Ferment Your Food

Photo: HealthHomeHappy.com/Flickr

What do kefir, sauerkraut and kimchi have in common? They are all fermented foods.

Cathy Sloan Gallagher of this season’s Edible South Shore reports on the health benefits of “fermented edibles” (easy on the digestive track, nutrient-rich, and more) and entices us to DIY with two super-easy recipes: one for carrots, the other for chutney. All that’s required if you’re a novice are proper storage jars.

Here’s more food for thought, and for actual consumption. A quick search of the blogosphere yields recipes for Fermented Hot Chili Sauce from Nourished Kitchen; Kimchi from David Lebovitz; and, Yogurt, Buttermilk and Crème Fraîche from Nourishing Days. And there’s so much more.

Have you fermented? If so, what foods? If not — not yet, anyway — these recipes, above, might be the catalyst. We’d love to hear about it. Write us on Twitter if you tweet, Facebook or here.

Read Cathy Sloan Gallagher’s “Fermented Edibles: The Original Health Food.”

3 thoughts on “Ferment Your Food”

  1. Sara

    I have finally gotten in a routine of making my own yogurt, just putting several jars in a cooler to ferment (in this case the cooler is acting as a thermos to keep warmth in), which is great since I need not use a machine. I also really enjoy making creme fraiche. I make sure to buy only pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) cream; if I don’t get through all the cream before its sell by date I make creme fraiche (or just buy extra cream for creme fraiche); if I don’t think I will finish the creme fraiche, I turn it into butter (and cultured buttermilk) (which in turn can be frozen, though I have only had to do that when I was about to go on vacation; but what a great way to not throw out food!)

    I do want to learn to make sauerkraut soon. We’ll see when I manage!