby sardines/anchovies) (12 g)
• ⅓ oz kombu (dried kelp) (12 g, about 3x4")
• 4 cups water (960 ml)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Gather all the ingredients.

   

Make Dashi:

1. This is an extra step and not everyone follows this method, but I highly recommend to remove the head and guts from the anchovies to reduce the bitter flavor in dashi (Watch this video).
2. Clean the kombu with a damp cloth (but don't wipe off the white powder - that's umami!). In a small saucepan, put 4 cups water, kombu, and anchovies.
3. Bring it to boil on low heat. It’s best to slowly infuse water with kombu and anchovies. Once boiling, cover and keep on low heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Once you are done simmering dashi, strain through a fine sieve. Discard anchovies and kombu (Or make candied anchovies and simmered kombu (cook with soy sauce + sake + mirin/sugar)), and set aside the dashi.

Prepare Ingredients:

1. Meanwhile, start prepping ingredients. Thinly slice the onion. Cut tofu into small blocks.

2. Cut napa cabbage into 2” (5 cm) pieces widthwise (cut from bottom to leafy side). The bottom part of napa cabbage is thicker so cut these pieces into smaller pieces lengthwise (See how I do it in the video).

3. Slice the Tokyo Negi (or green onions/scallions) diagonally into ½“ (1.3 cm) pieces and slice the carrot diagonally into ¼” (0.6 mm).

4. Cut garlic chives into 2” (5 cm) pieces. Discard the bottom of enoki mushrooms and loosen them up.

5. Rinse bean sprouts and place all the vegetable ingredients on a plate. Cut the sliced pork belly into 2” (5 cm) pieces and set aside.

Make Kimchi Nabe:

1. In a large donabe (4-5 serving) or pot, heat 1 Tbsp. sesame oil over medium-low heat and add the sliced pork belly. Stir fry the meat until no longer pink.

2. Add kimchi and onion and stir fry for 5 minutes.

3. Then add 1 Tbsp. sake and 1 Tbsp. gochujang.

4. Add 1 tsp gochugaru and 1 Tbsp sugar and mix it all together.

5. Add kimchi juice and dashi and make sure it’s mixed evenly.

6. Cover and bring to boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes.
7. Add 1 Tbsp. soy sauce and 1 Tbsp miso. Mix all together and make sure the miso is completely dissolved.
8. Add the rest of ingredients and cover to cook on medium heat for 10 minutes, or until all the ingredients are tender.
9. Taste the soup and add kosher salt if necessary (I added about ½ tsp). Each miso has different saltiness so you really need to taste the soup to adjust the flavor.

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