HOW TO MAKE FERMENTED VEGETABLES

Danielle de Haas
Jan 20, 2017
2 min read

Fermented vegetables.. Firstly, what are they and why should you be incorporating them in to your diet?

Fermented foods are foods that have been through a process of lactofermentation in which natural bacteria feed on the sugar and starch in the food creating lactic acid. This process preserves the food, and creates beneficial enzymes, b-vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, and various strains of probiotics.

Fermented foods are great to assist in improving and maintaining good gut health.

I would recommend implementing fermented foods in to your diet daily and more than once daily if you are having any gut health issues.

A general guide on how to prepare fermented vegetables:

1. Get a glass jar prepared

2. Choose your vegetable of choice for fermenting

3. Prepare the vegetables for fermenting

There are several ways to prepare the vegetables for fermenting - grating, shredding, chopping, slicing or leaving whole. How you choose to prepare you vegetables is your choice.

4. Decide if you will use salt, whey or a starter culture

5. Use water to prepare the brine

6. Weigh the vegetables down under the brine

Once the vegetables have been prepared and placed in the chosen fermentation 'vessel', weight the vegetables down under the brine, keeping them in an anaerobic environment during the fermentation period.

7. Move the fermented vegetables to cold storage

Once the vegetables are finished culturing, it’s time to move them to cold storage. When new to fermenting, it may be difficult to know exactly when to consider the vegetables finished. There are however three signs that you fermented vegetables are finished fermenting.

a. Bubbling

b. Sour Aroma

c. Flavour

My favourite fermented vegetable is definitely SAUERKRAUT. I have outlined the specific recipe for making this below:

HOW TO MAKE SAUERKRAUT:

1. Prepare the cabbage - chop it up and place in a mixing bowl.

2. Add some water and Sprinkle 2-3 TBSP of sea salt and knead and squeeze the cabbage.

3. Stuff the cabbage in to a glass jar - pack the cabbage down tightly to remove any air pockets. Leave about 2 inches space above the cabbage.

4. Add more water to the glass jar if needed. Leave about 1 inch of space above to allow for expansion and bubbling during fermentation.

5. Add on the lid and place a small hole in it.

6. Culture at room temperature for around 2 weeks.

7. Close the jar with the lid and move to the fridge to stop fermentation.