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.
I’m curious, if left out to ferment for a day, then you reboil the liquid, doesn’t that kill off the the good bacteria that you’re creating by leaving it out, or is there another reason for doing it? I have about a billion leaves this year & would like to enjoy the perilla as many ways as possible & preserve as many as possible for later consumption. Thanks for the recipes. This sounds wonderful!
Hi PZ – the reason for reboil is to kill off any unwanted bacteria that might have come from the Perilla and the vegetables. Once they are immersed, osmosis happens and the liquid will also become diluted. So traditionally, it’s considered safer for longer storage at room temperature to reboil them. Good bacteria will grow still after you reboil them. But if you keep it refrigerated you probably don’t have to reboil it although may have a slightly higher chance that it won’t keep as long as reboiling it. Hope that helps!
Thank you for responding (I was just about to start making this- glad I saw your comment :-)!). After boiling, do you leave it out again before refrigerating? Maybe I’m reading wrong. The recipe says reboil & refrigerate. Your response says reboil to leave out & may not be necessary if refrigerating… sorry if I’m not understanding – just don’t want to screw up :-)!
You can let it cool after boiling and then refrigerate. When I said you could leave it in room temperature, I was talking about soy sauce pickles (jangahjji) but this is more like a Kimchi so it’s best served cold, hence the refrigeration. But I’m sure it will be fine to be out for a couple days. Hope that helps!