If you have some sour kimchi, canned tuna, and leftover rice, turn them into savory kimchi tuna onigiri and kimchi seaweed rice balls. They are fun and direct to create and makes a steady finger food.

Do you have some leftover rice and sour kimchi? Perhaps the first inspiration you get to use up those rice and kimchi would be making kimchi bacon fried rice. How about Kimchi Tuna onigiri and kimchi seaweed rice balls?

We have more than enough extremely fermented kimchi sitting in our fridge since last fall. We bought 22 lbs of kimchi. A hefty 22 lbs! We have too much fermented kimchi, so we made these kimchi tuna onigiri and rice balls with them.

We guess we went temporarily crazy at the moment when we heard that the kimchi was made in Korea with Korean cabbages then air-shipped to Malaysia. The minimum purchase was 20 lbs with bonus 2 lb. Without a doubt, we thought we could eat them all. But we couldn’t. We need to use up before spring comes.

Fortunately, these kimchi tuna onigiri and rice balls came into a rescue. Our kids loved them all.

Here is one recipe. Well, it’s more likely two recipes. Wait! it is actually one recipe that can be used in two ways. Anyway, got some sour kimchi and a can of tuna? We will show you what you can do with them.

Kimchi Tuna Stuffed Ongiri

As you can tell, they are similar to Japanese onigiri. Here is a beauty shot!

Kimchi Tuna onigiri are dipped in sesame seeds

The recipe itself is ridiculously unfussy but the outcome is like something you would get from a fancy Japanese restaurant. Let’s take a look.

Kimchi and canned tuna is ready for making onigiri.

Introducing Mrs. Sour and Mr. Tuna

Drain your humble tuna. Press to suck the juice out of him. Discard the juice – You don’t need it!

Chop Mrs. Sour (kimchi) to teeny-tiny pieces. The green mound on the blurred background is chopped green onion, in case you are wondering. We are salivating. Are you?

Saute the kimchi with some kimchi juice for 3 minutes. Add tuna and 1 teaspoonful (or more if you desire) of Korean chili paste. Stir and saute for 2 more minutes until the mixture looks somewhat dry. Yes, dryness is what you want.

Add the green onions and a little bit of sesame oil. Toss. Done!

Don’t scroll down to see the rest of the post. All you need is to sprinkle this crazily savory fried kimchi on top of a bowl of rice and eat. And be happy rest of the day!

But if you must see what the cook has done with it, … please, continue.

What type of seaweed to use?

This is a plain roasted seaweed packet. Not to be confused with seasoned roasted. Each packet has 10 sheets and you will need just one. Okay, maybe two.

Slice into 8 strips.

Season freshly cooked rice with a couple pinches of salt.

Onigiri Sushi Press

Have you seen this Onigiri tool like this one in Korean stores? It is similar to Onigiri mold. This makes the job direct and fun. We think we paid USD $1.50 for it.

If you can’t find one or don’t bother to invest one that will eventually clutter your kitchen drawers, you can use your hands to shape the patties.

The bottom of the triangle tool. Pressing this bottom will help to release rice patties easily.

Put some rice to half way to the container and press down gently.

Place the kimchi tuna filling (about 1 Tablespoonful) in the center. Leave edges & corners unfilled.

Put more rice to the top.

Close the lid. The lid will push down the rice to stick to each other.

Remove the lid and press the bottom to release the patty.

Ta-da!

Let’s cover this naked rice guy with his pants.

Ladies & Gentlemen, here is our friend, “RiceBob SquarePants”.

Dip his head in the puddle of sesame seeds. This will give him some hair. We mixed white roasted sesame seeds with black sesame seeds.

We took a bite of him. We were way too hungry. Nibble, nibble.. yum!!! This is savory, guys!

Then, we thought there might be someone who doesn’t want to go through all the trouble building this RiceBob, so we have a short solution for those. The rice balls!

Kimchi Seaweed Rice Balls

Add the kimchi tuna mixture to the rice.

Mix them up. Add some sesame seeds if you like.

Roll them up in your hands – whatever size you like.

Choice of seaweed

This time, let’s use different seaweeds. This is the seasoned and roasted seaweeds. Our kid’s favorite way of eating rice is just like what the package picture shows.

They look like this. So good to eat with plain rice. Our blue eyed nephews and nieces eat them as a snack.

Put them in a plastic bag and crush them madly. Very madly.

Then, roll your rice balls in them. Put the first one in your mouth. And give yourself a ‘Hooray!’

We think these balls might be steady to put on Halloween table since they ‘sort of’ carry the spooky black shade to match the Halloween theme. What-da-ya-think?

Now, which one did we like better, the Ricebob or the spooky balls? We will be honest. We liked the Ricebob better. All because he is wearing pants. Just kidding!

They both had similar taste but we prefer the flavor and the texture of rice and kimchi getting mingled in our mouth rather than all combined when it entered. But seriously, both are good on their own.

We still have lots of kimchi left. Alas!!! Okay, this was one unexpected long post. We're out now. Thanks for reading!

Yield: 4
Prep: 35 minutes
Cook: 5 minutes
Total: 40 minutes

Ingredients

Kimhi Tuna Filling

1 cup very fermented sour kimchi, chopped
5 oz canned tuna, drained well
3 tbsp kimchi juice
2 green onion, chopped
1 tsp sesame oil
toasted white and black sesame seeds
4 cups cooked short grain white rice

Kimchi Seaweed Rice Balls

1-2 seaweed sheets (gim)
1 package roasted seaweed, for rice balls

Method

Saute kimchi in kimchi juice over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add tuna and stir to continue sauteing until kimchi is somewhat soft and the mixture seems a little dry.
Add green onion and heat through. Add sesame oil and stir. Set aside to cool a little.
Season rice with a couple of pinches of salt.
In a rice patty presser, fill rice to halfway up. Place a tablespoon of kimchi tuna filling over the rice leaving edges and corners untouched. Fill more rice on top to cover to the rim of the presser. Cover the lid and press down. Uncover and release the patty by pushing the bottom of the press.
Cut a sheet of plain roasted seaweed into 8 strips. Wrap the bottom of the rice patties with the seaweed strips.
Dip one corner of rice patties in the roasted sesame seeds to coat.
Mix kimchi tuna filling and 1 tablespoon sesame seeds with rice. Roll the mixture to make small balls, about the size of golf ball.
Crush seasoned roasted seaweeds in a plastic bags until they get crushed into small pieces. Roll the rice balls to coat with seaweeds.