Kimchi Mac and Cheese

One of the Trader Joe's products that I've really liked this year is their kimchi from the refrigerated section. We've eaten it straight from the package as a side dish. It's also been a fantastic component of kimchi grilled cheese sandwiches. So it seemed only natural that, with an expiring package of kimchi and an expiring box of macaroni and cheese, the next thing I would make would be kimchi mac and cheese.

There are quite a few recipes for kimchi mac and cheese on the internet (although I didn't search for or read any of them until after this dinner), but this time I went the semi-homemade route. I may not be a fan of the semi-homemade TV show on the Food Network, but I do appreciate the value and convenience of semi-homemade cooking. Today I got back on the later side from the grocery store, we were both hungry, and dinner needed to be quick. Mixing the two packages together was so much easier than creating mac and cheese from scratch or making kimchi in advance.

I started by boiling the noodles for the mac and cheese, during which time I chopped up the kimchi into smaller pieces so it would be easier to mix and there would be more to spread around. Then I set up the kimchi in a pan on low heat. Once the macaroni was done and drained, I mixed in about 1/2 cup of milk and the "real cheddar cheese" packet that came in the box. After it was sufficiently mixed, I tossed the kimchi on top, stirred it around (a lot), added some black pepper, and stirred it some more.

The finished kimchi mac and cheese had a really interesting flavor that grew on us the more we ate it. The kimchi was nice and spicy, mixed in with the milder mac and cheese. A few years ago, I never would have thought kimchi and cheese went together, but Korean food really seems to lend itself well to cheese! Mac and cheese, grilled cheese, cheesesteaks, a place in K-town even has dukbokki with cheese...

We topped it with some cilantro, because... why not. I would garnish everything with cilantro if it made sense. It wasn't an essential ingredient for the mac and cheese but it was nice to have some fresh herbs.

We both preferred the kimchi grilled cheese (which has a draft post somewhere in the archive that we'll someday finish) that I made earlier this fall, but the kimchi mac and cheese was quick and tasty. Now what else can I mix kimchi with...