Gut 105: A Few Great Fermented Recipes

We’ve spent this series discussing fermented food and its impact on your gut health (and why that’s so important). So let’s get to the good stuff…the fermented food itself. Get out your apron and cookware because these recipes will make your gut gurgle and your tongue tingle with delight! Before you get started I wanted to share this delightful passage from Michael Pollan’s book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation:

 

“To ferment your own food is to lodge a small but eloquent protest – on behalf of the senses and the microbes against the homogenization of flavors and food experiences now rolling like a great, undifferentiated lawn across the globe. It is also a declaration of independence from an economy that would much prefer we remain passive consumers of its standardized commodities, rather than creators of idiosyncratic products expressive of ourselves and of the places where we live, because your pale ale or sourdough bread or kimchi is going to taste nothing like mine or anyone else’s.”

 

 

Tips for Making Fermented Vegetables: A tasty caring holiday gift

• 1 pound of vegetables = approx. 1 pint
• Salts should be approx. 2-3 % of the mix about 1 Tsp per pint, healing TB for a quart
• Ferment for 3 to 7 days at room temperature
• If using whey, an inoculant from older ferments, or a starter the process will go faster
• Timing, temperature, texture, and taste …… It is up to your taste buds

Fermented vegetables can keep in your fridge for years. Like fine wine, they become even more delicious with time. You can pull one of these living salads out whenever you’re hungry and have some healthy “fast food.”

 

Fermented Vegetable Recipe Ideas
Be creative, choose fresh herbs and spices that suit your taste.

 

Colorful Kraut

Ingredients

• 3 heads green cabbage, shredded
• 2 beets, grated
• 3 carrots, grated
• 6 TB Grated Ginger
• 4TB fresh Turmeric
• 4-6 TB Hawaiian or Himalayan Sea Salt Optional: 1/2 lemon or lime juiced

 

Caraway Cumin Kraut

• 4 heads green cabbage, shredded or other vegetables
• 3 TB Caraway Seed
• 2 TB Cumin Seed
• 4-6 TB Hawaiian or Himalayan Sea Salt Optional: 1/2 lemon or lime juiced

 

Pickled Cucumbers

• 3 cucumbers
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon of fresh dill if you have it, pickling spices… be creative
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 4 tablespoons whey (if you have none, use additional 1 tablespoon salt)
• 1 cup of filtered water (I like to add lemon or lime juice)

Wash cucumbers and slice.  Place in wide mouth jar. Combine rest of ingredients and pour over cucumbers. Top off with liquid to 1 inch below top. Cover loosely and keep at room temperature for 2-3 days before transferring to refrigerator. Tighten lid … enjoy!

Ferment TIP:

Refrigerate your delicious effervescent ferments after the 5-7 day fermentation process is complete and they can last indefinitely if they are submerged in their natural juices. They are at the peak of the conversion process in the first week. Some say they are best eaten within 6 months, other say they get better with age. I say …. just keep making them and eating them, they won’t last long. The conversion process is the fermentation process, the transformative action of microorganisms which means the ferments are converting or transforming the sugars and starches in the vegetables to lactic and acetic acids. Your ferments will continue to transform slowly in your refrigerator. When you bring the ferments back up to room temperature, or put them in your warm body, the fermentations excel again adding in mega healthy digestion.

 

Important!

If you find white mold or scum on the surface, just skim off into your compost. This will happen if you do not have enough liquid to cover the Kraut as fermentation is an anaerobic process and when it is exposed to air which can attract stray microbes, yeasts and molds. You can also fill a small air tight bag with filtered water and some salt and top off your jar if you are concerned. This keeps the kraut submerged.  If the mold is red or brown… get rid of it and start all over.

 

Going to make a large batch? I use a crock as a vessel when making large quantities.

 

 

References

Wild Fermentation- Sandor Katz www.wildfementation.com

Body Ecology- Donna Gates www.bodyecology.com

Nourishing Traditions- Sally Fallon

Nourishing Kitchen http://nourishedkitchen.com

 

Now that you have the why and the how-to, it’s time to get at it! I hope that I’ve inspired you with this blog. In our next, and final blog, I’m going to give you more reasons why to ferment vegetables and tips on how to do them.

 

Big Love,

Founder of Soil to Soul Solutions

 

Go out there and inspire someone today to be

part of the solution and not the pollutions.