Eating Wild: Beach Greens Quick Kimchi

Eating Wild: Beach Greens Quick Kimchi

The indigenous communities of Alaska have been living with these plants and this land for millenia.

  • By Erin Anais Heist Juneau Empire
  • Tuesday, June 19, 2018 12:19pm
  • NewsLocal News

I grew up here in Southeast Alaska with a childhood full of blueberries, huckleberries, high-bush cranberries, salmon berries, spruce-tip jelly, sea lettuce and beautiful wild seafood and game. But I didn’t start really foraging until I was an adult. My parents raised us outdoors, but without knowledge of edible plants, they resorted to telling us that just about everything, other than what I listed above, was poisonous. I asked my mother about this recently. “It seemed like the easiest way to keep you from putting everything in your mouth,” she explained.

So I read guidebooks, talked to friends, visited the UAF Cooperative Extension and listened very closely whenever friends and neighbors spoke about foraging. Every day after work I visited a new part of the forest, took a new trail, followed a game path that I’d never been down before. I took notes. I learned about how to forage responsibly and sustainably, only taking what I needed and being careful not to over-harvest, especially if I saw evidence that other people had been harvesting in the same area. I watched the land change through the seasons, thinking about what I found where and when. I’m an enthusiastic hobbyist who passionately loves her home, but my connection to this land and this food, while deeply felt, lies only within myself.

The indigenous communities of Alaska have been living with these plants and this land for millenia. As Vivian Mork Yeilk’ noted in her recent column in the Capital City Weekly “Planet Alaska: Sustainable harvesting and the Alaskan foodie,” these traditions have been marked by the same generational trauma that colonization has brought to so many aspects of traditional indigenous culture in Alaska. My hope is that columns such as this one, and the current fad for foraged food, draws attention to experts like Yeilk’ and respect for traditional ways of living. Learning about these traditional practices and eating the food of this land is another form of expressing love and respect for this place.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

Anore Jones’ book “Plants That We Eat” was the first place where I saw mention of the traditional Iñupiat practice of fermenting beach greens. When I think of fermented greens, I immediately think of kimchi, a fermented staple of Korean cuisine, often made with cabbage. What follows is a quick beach greens kimchi recipe inspired by Maangchi’s Emergency Kimchi (Yangbaechu-kimchi). While kimchi is usually fermented this “quick kimchi” skips that step, meaning it won’t give you all the added health benefits and sparkle of fermented foods, but it’s ready right away, tastes good and it scratches that same itch. Use this in omelets, on ramen or rice bowls, as a side to a charcuterie board or eat it straight out of the jar.

Beach greens, a wild green that can be found on beaches all over Alaska — including on the upper edges of Juneau’s rocky beaches — are a beautiful mounding plant with thick green leaves. Use scissors to cut off the top four inches before the plant flowers and you’ll get a tasty green which is delicious lightly steamed, blanched or sauteed. It has a pleasantly bitter taste and texture similar to a mix between cabbage and snap peas. I keep my beach greens in my fridge submerged in a bowl of water for weeks.

Beach Greens Quick Kimchi

Prep: 20 minutes

Makes: ½ a quart

• 1 pound beach greens (or uncooked chopped cabbage)

• 2 tsp salt, divided

• 1 tbsp fish sauce

• 2 tbsp gochugaru (or 1 tbsp red chili flakes)

• 1 tsp sugar

• 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger

• 2 tbsp minced garlic

• 1 tbsp rice vinegar

• 1 carrot, shredded

• ½ apple, shredded

• ½ bunch green onions, diced

• 1 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)

Wash beach greens and pull out any stray grass. Half fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. Submerge beach greens in boiling water for a minute until just wilted. Strain and run greens under cold water until fully cooled or submerge in an ice bath. Place drained greens in a bowl and sprinkle with one teaspoon of salt. Rub salt into greens and set aside. Combine in a small bowl remaining salt, fish sauce, gochugaru, sugar, ginger, garlic, and vinegar and stir into a thick paste. Rinse off beach greens and squeeze out excess moisture. Combine beach greens with carrot, apple, green onions, seasoning paste and sesame seeds. Eat! Store in a lidded jar in your fridge and the flavor will continue to develop over the next day or two.

If you want to experiment with fermenting, leave out the vinegar and keep the kimchi at room temperature, uncovered but with a weight to press down the greens (a ziplock filled with water does nicely). Run a chopstick around the edges of the inside of the jar daily to remove bubbles that form. Taste, and once you reach the fermentation level you like, keep covered in the fridge.

A note on ingredients: This is essentially a delicious, medium-spicy, kimchi-inspired salad. You can absolutely make it with chopped cabbage instead of beach greens. If you use cabbage, skip the boiling water/blanching step. Gochugaru is the Korean red pepper that is the primary ingredient in gochujang, that smoky yummy red pepper paste that is often tableside at Korean restaurants. Gochugaru is ½ to ⅓ as spicy as cayenne, so proceed accordingly. You can find gochugaru and gochujang at Asiana Gifts, the awesome international grocery store in the Mendenhall Mall. Gochugaru and gochujang are a staple in our house and we add one or the other to everything from rubs, to marinades, to stir-frys, to soups to kimchi.


• Erin Anais Heist is a food blogger in Juneau. Readers can contact her at foodabe.com, or on Instagram or Twitter at @erinanais. “Eating Wild” recipes publish every other week.


Eating Wild: Beach Greens Quick Kimchi

More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast through the week of Feb. 15

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

The Tlingit and Haida Elders Group performs the entrance dance at the 89th annual Tribal Assembly of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Trump rescinds Biden executive order expanding tribal sovereignty and self-governance

Order giving Natives more access to federal funds cited in awarding of major Southeast Alaska projects.

The House Finance Committee listens to public testimony about next year’s proposed budget on Friday at the Alaska State Capitol. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
The Alaska House budget currently has a ‘full’ PFD of about $3,800. Except it really doesn’t.

Legislators on all sides agree PFD will shrink drastically before floor vote to avoid $2 billion deficit.

Dylan Court and Emily Feliciano-Soto at a rehearsal of “Necessary Nonsense,” a Theater Alaska production debuting Friday. (Photo courtesy of Theatre Alaska)
Middle schoolers bring ‘Necessary Nonsense’ to life in Theater Alaska Kids Company’s debut play

Imagine a world where “Alice in Wonderland” characters mingle with limerick legends… Continue reading

Jonathan Estes, a parent of three students attending the Dzantik’i Heeni campus, testifies for a safe playground at a special Juneau Board of Education meeting on Thursday, March 13, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Juneau School District submits budget for next school year to Juneau Assembly

The plan assumes $400 BSA hike and no staff vacancies; board also advocates for DH playground.

A totem pole and visitor guide sign on the downtown Juneau cruise ship dock on Thursday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
‘Anecdotal’ signs Juneau’s tourism season may see a dropoff due to Trump’s policies, officials say

Tariffs, talk of recession causing uncertainty and ill will resulting in reports of cancellations.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Wednesday, March 12, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Gabriel von Eisenstein (David Cangelosi) is pulled in two separate directions by his wife Rosalinda (Sara Radke Brown, right) and Rosalinda’s maid, Adele (Kayla Kohlhase, left) during a dress rehearsal of “Die Fledermaus” on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Juneau Lyric Opera celebrates a chorus of community for 50th anniversary

German operetta “Die Fledermaus” that launched JLO gets revival with old and new voices Friday night.

Most Read