Challenges You May
Encounter when Culturing Your Foods -
Part 2: How to Make Your Best Batch Every Time
Want to learn some top tips for making your best batch of cultured
vegetables every time? Read on for advice from one of our Certified
Body Ecologists.
|
[NOTE: Also see Part 1, Challenges
You May Encounter when Culturing Your Foods - Including the Surprising Emotional
Ones ]
Fermented foods and drinks are key superfoods in the Body Ecology program.
We love them because they are loaded with vitamins and minerals, are great
for your digestion, control cravings, help your body detoxify and boost your
immunity. Find out how they also keep you looking your best on the outside
by reading: Want
to Look Younger & Better? 8 Reasons Why Probiotics are an Essential Tool.
Since the early years of Body Ecology, Donna Gates has been teaching people
to make their own fermented foods and drinks at home as a way to improve their
health through re-establishing a healthy inner ecosystem.
Cultured vegetables, in particular, are one of the first fermented foods
our customers experiment with at home…and for first-timers, there can
be challenges.
In last
week's article, Caroline Barringer, a Certified
Body Ecologist (CBE) shared how negative emotions can make your best efforts
at culturing vegetables go wrong.
This week, Caroline shares tips for how to make a perfect batch of cultured
vegetables every time…and she should know, she has it down to a science!
Caroline's Tips for Making A Perfect Batch of Cultured Vegetables
Get Ready: Ingredients & Equipment - Make sure you have all your
ingredients and equipment ready to go ahead of time.
NOTE: For more on helpful kitchen appliances, read: The
Top 8 Recommended Appliances for Your Healthy Kitchen.
- Food processor - If you are using a home version food processor, make
sure it doesn't get overheated. If you make a lot of cultured vegetables,
consider a professional food processor.
- A large stainless steel bowl and Mason jars with lids are two must-haves,
according to Caroline.
- Your cultured vegetable recipe - Try our cultured
vegetables recipes if you don't have one of your own!
- Blender or juicer - to make the brine.
The brine is critical to a great batch of cultured vegetables.
- A marker or labels - to put the date you made your cultured vegetables
on the jars. This allows you to make sure you can track how long you want
to let them ferment.
Get Set: Brine & Dine - According to Caroline, the real secret
to making a great batch of cultured vegetables (in addition to a great recipe!)
has to do with the brine.
- Brine - You want the microflora to thrive so that you get a great
batch of cultured vegetables.
- Microflora are anaerobic (don't like oxygen). Cultured vegetables
mold when exposed to oxygen, so use your fist or a potato masher to mash
them down under the brine. If there is space between the top of the brine
and your Mason jar lid, bathe a cabbage leaf in the brine and roll it
up at the top of the jar. In this way, the cabbage leaf protects your
precious veggies from molding (your brine-bathed cabbage leaf won't mold,
even if it's not under the brine).
Adding Culture Starter to your brine helps ensure that your cultured
vegetables are teeming with healthy microflora. The Lactobacillus
Plantarum in cultured vegetables is great for supporting weight
loss goals, regulating bowels and preserving good bacteria while
taking antibiotics. Read
More and Order Culture Starter Now.
|
- To make the best brine, Caroline recommends using Culture
Starter so that each batch is consistently thriving with healthy
microflora. It is the microflora that ferment your vegetables and multiply
their nutrients.
- Dine - Healthy microflora need food (prebiotics) to thrive. Adding honey
or Ecobloom are great options to wake them up so they can get to work softening
your vegetables. For more on prebiotics, read: How
to Make Your Gut Most Inviting to Healthy Probiotics.
- Go: Date, Wait & Eat - Put the date on your jars and wait for
3 days - 1 week for your vegetables to ferment. Refrigerate and enjoy for
up to 8 months!
Cultured Vegetables - Months of Enjoyment in One Batch!
Try Culture Starter today to create your own batch of delicious, probiotic-rich
cultured vegetables! You can also use Culture Starter to make sour cream
and cultured butter.
Whether you want to heal from an illness, control cravings for sweets and
carbs, lose weight, preserve healthy bacteria when taking antibiotics or just
feel your best, cultured vegetables made with Body Ecology's Culture Starter
is your best bet for making probiotic-rich fermented foods!
Return to Newsletter Archive
Recommend
This Page to a Friend
Print this article
