If you grow your own chile peppers, dehydrating them is a great way to preserve them and use them for future batches of kimchi!
A few summers ago, I planted lots of pepperoncini plants with the hopes of making lots of pickled peppers. As it turns out, they’re not that great for fermenting. (They’re better quick pickled, dare we admit!) So I let the fruits (normally picked when green) get very ripe on the plant, then picked them slowly until I had enough to make a batch of kimchi powder.
Then, last year, I found the real Korean pepper plant seeds at my local Asian market!
I was fairly successful growing them, however, you need a lot of plants in order to make a decent amount of gochugaru! The yield appears to be a little more than 10% of the fresh pepper weight. A recent batch of 150g peppers yielded about 18g of dried powder.
Then you’re ready to make some amazing kimchi!
Homemade Kimchi Powder (Gochugaru)
Equipment
- dehydrator
- food processor or high speed juicer
Ingredients
- 1 kg (2 lbs.) fresh red chile peppers (any variety, especially Korean peppers)
Instructions
- Cut a slit in the bottom (the "pointy" end away from the stem) of each pepper.
- Lay them out on dehydrator trays, so they don't touch.
- Set the dehydrator to the "vegetable" setting (varies by model), about 125°F/52°C.
- Let peppers dry completely, until they are brittle (about 24 hours).
- Break them open, separating the stem and seeds from the flesh.
- Add to food processor or juicer.
- It's helpful to wear a mask over your nose and mouth, as the dust from the powder can be quite irritating to inhale!
- Pulse the flesh until it is a medium powder consistency.
- Transfer to an airtight container like a jar or a zip-top bag. Store in a cool, dry place.
Author and founder of Fermenters Club. I’ve been fermenting food for 14 years.
In 2024, I published my first book, Fearless Fermenting.
When not stuffing things into jars, I enjoy permaculture gardening, cooking, yoga, writing, and studying cosmology and esoteric traditions.
Hi great instructions thank you. Just a question can I use shichimi togarashi or gochujang as substitutes for gochugaru. Thank you and I love your site 😁
Hi,
I have not tried either of those. Gochujang is different from gochugaru because it has fermented soybean in it too. So while you could add it to kimchi, it is not a traditional ingredient there.
It looks like shichimi togarashi also has many more spices than just red pepper. You could use it but I imagine it is quite a bit more expensive than just red chili powder for the amount typically used in making kimchi.
If you try either of those, let us know how it turns out!