Fermented Vegetables
This humble side dish that can accompany many different meals is making a name for itself on the modern dinner table.
Servings: 2 litres
Ingredients
- Whey – comes from making this homemade cream cheese recipe You will need 4 tablespoons of whey.
- Sea salt – 2 tablespoons
- Vegetables – Daikon cabbage (red, chinese, green etc), cauliflower, zucchini, carrot, red pepper, fennel etc. Vegetables that are hard root vegetables are the best but I have used zucchini and red pepper as well. You will need about 1.5 kgs in total of vegetables.
- Spices and flavours – ginger garlic, red onion (haven’t used this yet, but would like to try), caraway seeds, basil, coriander, parsley, mint or any other fresh herb you have.
- A jar for fermenting in. Eg: Mason jar with seal and spring lever or any glass jar that has a good sealed lid. The jar needs to be about 2 litre capacity.
- Food processor. I like to grate and dice my vegetables. I know some people who are happy to grate or dice by hand I’m not one of them.
- A bowl or container big enough to hold all the vegetables.
- A meat cleaver or wooden rolling pin for squeezing water out of vegetables.
Instructions
- Wash and peel vegetables ready to be grated or diced.
- Scold all your utensils with hot water and dry.
- Grate or dice vegetables.
- Put the vegetables into the bowl with salt (2 tbls) and whey (4 tbls).
- Using the wooden rolling pin or meat mallet or your hands begin to squeeze the mixture together until liquid rises about 1 cm above the veggies. Be careful to not overfill as the veggies will expand as they start to ferment.
Notes
The fermentation takes approximately 3-5 days to ferment. The longer they ferment the softer the vegetables become and they taste more sour.