Unsalted, Cultured Vegetables: Beginner Recipe

Tara Carpenter, NC.

A good recipe to begin with if new to making unsalted, probiotic vegetables! Also lovingly known as cultured veggies or cv’s. I have laid everything out in step-by-step fashion with only 3 ingredients … cabbage, carrots, and culture starter.

Don’t let simplicity fool you though, this food is potent with ability to kick-start near any “gut engine” back into working gear and have you digesting like a rock star ✨

A simple, colorful mixture to light up your tastebuds.

Unsalted cultured vegetables can knock out the toughest pathogenic bacteria, yeast, and viruses making home in your body. I discovered cv’s when I had yeast overgrowth that caused me a ton of bloating and discomfort. A friend lent me a book called The Body Ecology Diet (B.E.D) with a chapter on unsalted cultured food. I was hooked.

This food was the missing piece to my healing plan at the time. I felt floored in gratefulness for I had struggled for years with repetitive digestive issues. Years later and I still make this recipe along with Purple Potion, which is loved by kids of all ages 🙂

Every time you eat, you either feed or fight disease.

Unsalted Cultured Vegetables: Garden Blend Recipe

Yields: 6 Quart Sized Jars

Ingredients

1 packet vegetable starter culture*

1/4 cup warm filtered water

½ tsp EcoBloom** (or Rapadura, sucanat etc.)

7 1/2 – 8 lb washed, green cabbage (about 3 heads), shredded – reserve 12 oz. large outer leaves.

2 – 2 1/2 lb carrots, shredded

1 1/2 tbs dill seed

2-3 cups filtered water.

Materials

Food Processor

Blender (optional)

Large Stainless Steel or Glass Bowls

6 Quart-Sized Mason Jars

Wide Mouth Funnel

Good Knife

Instructions

Scald/Wash equipment with hot, soapy water OR spray down with food-grade hydrogen peroxide in small spray bottle and dry with paper towels.

Dissolve starter and EcoBloom in ¼ c. warm (90-degree F) water and let sit still for 20 minutes.

Combine vegetables and seasoning in a clean, large bowl.

Remove third of mixture, place in blender (small blender? do in two batches), blend with 2-3 pure water to a consistency of thick juice and add to bowl of vegetables.

Mix everything with spoons or clean hands and pack tightly into pint or quart-size glass jars with potato masher, or fist to force out air pockets.

Fill jars until liquid covers vegetables with 1 1/2-inches head space.

Roll reserved cabbage leaves to form tight logs and place on top of veggies, pushing down so liquid just covers “logs” (add more brine if needed) – leave 1-inch at top for expansion.

Screw lid on tightly and culture 3-10 days in a dark, warm spot (70-72 degrees F) – See incubator kit if you have a hard time keeping temperatures constant as it’s very important to have them steady throughout the culturing period. I like mine best around day 7, but everyone likes different textures and sourness so learn what day you like them best at 🙂

Eat up to ½ cup with meals (this is a therapeutic dose, ease into this).

Excellent Tara …. I’m excited to be on this path of making cultured veggies and kefir to infuse them in my body! Feeling sparkly! B.U. Bethel, VT

 

 

 

 

 

Tips & Tricks

• Use Mason jar porcelain weights to keep your fermenting veggies submerged under brine. 
• Take this slow! Cultured veggies are rich in enzymes and probiotics, ease in to eating them. Once body gets used to the extra alive activity, then up your dose. 
• Store cultured veggies in fridge where they continue to ferment at slow pace for weeks (even months), becoming softer and more delicious with time.

*culture starter makes potent cv’s because contains Lb. Plantarum, strong probiotic strain. Most probiotics get destroyed by antibiotics, fluoride, stomach acid, and chlorinated water before reaching the intestines, where they live. These guys (Lb. Plantarum) get there safe n sound.

**Ecobloom is 100% natural powder chicory extract FrutaFit, Inulin (FOS – fructooligosaccharides). This prebiotic is a quick food for the probiotics. Like the ones in that culture starter packet you’re using. When you add Ecobloom you provide something for the little guys to munch on while they’re adjusting and growing in #’s in the jar.

Traditional Milk Kefir

Oven Kit for Probiotic Food

BEU Fermentation Course

References

Gates, D. (2010). The Body Ecology Diet.  Bogart, GA: B.E.D. Publications

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May all bellies be happy!