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Winter Salad (Lightly Fermented Mixed Vegetables)

17/3/2024

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Last year I saw an inspiring video of an Azerbaijani couple who grow masses of vegetables putting up big jars of various vegetables to eat in winter. Unfortunately there's no recipe with the videos, so I went hunting for something close, and found a traditional Azerbaijani recipe, which I modified a bit to suit me. I made a couple of batches. The first, done when the weather was still quite warm, fermented quite quickly, and needed to be shifted to the fridge after a few days. The second, done when the weather was cooler, fermented much more slowly, and remained unrefridgerated (in an outdoor insulated storage area that remains fairly cool) throughout the winter and spring, and only needed to be moved to the fridge once things warmed up this summer.

This is really easy to make, delicious, and good for you, as well as being a great way to use up and store a range of vegetables. The ingredients can be modified to suit whatever you have available. I use home-made organic apple cider vinegar, but you can use whatever vinegar you prefer. The original recipe called for white wine vinegar.

Winter Salad Recipe

Ingredients:
1 medium cabbage, cored, quartered and chopped
2-3 capsicum, various colours, deseeded and chopped
1 hot pepper (optional) deseeded and chopped
4 medium green tomatoes, cut into wedges
2 celery stalks, with or without leaves, chopped
1 bulb of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 cup chopped fresh mint
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 TBSP non-iodised salt
vinegar of choice to cover (I use home-made apple cider vinegar)

Method:
Place all prepared vegetables in very large bowl. Sprinkle salt over veges, and use clean hands to mix well. Cover with a tea towel and set aside for at least 30 mins to extract juices and allow to shrink (often I'm busy and leave it for an hour or two). Take handfuls of veges, squeeze out liquid (back into bowl to save the liquid - see below), and pack veges into clean jars. use a wooden spoon to help pack them down. Continue adding veges until jar nearly full, leaving about a 4-5 inch head space. Pour vinegar over vegetables until completely submerged. To keep veges submerged, top with either reserved folded outer cabbage leaves, a small ziplock bag of extra vinegar, or a silicon muffin cup (that's what I use), before placing lids on jars.

Stand the filled jars in a suitable contain to catch any spillage as the jars ferment, and place in a dark, cool-ish place. Check them daily for 3-7 days, topping up vinegar if needed. When they have fermented as long as you wish, move the jars to the fridge to store and stop the fermentation. Use much as you would sauerkraut.
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Freshly salted and mixed
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After standing
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Packed into jars, before adding vinegar
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Ready to ferment
The left-over liquid squeezed out of the veges is full of nutrition, so don't throw it out! I like to freeze this in icecube trays then bag and keep in the freezer, then add to various things where I want some salt and flavour - drinks, smoothies, soups, whatever.
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Variations:
If using eggplant, do this first -  peel one eggplant and cut into small cubes. Place cubes in a colander, sprinkle with 1 TBSP salt. Place colander in sink with a plate on top to lightly press the eggplant. Leave for 20 mins, rinse under cold running water, squeeze, then add to large bowl and proceed with the above steps.

If you don't have fresh parsley or mint, use other herbs. This time I used mint, nasturtium (leaves and flowers), and some dried parsley. Oregano and thyme would be good too.
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Curdito (Latin American Sauerkraut)

4/2/2018

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Sauerkraut, or fermented cabbage, is a traditional way to preserve cabbage. I make plain sauerkraut often, but really like this variation which comes from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. If you want an excellent cookbook full of recipes and wisdom for whole, nourishing foods, I highly recommend it! 

Making any sauerkraut with homegrown cabbage is a total dream compared to store bought cabbage, as the latter is much drier and requires a lot more work to pound out sufficient fluids to cover the vegetables. Homegrown ones are so loaded with fluids that it's super easy.
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The finished sauerkraut
Ingredients:
1 large cabbage, cored and shredded (set aside a couple of whole outer leaves first)
1 cup carrots, grated
2 medium onions, quartered lengthwise and very finely sliced
1 TBSP dried oregano
1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 TBSP non-iodised salt (or 1 TBSP salt and 4 TBSP whey)

Note: the book also has an alternative version using a homemade pineapple vinegar instead of salt/whey. Can't wait to try that one day as it sounds yum!
Method:
Place all ingredients except salt/whey into a large glass or ceramic bowl. Lightly mix by hand. Sprinkle over salt/whey, and toss through to mix. Cover the bowl and let sit for 10-15 mins. Now, squeeze the cabbage mix with your hands, crushing it, causing liquids to drip out. If it's homegrown cabbage, you only need to do this for a couple of minutes. With store-bought you will need to pound the cabbage with a wooden pounder or meat hammer for 10-15 mins.

Take 2 clean quart jars. Add small quantities of the vegetable mix to a jar at a time (being careful not to lose any of the fluids from the bowl/dripping veges), using a kraut pounder or the end of a wooden spoon to firmly pound down the veges. Keep adding more, and pounding down until jar is full. Repeat with second jar. Pour over the remaining fluids from the bowl. All vegetables should be covered with liquid, and the top if the mixtures should be at least an inch below the rim of the jars. 

Fold up the set aside whole leaves and place in the top of each jar, to hold the veges submerged (you will throw away these leaves after the fermenting is done). I also added a silicon muffin cup for extra packing. Cover jars tightly and set on bench in a suitable drip tray (as they will probably overflow). Leave to ferment at room temperature for 3 days before moving to the fridge. Enjoy!
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Natural Cucumber Pickles

21/1/2018

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This is my new-and-improved version, and is really good! Not too salty, crisp and tasty, with the probiotic benefits of naturally fermented vegetables. Based on recipe from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.
Ingredients: (to fill a quart Agee jar)
Sufficient sliced cucumber (can also be made with whole pickling cucumbers or gherkins)
​1 TBSP mustard seeds
2 TBSP fresh dill OR 1/2 TBSP dill seed OR 1/2 TBSP dried dill tips
2 TBSP non-iodised sea salt (OR 1 TBSP salt and 4 TBSP whey if available)
1 cup filtered water plus more to top up
Method:
Wash cucumber and slice into 1/4 inch slices. Pack into jar. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over cucumbers, adding more water if necessary to cover cucumbers. The top of the liquid should be at least an inch below the rim. Add something to weight down the slices - I put a silicone muffin cup in the top of each jar. Cover tightly, set into something to catch any overflow and keep at room temperature for 2 days. Refrigerate and enjoy.

Note: if using whole pickling cucumbers/gherkins, keep at room temp for 3 days.
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