Few years ago, I posted an article with the title “Fall is here..” with pics of my vegetable garden including tomatoes and the perilla seeds collected from my 4 perilla plants. My perilla plants started to flower in my garden few days ago and it reminded me of that time. Watching the plants (yes, I talk to my plants too), I could almost hear the perilla plants talking to me – “Hey! You better enjoy my leaves soon because I am getting ready to shut down….” So.. I harvested almost all the perilla leaves that were of good size. Which means I ended up with more perilla than I can handle in any one meal time. So what to do with extra perilla leaves? Too many perilla leaves on your hands?? Then make some pickles!!!
If you love pickles.. and if you love perilla leaves (깻잎 Kkaetnip) and cabbage (양배추 Yangbaechoo), then you will LOVE Korean Perilla Cabbage Pickle (Kkaetnip Yangbaechoo Chojeolim 깻잎양배추초절임). Sorry..it’s probably the longest name ever… but if you asked any Korean, not many will know the exact name of this Korean pickle because it is a very recent addition to Korean cuisine. This Korean pickle is a new dish that I tasted for the first time during my recent stay in Korea and I thought it was really refreshing and different. It is a nice side dish to any kind of Korean meat BBQ (Gui or guee) because the bright acidity will cut through the fat so nicely. Also, if you are too shy to try Kimchi for the first time then you can slowly start warming up your palette with a dish like this wonderfully crunchy, sweet and tangy Korean perilla cabbage pickle.
Another name for this dish is Mille Feuille Cabbage Kimchi by some because of the layers. If you don’t feel like going through the trouble, you can simply toss cut pieces of cabbage and whole perilla leaves together and not layer them. It will taste the same – it will just look as pretty and composed.
Perilla Cabbage Pickle
Servings: 10-12 Time: 2 days Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- 1 green chili pepper or jalapeno (optional)
- 4 Tbs sea salt
- 1 cup rice vinegar
- 1 cup sugar
- 5 cups water
- 20 perilla leaves (approx)
- 1/2 cabbage
- In a pot, mix water, sugar, vinegar and salt. Bring to boil, stirring to make sure everything is dissolved. Boil for 1 -2 min and let it cool. Do not boil too long, the acid from the vinegar can evaporate too much.
- Peel away cabbage leaves, trying to keep them whole as much as possible. Cut the bottom first and peel away from bottom up, it is a little easier to keep the leaves being torn into pieces. Rinse and pat dry.
Cabbage for Korean Perilla Cabbage Pickle - Cut cabbage leaves into squares about the size of your largest perilla leaf. Shave some of the thickest part of cabbage leaves to make the layers more even.
- Rinse and dry perilla leaves.
Perilla leaves drying on towel - Time to start stacking!! Cover cabbage with perilla leaves (if too small) or with one leaf (if big).
Perilla leaves layered with cabbage for Korean Perilla Cabbage Pickle
Perilla on cabbage for Korean Perilla cabbage pickle - Start with cabbage -> perilla -> cabbage (1 or 2 layers) -> perilla..until you have a good stack of 6 – 8 layers. Because perilla has strong flavor, stack 1- 2 cabbage leaves (especially if cabbage leaf is thin) + 1 perilla layer.
Cabbage Perilla Mille Feuille for Korean Cabbage Pickle - Add cut green peppers. Fill up your jar or container with the perilla cabbage layer. Pour pickling liquid.
Perilla Cabbage layers in jar for Korean perilla cabbage pickle – Before liquid 
Korean perilla cabbage pickle in jar - Leave at room temperature for 1 day. Remove pickling liquid and boil. Cool liquid and pour it back into the jar. Refrigerate pickle and serve anytime. For best presentation, cut it once again for clean edges.
korean perilla cabbage pickle 
Korean perilla cabbag pickle closeup Variations
- Add more chili peppers and whole garlic cloves for more spicy flavor
- Use purple cabbage for more color – it will turn everything pink
Serving Suggestions
- Serve as side dish with any Korean meat BBQ. Great banchan in lunchboxes. Kids will also love the sweet and sour taste. It is a great substitute for Kimchi without red chili pepper and garlic.
