Raw Cultured Vegetables

[Earth Mother]

Cultured vegetables add valuable probiotics and enzymes to your body, which help stamp out Candida, boost your immune system and curb your cravings for sweets.

Like women and fine wine, they become even more delicious with time. (*wink*) Fermented vegetables can keep in your fridge for months. You can pull one of these living salads out whenever you're hungry and have some "fast food."

For easy-to-follow instructions, please visit the Culinary Center's How To Make Raw Cultured Vegetables. And, let's get fermenting!

[Earth Mother]

Cucumber Kimchi

3 English cucumbers, thinly sliced
6 inches fresh ginger, grated
2 daikon radish, grated
4 scallions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 Tbsp cayenne
1 Tbsp sesame seed


Sweet Kraut

3 heads green cabbage, shredded
2 beets, grated
3 carrots, grated
1 Fuji apple, grated
1/2 lemon, juiced

Spicy Pink

3 heads red cabbage, shredded
6 carrots, grated
3 inches fresh ginger, grated
6 cloves garlic, chopped

[Tanja]

I am so pumped up....I just started two quart jars of sauerkraut! At first I just was layering salt, then shredded cabbage, then salt...and I got the jar all filled up that way and then thought....hmmmm....I'd better make sure this sounds right. So I watched the Matt & Angela fermentation video and made the saline and topped it off with that. I was pounding it down and it was making quite a bit of its' own juice. I just have regular lids on these, but I hope when hubby gets home he can drill a hole for me in a canning lid jar and I can insert the airlock and cork that I had purchased.

[snowdrop]

just found this article & recipes

Fermented Foods for Gut Healing:
Coconut Kefir and Cultured Beets —
Recipes I talked about on the Raw Mom Summit

coconut kefir making:
You’ll need:
1 box (9) young coconuts (which can be purchased most inexpensively at your local Asian market)

1 pack Kefir Starter

I glass pitcher

3-4 sterile quart sized mason jars

1. Begin with room temp (75 degrees or warmer) coconuts and starter pack
2. Open 3 coconuts (I just poke hole right below the tip with a screwdriver), and pour into glass pitcher. Make sure that the water is clear and not pink or brown.
3. Pour that liquid into one jar.
4. Add the kefir starter.
5. Lightly stir
6. Close the jar and let it sit out for 24-36 hrs.
7. Then, split that batch into 2 jars.
8. Add fresh coconut water from 3 more coconuts.
9. Close jars and let sit for another 24 hrs.
10. Repeat until you have used all of your coconuts.
11. Refrigerate.

When the coconut water ferments it becomes a bit cloudy, bubby and tastes a little like champagne, you may sense that it smells like bread or beer and that’s fine. Don’t toss it if it doesn’t smell like roses. Sometimes the jars talk, sizzle, make funky sounds and even vibrate and move on your counter top. Seriously! So, if there’s tons of action coming from a jar, I’d watch out. Tops do pop off. Handle this with komucha care. Every batch won’t ferment at the same pace. Too much bubbling could mean it’s done fermenting and you can take a drink. Each jar of kefir can ferment about seven more jars. So you will want to leave about a ¼ cup of this magic juice in each jar to start the next batch.
No need to go too fast when embarking on your fermentation journey. There’s plenty of time to experience the magic. Check out the recipe in this issue of Health in High Heels! Just promise me you’ll go slowly with the kiddos. This stuff is very detoxing and chances are that they’ll be releasing a lot. The detox will be amazing if you support it with colon therapy, skin brushing, spa baths, energetic and emotional reinforcement as well as good old fashioned sleep.
Reactions to probiotic foods like kefir are really as varied as our kid’s symptoms. Some kids get hyper for a while others disconnect. It’s generally a sign that the body is pushing out the old. The body really wants to heal. If you sense that embracing fermented foods as part of your autism healing plan is something you need to do for your child, then please don’t hesitate to contact me for help and support along the way. We can make healing easy if we do it together.

PS. The coconut meat can also be fermented with about a tablespoon of Kefir. This takes about 12 hours. You can do it overnight and wake up to a yummy raw yogurt in the morning!

