Kimchi Fried Rice is a fried rice dish made by stir-frying Kimchi and rice together with some seasonings. It’s a classic Korean food that’s made to use up leftover rice and overripe Kimchi. Kimchi is a traditional Korean dish made with salted fermented vegetables. It typically contains cabbage and may contain other green veggies, such as celery, and spinach, and also seasonings like sugar, salt, onions, garlic, ginger, and chili peppers.  

When making kimchi fried rice, matured kimchi along with its juices is used. As kimchi is getting matured it undergoes lactic acid fermentation. It gives kimchi its sour taste. 

Kimchi has an excellent nutritional profile, packed with nutrients like iron, folate, and vitamins B6 and K. Fermented foods like kimchi offer probiotics, and the fermentation process may develop additional nutrients that are more easily absorbed by the body. Kimchi may lower your risk of heart disease by reducing inflammation, suppressing fat growth, and decreasing cholesterol levels.

When making kimchi rice you can make it plant based or you can add meat or fish. 

Here is the recipe for original kimchi fried rice.  

Kimchi Fried Rice (2 servings) 

Ingredients : 

• ½ cup of kimchi (squeezed out the juice)
• ¼ cup kimchi juice 
• 2 tsp of Chile paste or Chile sauce 
• 1 tsp of soy sauce 
• 2 tsp of toasted sesame oil
• 2 cups of rice
• 1 tbsp of vegetable oil
• 1 scallion (finely chopped)
• 2 eggs  

Instructions : 

• First squeezed the kimchi to take out its juice. After that measure the kimchi. For this recipe it should be ½ cup and ¼ cup of kimchi juice.  Then choppe the squeezed kimchi into pieces. 
• Next, whisk the kimchi juice, soy sauce and chili paste (or chile sauce) in a small bowl, until the chili paste is well dissolved. 
• Then drizzle the sesame oil over the rice and use your hands to mix it to make  each grain of rice coated with oil. 
• Put the vegetable oil in a frying pan and heat over medium-high heat until hot. Then add the chopped kimchi and stir-fry until the kimchi is starting to brown and is very fragrant.
• Add the rice and stir-fry until the rice becomes uniform in color. Make sure not to have clumps. 
• Next, put kimchi sauce made earlier over the rice, and turn up the heat to high. Stir-fry, tossing the rice occasionally until the rice starts to brown and doesn't stick together.
• When the fried rice is done, add the scallions and then put onto plates.
• Drizzle a little oil into another pan, carefully break eggs into the pan, turn the heat into low until the eggs are cooked like white is fully cooked and the yolk is still  runny. 
• Top each serving with an egg.