If you don’t want to make beet kvass, a fermented beverage, you can buy it at health food stores. Zukay.com makes an excellent beet kvass as well as other fermented and cultured beverages. But once in a while it’s great (and more affordable) to try it on your own! The beverage is strained from the beets and imbibed in small amounts as a daily tonic. Use kvass as you would vinegar in salad dressings and marinades. Or use it as the base of a cold soup, like my delicious and medicinal Lithuanian Šaltibarščiai Soup (page 239).
11/2 pounds red beets
4 teaspoons Himalayan or Celtic sea salt
1. Without peeling them, scrub the beets, and chop them into 1/2-inch chunks. Be careful to include the part where the bulb connects to the stems (it contains a concentration of healthy bile-thinning properties). Place the beets in a 2-quart sterilized mason jar.
2. Add the salt. Pour enough water into the jar to cover the beets and leave a 2-inch headspace at the top of the jar.
3. Cover the jar with a double layer of cheesecloth and secure it with a rubber band. Agitate a little and place in a cool room, about 68°F, to ferment, agitating the jar every day, for 1 to 2 weeks, depending on your taste preference. Sample a little after 1 week and see how it tastes to you. The longer the beets ferment, the more sour (sort of like yogurt or kefir) they’ll become.
4. Skim off any surface mold or debris, then strain the kvass through a colander lined with more cheesecloth into one or more sealable containers or jars. Refrigerate for up to 1 week.
Note: Although beets themselves are typically high in sugar (most table sugar is made with GMO sugar beets, by the way, not sugar cane), the fermentation process actually removes most of the sugar from the finished product. The sugars are instead used to feed probiotic bacteria. The result is a healthful, low- or no-sugar probiotic beverage with all the inherent benefits associated with beets themselves. Beet kvass can be made in a couple of different ways: with a starter culture or in a wild fermentation that relies on naturally occurring bacteria from the soil and surrounding environment. Purchasing a culture isn’t necessary, but there can be significant benefits if you use a really good one. Dr. Joseph Mercola sells one in particular that has some rather exciting benefits. Called Kinetic Culture, this probiotic culture is specifically formulated to boost vitamin K2 production from the bacterial fermentation. Using a culture can also promote a bit more piece of mind, ensuring that only beneficial bacteria end up in the kvass.