If you want a simple recipe, you can make it without making vegan broth and replace it water. It won't have as deep taste but it will still be good.
If you want the best flavor, make the seasoning the day before and let it mature in the fridge overnight. But this is optional.

Make Vegan Broth

This vegan broth replaces salted fermented shrimp or anchovy fish sauce, making the dish vegan. Start with this step so the broth and sweet rice flour mixture can cool while you prepare the other ingredients.
• Place Kelp, apple, pear, onion and shiitake mushroom with cold water in a small pot and boil with lid on. Once it comes to boil, reduce heat to low-medium so it boils gently. For shiitake mushroom, you can use fresh or dried but dried ones have more umami taste. If using dried, soak in water for 4-8 hours or until soft before using.
• Remove kelp after 10 minutes from the time the water begins to boil.
• Continue boiling on low medium heat with a lid on for an additional 20 minutes after removing the kelp OR until the broth has reduced by half.
• Strain and return the broth to the pot. If the broth has reduced too much, just add some water to yield the amount needed.

Make Sweet Rice Flour Paste

Sweet rice flour paste is used for fermentation, as it serves as an excellent carbon source for Lactobacillus bacteria. Regular flour can also be used.
• In a small bowl, mix sweet rice flour and cold water.
• Bring vegan broth to boil in a small pot.
• As soon as the broth boils, lower the heat to low-medium. Then, add the sweet rice flour water mix into the boiling water while continuously stirring.
• Continue to cook for a few more minutes while stirring until it becomes slightly thickened.
• Take it off the heat and let it cool until it becomes lukewarm. If you wanna cool it more quickly, transfer to a new bowl.

Brine Apples

• Clean and cut green apples in half. Remove the core with seeds.
• Slice into 3/16" thick slices into a large bowl.
• Immediately add a touch of water and sea salt, and quickly mix it all up. (If you don't do this immediately, apples will start turning brown.)
• Let it sit for 30 min.
• Do not wash apples unless it's really salty. Transfer apples to a strainer to drain any liquid formed during brining. Let it drain for 30 min.

Make Seasoning

• Add coarse gochugaru into the (cooled) sweet rice flour paste and mix well.
OPTIONAL: After adding gochugaru, leave it for about 30 minutes to get a more vibrant color.
Do not add gochugaru to hot flour paste as it will produce bitter flavor.
• Mix the seasoning mix with sugar, garlic, ginger, sea salt and green onion.
• Taste and use water (or sea salt) to adjust saltiness. When you taste it, you should feel "It's quite a bit saltier than normal food seasoning" It’s usually better for the kimchi to be slightly saltier rather than too bland because not enough salt will result in bad kimchi. If the seasoning is too thick or too salty, you can add a little water.
• OPTIONAL: Cover the seasoning and let it mature for 2-3 hours at room temperature. You can store this seasoning in the fridge overnight to bring out even deeper flavor but is optional.
You can make the seasoning bulk and freeze for future use. If freezing, don't add green onions but add them when using. To thaw, leave in the fridge overnight.

 Apply Seasoning

• Mix seasoning with apple slices.
• Place in a container with a good seal. You can use any glass container or high quality plastic container, but for best results, use our Crazy Korean Cooking Kimchi Container which induces probiotic fermentation and keeps the kimchi at an optimal condition. It also keeps the smell in very well.

Fermenting & Storage

• Let it sit in room temperature for 1 day and refrigerate.
• In general kimchi will last for months in the fridge if it doesn't become moldy. But, for best taste, eat within a month or so since apple kimchi is not a type of kimchi that will taste good when it's over-fermented.