Korean Perilla Cabbage Pickle
Ingredients
- 1/2 cabbage
- 20 perilla leaves
- 5 cups water
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup rice vinegar
- 4 Tbsp Sea Salt (Trader Joe's)
- 1 green chili pepper or jalapeno (optional, cut into 3rds)
Instructions
- In a pot, mix water, sugar, vinegar and salt. Bring to boil, stirring to make sure everything is dissolved. Boil for 1 -2 min and let it cool.
- Peel away cabbage leaves, trying to keep them whole as much as possible. Rinse and pat dry.
- Cut cabbage leaves into squares about the size of your largest perilla leaf.
- Rinse and dry perilla leaves.
- Make layers by alternating cabbage and perilla leaves. Double layer cabbage for milder flavor.
- Fill jar with cabbage, perilla layers and chili peppers and pour vinegar + sugar liquid.
- Make sure everything stays submerged. Use a little bowl or stone to weigh things down.
- Leave at room temp for 1 day.
- Remove just the liquid and boil, cool and pour back.
- Refrigerate for another day or more and it will be ready.
Tips & Notes:
Adding purple cabbage will add pink color to the pickle.
Great as side dish for meat BBQs and lunchboxes. Kids will love the sweet and tangy taste.
Does this come out sweet? If so, can I cut the sugar in half?
Yes it does come out sweet but not too crazy sweet. I think I already answered your question in my FB group so hopefully that helps. Thanks!
Thanks for this recipe! If I accidentally leave the pickle out for two days instead of one, should it still be okay?
It should be fine! Smell and taste a little just to make sure but shouldn’t be an issue. Cheers!
Hi Kimchimari, I’ve just made mine, using the perilla grown in the garden and it tastes really different to fresh perilla (in a good way).
Just checking how long this keeps in the fridge for. I’m guessing 2 weeks?
Also, I might try to make a lacto-fermented version of this, using apple juice and salt, etc (like a dong kimchi). Will keep you posted on how it goes.
It should def. be good for 2 weeks maybe a big longer.. ooh lacto-fermented version sounds wonderful! Please do keep me posted! Thank you!
Do you have a recommendation for replacing sugar with a different sweetener (e.g. stevia powder/liquid, monk fruit powder/liquid, etc.)? Thanks so much!
Hmm.. so the only sugar substitute that seems to work ok for pickling is Splenda and then Koreans used saccharine for Danmuji so I know it should work but it’s up to you what you want to use. You can also try using honey or maple syrup but the flavor of those may fight with perilla. Many of the other sweeteners are said to cause bitterness.
Thanks for this recipe. I was wondering… when I lived in Korea for awhile I went to some restaurants with Korean friends that had traditional vegetarian temple food, and they had similar pickles to the kkaetnip ones but they were bigger leaves. Not cabbage I don’t think, they were rougher than cabbage and similar colour to kkaetnip when pickled. They were pickled in a similar way to kkaetnip with doenjang in between the leaves. My friends said they were good for health with lots of fiber. The leaves were about as big as my hand. I don’t suppose you know what type of leaf that would be? They were so good.
You are very welcome!! Hmm..not really sure but I wonder if it’s soy bean leaves (kongnip 콩잎) pickle that you had? I can only think of that or zucchini leaves..but that’s usually steamed and tossed in deonjang, not pickled. And zucchini leaves (hobaknip 호박잎) are usually bigger than your hand…hope that’s what you needed. Thanks for asking!
Ah kongnip that’s exactly it! Now that you write the word I remember it. They were so good. Alongside the fresh tofu and all the other amazing dishes, sigh.. Now I want to grow soybean in my garden so I can try to recreate them. That’s interesting about zucchinni leaves also, I grow zucchini but had never heard of the leaves being eaten before. Thanks for the info!
Hurray!! I got it right!! I know – I should try to grow soybeans too..haha..Yes, you can eat zucchini/squash leaves by steaming them and then eating them as ssam. Wrapping rice and other goodies with some deonjang. Leaves are prickly when raw but it will get soft once you steam it. I think I am going to make that this week!! You are very welcome and thank you for asking. It was fun!!
So interesting to think of using soy bean leaves this way – makes me want to grow some as well! My 11 year old grandson loves edamame – I have been eating my broad bean leaves – both in salads and cooked inside (gluten free) sourdough as a kind of leaf fritters.
I do love perilla and had some lovely plants last year.
Hi Nadya, these are Perilla (Beefsteak plant leaf) leaves, not soybean leaves?