Is kimchi vegan?

Kimchi is genuinely ambiguous rather than usually-one-thing, which makes it different from most items on this list. The vegetables, chilli, garlic, ginger and salt are all vegan. What is usually added alongside them is jeotgal, a category of salted fermented seafood, most often myeolchijeot (anchovy sauce) or saeujeot (fermented shrimp paste). These supply glutamates and speed the fermentation, and in a traditional recipe they are considered essential to a proper depth of flavour.

So the honest position is that most kimchi you encounter - in a Korean restaurant, in a supermarket jar, as a banchan you did not order - probably contains seafood, and you cannot tell by looking. Fish sauce leaves no visual trace. Shrimp paste occasionally does, but not reliably. This is the case where asking or checking genuinely is the only route.

The encouraging part is that vegan kimchi has deep roots. Korean Buddhist temple cuisine excludes all animal products, and temple kimchi has been made without jeotgal for centuries, typically using a fermented soybean element, extra salt, or seaweed-based broth to build savouriness. This is not a compromise version invented for Western vegans; it is an established parallel tradition. If you are in Korea, asking for temple-style kimchi is a meaningful and understood request.

Commercially, the situation has improved fast. A growing number of brands sell explicitly vegan kimchi, and because fish and crustaceans are declarable allergens in the UK and EU, the label check is quick and dependable there - anchovy and shrimp must be declared and are normally bolded. Some products are incidentally vegan without saying so, using only vegetables, chilli and salt. Others say "vegetarian," which for this product usually does mean no seafood, but confirm rather than assume.

Making it is very doable and gives you full control. Napa cabbage, coarse salt for the brine, gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes - check it has no additives), garlic, ginger, spring onion, Korean radish, and a savoury element such as a little white miso, soy sauce, or a kombu-based stock in place of the fish sauce. Some recipes add a spoonful of rice flour porridge to feed the fermentation. It keeps for months and improves for the first few weeks.