rainbow kimchi

The list of dishes that haven't fallen victim to the rainbow-colored food craze is dwindling, now that I've created a Rainbow Kimchi!

But seriously, kimchi is perfect for the rainbow food craze because it is naturally very colorful, and if you do it right, requires zero food dyes, which is bothering me about this rainbow food craze.

I can't say the dish is fully natural, for I used blue soda(http://www.jonessoda.com/collections/jones-beverages/products/12-pack-of-berry-lemonade-jones-pure-cane-soda), although when I looked at the list of its ingredients, I couldn't find any food dyes. But soda is technically a man made beverage.

I was a bit disappointed you can't see the chili powder or the blue soda in the picture on the right, but it's otherwise a very pretty kimchi dish.

So why did I use onions in the kimchi? It may or may not be part of the rainbow(its outside is green but the inside is white), but it counterbalances the chili powder I used.

Let me tell you, this kimchi tastes good on so many dishes. The first day I made it, I mixed it in with some spaghetti. The second day, I topped some pizza with it(see picture on left) while watching the pre-show of WWE Extreme Rules PPV, and the last day I mixed it in with some Mac and cheese(but I think with that one, the kimchi absorbed all the cheese powder, thereby making it less spicy, although that left plain elbow macaroni pasta.).

When I tasted the kimchi, I first tasted the citrus flavor from the blue soda, which turned into the spiciness from the chili powder. My dad tasted it and spit it in the garbage because he said it tasted funny.

I almost used different ingredients for the yellow and green ones- for the former, I bought a mango from the supermarket, but then I lost it. I didn't want to go back out just to get another one so I used the most abundant fruit in my household- the banana.

For the latter, I wanted to use watercress, just like I did with the Champagne Kimchi I made in March but apparently watercress is out of season, so I used spinach instead.

When you break apart the red cabbage leaves, it will leave a purple residue on your hands, which will require you to wash your hands several times and/or use Brillo to get it off you.

You will need:

For the cooking equipment:

A large bowl
Either aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or mason jars
A large plate
A small plate
A 1-pound weight, like a can

For the kimchi:

1 head of red cabbage, washed and rinsed
1 tbsp. of salt
1 tbsp. of vinegar(I used champagne vinegar)
1/2 a chopped up raw onion
2 tbsp. of chili powder
18 chopped up baby carrots
2 chopped up bananas
1 1/2 cups of blue soda(see helpful link)
1/3 cup of spinach leaves

1. Tear up the red cabbage by removing the leaves of it from the outside in. Cut these leaves into strips. Put these strips into the large bowl.
2. Wash the cabbage strips.
3. Add the salt and toss it with the cabbage.
4. Weigh down the cabbage with a large plate on top of the large bowl and put the 1-pound weight on top of the large plate. Let the cabbage be weighed down for 1 hour at room temperature. At some point, you will need to switch the large plate with a smaller plate as the cabbage is dried out and weighed down.
5. Drain out any excess liquid.
6. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the spinach leaves.
7. Stir in those ingredients. Don't worry if you hear any sizzling or bubbling from the soda- that's normal. So is the blue soda mixing in with everything and forming a brown juice.
8. Either put the kimchi in mason jars or cover the large bowl with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. Put the kimchi into the fridge and let it ferment overnight, or at least 24 hours, depending on how patient you are.
9. Mix the spinach leaves into the fermented kimchi.
10. Eat on its own(with milk to quell the spiciness), or on top of pizza, or mixed in with pasta. Bon appetit!