It's easy to make your own
fermented and cultured vegetables.
These and other fermented
foods offer powerful health
benefits, aiding digestion and
weightloss, helping those
with candida yeast and
helping to build immunity
and prevent cancer.
Make Your Own Cultured
Vegetables
When thinking of fermented
vegetables, most people
think of cabbage or commercial
sauerkraut. Commercially
fermented foods are usually
heated when they are processed which destroys the nutrients and enzymes.
Therefore cultured veggies are best eaten raw and they are very easy to make at home.
Ingredients
Sea Salt
Vegetables - Besides cabbage, you can use carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, scallions, or pretty much any vegetable you’d like to try.
Body Ecology Culture Starter - Body Ecology Culutre Starter contains 7 packets so you can use it for 7 batches of cultured veggies. Each packet will make up to 8 quarts of finished fermented vegetables.
1 tsp honey for starter.
How to Make Fermented Vegetables
Make your culture starter according to package directions. It takes 20 minutes for the starter to be ready to use.
Assemble your desired veggies and chop, cut or grate into small pieces. A food processor is great for this or some kind of food chopper or grater. The small the veggies pieces, the faster they will culture.
Put the vegetables into a large bowl and mix.
Add salt to taste. One rule of thumb is 3 tablespoons of salt to 5 pounds of veggies. One quart of cultured veggies should have one to three tablespoons of salt.
Keep mixing veggies, mashing some of them, until liquid is releases. If you don’t have enough liquid, you can add a little water.
Add 2 cups of veggies to your blender or food processor with 3 cups of water. Blend until liquid. Add culture starter and mix with spoon, don't blend starter.
Pour starter and liquid into vegetables and mix well.
Pack mixed veggies and starter into quart glass canning jars. Press down on the mixture so that air bubbles are released and liquid covers the veggies completely.leaving about 1-2 inches at the top. Fold come cabbage leaves into top to take up the space, making sure liquid covers the veggies.
The liquid will expand as it ferments so be sure there is some empty space before putting on the top. I've also used glass bowls with plastic lids for storing and fermenting.
Wrap jars with a towel and put on a cookie sheet for fermenting. Some liquid may release from the jars and you might want to open slightly to release some of the gasses to the jars don't break.
Keep your fermenting veggies at room temp for 7 days. Taste every day to see when the taste is perfect for you. Place your cultured foods in the frig where they will keep indefinitely.
© Copyright 2011 by Path2HealthyLiving