Cultured Veggies Redux

ChioggaBeets-sm

Beautiful beets from a friend’s garden went into our most recent batch of cultured veggies!

Fall is my favorite season.  Although I might say the same thing each time spring comes around.  But I really, really mean it about fall.  Love.

Part of what I enjoy is the bounty of fruits and vegetables being harvested at their peak, and frantically transforming them into delicious foods to savor through the winter.  We’re in cultured veggie frenzy over here, creating all kinds of sauerkrauty goodness from cabbages, beets, carrots, and assorted other delicious seasonal vegetables.

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Fermented Horseradish Sauce

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OK, who knew how much fun fresh horseradish root could be??  This fall we got a whole pile of the roots from some friends and were really excited to try fermenting it for a healthy, non-dairy variation on horseradish sauce.  (We also used some in a batch of cultured veggies that is turning out quite delicious…and zippy!)  This is a mish-mosh of recipes and ideas from Nourished Kitchen, and Cultures for Health, and Sandor Katz’s book Wild Fermentation, plus a little shootin’ from the hip.

Since it’s just a week until Thanksgiving, I’m really looking forward to some mashed potatoes spiced up with this sauce!  Of course, for you meaties out there, it would be good a nice holiday roast as well…

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Cultured Veggies

OK, you caught me. Yes, “cultured veggies” are also known as sauerkraut, or fermented vegetables. But as someone who historically does not have warm, fuzzy feelings for the sauerkraut you get at restaurants or can buy at the grocery store, I’m telling you the homemade version is pretty awesome. And super good for you, chock full of the partying bacterial probiotics that give it the sour flavor (just like the ones many of us spend good money on from the health food store). But these friendly critters work hard for you, converting raw veggies into a distinctive, tasty dish. And then once you eat them, their work really begins as they populate your gut and kick out all kinds of nasties that you really don’t want to read about here.   Continue reading