Directions

•Wash your hands and clean the surface you are about to use.

 

•There are many variants to this recipe, but the basic version uses cabbage. You can add carrots, fennel bulbs, beets, cauliflower, spices, pink peppercorns, or even citrus juices and orange peel. The bottom line is that we are fermenting veggies.

 

•I find one head of cabbage produces about eight cups of shredded cabbage. For each two cups, I add one teaspoon of mineral salt. The salt is going to wilt the cabbage and make the vegetable ooze its own juice, which we are going to use as a vehicle for fermentation. Cabbage is the go-to vegetable when fermenting, because it already contains numerous wild probiotic strains on its own, so by fermenting it we are creating a place for the bacteria to multiply.

 

•As you shred the cabbage, every two cups add a teaspoon of salt and massage it with your hands. This makes the process easier, rather than trying to wilt all eight cups of cabbage at the same time.

 

•Once wilted, put the cabbage in the mason jar, leaving about 1-2” space at the top, so the bacteria have space to breathe. Press the cabbage down with your hands and make sure all the vegetable is submerged under the liquid produced by the vegetable. If it is not enough, add a little water.

 

•Close the jar tight and label it with the date [and message]. Leave the jar out at room temperature for three days.

 

•After three days, check the sauerkraut; you’ll hear the lid pop, which is a good sign that the bacteria are alive. That’s it! Now you can transfer the fermented veggie jar to the fridge and enjoy its wonderful medicinal properties as often as you want.

 

•You can even swirl the juice of the fermented veggies around in your mouth to restock the good bacteria and protect from the bad.