KIMCHI POTATO PANCAKES
Easy Kimchi Potato Pancakes 김치감자전
My comforting Kimchi Potato Pancakes taste spicy and savoury sweet. They are crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. Ready in less than 15 minutes, super delicious and vegan too!
Watch My Easy Kimchi Potato Pancakes Recipe Video (3m 31s)
Recently, I have had some great news! One of the biggest vegan websites in the world, One Green Planet posted my Vegan Doenjang Jjigae recipe on their site!
Some more good news is that my story was published in a local newspaper, the St Helens Star. That was amazing, too!
Anyway,back to the pancakes. I love Kimchi pancakes. Kimchi pancakes are more like home food rather than restaurant food. They don’t cost you much at all and the ingredients are easily accessible if you always have Kimchi in your fridge like Koreans!
Kimchi pancakes remind me of cold Korean winters. When I was a kid, we didn’t have many takeaway foods. At night, while we watched TV, if nobody could be bothered going out to a corner shop to get snacks (my siblings and I used to do it in turns you see), we asked my mum to make some night snacks. Most of the time, my mum would make kimchi pancakes.
As soon as the kimchi pancakes were all done, we were eating them while watching TV and my dad would drink several glasses of Soju (Korean spirit alcohol made from potato starch). My mum cooks the best pancakes in the whole world. Everyone who came to my house and ate my mum’s pancakes couldn’t stop eating, praising and telling her to open a pancake restaurant. My mum would add any leftover vegetables, tofu, pork mince or seafood. They are always super delicious. By the way, this is my second Kimchi pancake recipe on my blog.
When my sister moved near Seoul after she got a job, she had kimchi potato pancakes in a restaurant near to her house. She said to me, “Those kimchi pancakes with potatoes are amazing! OMG.” It reminds me of a trip with my university friends to Gangwon province near Pyeongchang where the Winter Olympics are being held at the moment.
Gangwon province is located in the Northeast of South Korea. It is much colder than where I am from. Gangwon province is famous for potatoes. My friends and I went to Wonju mountain and all the restaurants nearby were selling potato pancakes. We were wondering what they would be like. Potato pancakes are not that popular in Daegu. They were super soft and fluffy inside and crispy outside. They tasted amazing!
We went to a few restaurants when we were travelling there. Some places even sell spicy potato pancakes! I can tell you the spicy ones were better! That’s me as you know. Haha.
So, after my sister told me about kimchi potato pancakes, I tried to make them straight away. The taste was unbelievable! I couldn’t tell you how wonderful they tasted. Kimchi and potatoes together. How bad could it be!
If you want to impress your guests at dinner parties, this is what you can cook. They are perfect for starters, side dishes, finger foods, night snacks as well as anjoo (side dishes served with alcohol). Enjoy this with your friends and family or just for yourself!
- 180g Vegan Kimchi squeezed without any juice
- 2 tsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Sesame Oil
- 2 Potatoes (270g), peeled and chopped in half.
- 3 tbsp Strong White Flour
- ½ Onion, chopped into small pieces
- 15g Bean Sprouts, chopped
- 1 tbsp Gochujang (Korean Red Pepper Paste)
- 4 tbsp Kimchi Juice
- Vegetable Oil for frying
- ½ Red Chili, chopped (optional)
- ½ Green Chili, chopped (optional)
- Chop the kimchi in a bowl with scissors. Don’t use a chopping board as the kimchi juice will stain it and it is difficult to wash up later. It is much easier to use scissors.
- Add the sugar and sesame oil and mix them thoroughly. Leave to marinate for 10 minutes.
- Put the potatoes in a food processor and whizz them up into very small pieces.
- In a mixing bowl, add the marinated kimchi, onion, bean sprouts, gochujang, and chopped up potatoes. Mix them well. Add half of the strong flour and give it a mix. Add the other half of the flour and mix them well. The reason why I am doing this step is to make the right consistency. The mixture needs to be thick so that it sticks together in the pan. You can add more or less depending on the type of potatoes. I use Maris Piper potatoes. Refer to my video to see the consistency.
- Heat a frying pan over a high heat and add some vegetable oil. It takes less than 1 minute to fry these pancakes. Use a scoop or spoon to get a small amount of the mixture and put it in the frying pan. Shape the mixture into rough circles and flatten with a spatula. They should be about 10cm in diameter and about 1cm thick. Repeat this process until you use all the mixture.
- Turn the heat down to low. Press three of four slices of red and green chilies on top of each pancake to decorate. You can skip this step if you don’t want spicy chilies.
- Flip the pancakes when the bottom has browned. When both sides are cooked, take them out of the pan and put them on a plate on a piece of kitchen towel to drain some of the oil. Enjoy them with your favourite drinks as a night snack or side dish.
Caitlin
February 26, 2018 at 3:30 amI just finished fermenting a batch of kimchi — never would have thought to turn them into pancakes but your look so delicious! I have to try now!
Hyeon Jeong
February 26, 2018 at 1:51 pmHi Caitlin, now is the perfect time! I’ve been eating these pancakes all weekend. I’ve now got to make more kimchi.
KIMCHI POTATO PANCAKES - Gilded Gingerbread by gildedgingerbread.com - Trending Yum - Trending Recipes and Food 2018 2019
February 26, 2018 at 12:28 pm[…] Check full recipe at gildedgingerbread.com […]
Shannon @loveatfirstbento
March 23, 2018 at 7:11 pmThese are making my mouth water! Love that vibrant red color too. I’m a big fan of savory pancakes, and this looks like a really fun way of adding some more kimchi into my supper plans. Love how easy they are to make too!
Hyeon Jeong
March 26, 2018 at 5:11 pmHi Shannon, they are super easy to make. I often make these when I am hungry but don’t want to make too much of an effort. 🙂
Ryan
October 23, 2018 at 10:27 amCan you tell us the quantity of flour needed? (It doesn’t appear in the ingredients list.
In korea they use jeon mix. Do i need to add anything extra to the flour to make it work? Also should I add any liquids ~ is that what the kimchi juice is for?
By the way, what do they put in that jeon mix (just flour, marketing and preservatives perhaps)?
Hyeon Jeong
November 21, 2018 at 10:40 amHi Ryan, thanks for spotting the mistake! You should use 3 tablespoons of strong white flour. You don’t need anything else. The Kimchi juice and sesame oil is all the liquid you need. You are right about the jeon mix. Quite a lot of preservatives. Hope you like this recipe.