Fermented Vegetables

Another year has come and passed.  Have you achieved your 2013 resolution?  At the beginning of 2013, we as a family announced our New Year resolution to each other so we can be held accountable.  Mine was to make and eat fermented vegetables.  You have probably heard of the benefit of eating fermented food.  If not, here is the gist of it,

Fermented food contains healthy bacteria, such as lactobacillus and some nutrients like B vitamins and minerals.  These good bacteria could colonize in your gut and improve your gut flora.  They not only help your digestion but also increase your immunity to common illness.  Since most of our diet consists of processed foods and we probably all have taken antibiotics at some point in our life, our gut bacteria have probably been depleted.  One way to add the good bacteria back to our gut is to eat fermented food.  Here is an interesting short video about gut flora and our immune system, http://www.npr.org/templates/event/embeddedVideo.php?storyId=244526773&mediaId=245227995&inf_contact_key=b44e33f62a6fcc13277e45750203dac2652c5f26600fbbc23e38c40abd302382

There is one problem, though.  Many commercially produced fermented foods contain too much sodium, sugar, or even preservatives.  Most of them are probably pasteurized, which means many nutrients and good bacteria are destroyed (white vinegar also kills off the bacteria).  The real good ones in the health food stores or farmers market are usually quite expensive and still contain lots of sugar.  After some researches, I decided to start with water kefir grains.

I ordered the dehydrated kefir grains online and started making water kefir.  I use sugar water or coconut water to raise the kefir grains and change the water every two days.  You should do it more often if the weather is hot.  Here is a great website that will answer any question you can think of regarding kefir grains, http://www.yemoos.com/faqwagrains101.html  My younger daughter enjoys drinking kefir water because it makes her feel like she is drinking soda (we only have water, almond milk, and freshly made green smoothies at home).  My older one is a picky eater but she doesn’t complain when I offer her kefir water.  Both girls jokes that kefir grains are my personal pet and they consume the pets’….umm…let’s not go there.

After the success of raising kefir grains, I ventured out to make fermented carrots, Daikon radishes, and cabbages.  At first, I was worried about spoiled food so I put lots of salt.  That batch became really salty and you couldn’t taste any other flavor.  For the next batch, I decreased salt and added some kefir water as the starter.  Since I was still worried about spoilage, I only let it sit for 3 days before putting it in the fridge.  This time it turned out to be flavorless.  It became slightly sour after 3 weeks in the fridge.  Now, I ferment carrots, radishes, green/red peppers, cabbages, beet roots, adding chilly pepper, garlic, and onion for flavor.  I usually leave it out for 7 days before storing it in the fridge.  I can’t say that I have complete success because my husband still doesn’t like it and I’ve only done lacto-fermentation.  At least, it’s a start.