Enjoy!
“Hey Liver Toxins — Beet It” Fermented Beet Salad

(Originally published on Health in High Heels)

Ingredients:
5 lbs red beets, shredded in food processor
Tons of dill
Juice of 4-5 lemons
2 cloves garlic
Caraway seeds to taste
About ¼ cup raw apple cider vinegar
Few cabbage leaves
Pure water
1 green apple
Few stalks of celery
1 culture starter from Body Ecology

Equipment:
Tiny glass
Humongous mixing bowl
Sterile quart-sized mason jars

Process:

1. Empty room temp starter culture into 4 oz warmish water and set aside
2. Shred your beets and add to mixing bowl
3. Finely chop half of your dill and add that to mixing bowl
4. Blend 1 green apple, about 4 cups water, handful of beets, celery, garlic and lemon juice and the remainder of dill in Vitamix or really good blender.
5. Add water/culture starter mix to your blender.
6. Pour liquid mixture over beets and mix well.
7. Stuff your outrageously clean mason jars with these cultured vegetables leaving about 1.5 inches at top.
8. Roll up some cabbage leaves and place atop each jar before sealing…. This helps prevent explosion.
9. Seal tightly and run under hot water and wipe clean.
10. I always do a blessing or intention on my veggies…. you can do this now if you choose.
11. Ferment for 5-10 days at room temp.

The longer you ferment… the more sour they become.

Enjoy!

This is a very cleansing food, so begin trying them in small amounts. You can use this mix as a dip for blue corn chips, raw chips, a topping for any salad or wrap, mixed with a nut or seed cheese for extra zing. Or you can even sprout some quinoa and/ or sesame seeds, blend them together and make dehydrated crackers with it. Very yummy, still raw — and possibly easier to get the kids to love.

[Eden Grace]

Earth Mother, do you salt the recipes below. I really want to do this but I am wondering if I should because I have blood pressure issues.

[Earth Mother]

I do salt my veggies lightly with Grey Celtic Sea Salt. I do this prior to the hand-squeezing process that helps to break down the cell walls and release the natural juices. [You might want to watch the short video I have posted in the Culinary Center.]

I also was plagued by extreme hypertension for many years. A diet of raw living foods and eliminating all refined/processed foods, including refined white table salt, did the trick for me — "excellent" blood pressure now, my doc tells me. You might be interested to know that research out of the Hypertension Center of the New York-Cornell Medical Center, shows that a High Blood Pressure problem lies not in salt intake but in an overactive hormone system. When this system is overactive, there are high renin levels (renin is a protein-digesting enzyme that acts in raising blood pressure) and body salt content is usually excessively reduced. Interestingly, renin is also found in cheese and guess who used to be addicted to cheese? I used to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No joke.

Eden Grace said:

Earth Mother, do you salt the recipes below. I really want to do this but I am wondering if I should because I have blood pressure issues.

[mary]

Wow a whole group on cultured veg!! Yay I Looooooove cultured veggies so much! and also coconut kefir-yum! I follow the body ecology way of making my veggies and use their starters. If anyone is concerned about salt the body ecology method of culturing does not involve adding salt.
here are some of my favorite ways to enjoy c.v. aside from right out of the jar

cultured veg noodles
1 cup kelp noodles
few big scoops cultured veg
1/2 avacado diced
dash sea salt
black pepper
cayenne to taste
sprinkle dulse flakes

simple, quick and delicious!

cultured veg wrap
lettuce wrap
acv mustard
cultured veg

tastes a lot like a hotdog but in a good way.
c.v and mustard is also great on flax crackers.

[mary]

Gina LaVerde & Dougie are so AWESOME!

Earth Mother said:

LOVE Gina LaVerde! She began feeding her autistic son, Dougie, raw cultured veggies and the change in him was astounding. Living foods are so incredibly healing! Thanks for the link, snowdrop.

snowdrop said:

just found this article & recipes
Fermented Foods for Gut Healing: Coconut Kefir and Cultured Beets —
Recipes I talked about on the Raw Mom Summit

[Stephanie Brown]

posted a blog about how to make sauerkraut

[mary]

Wow, I just made the most tempting cultured veggies. I don't know how I am going to stand waiting for them to be done! I used the body ecology method and body ecology starter. and I just do it in regular mason jars. I have been using this method for about 9 months and have had nothing but great results here is a link to an awesome cultured veg tutorial:

http://wholesomegoodness.net/2008/06/10/cultured-veggie-tutorial-wi...


here is what I made today:

3 small white cabbages
15 small baby bok choy
1 big red bell pepper
5 mini sweet peppers
1 green apple
1/2 onion
1/4 cup wakame- soaked
8 fresh chili peppers
10 cloves garlic
1 cup chopped cilantro
1 head rainbow chard
6 carrots

I put 1/2 in jars just like this then to the other half I added 1/4 cup Thai basil and 1/4 red cabbage( so I could tell the jars apart later.

for brine I used water, starter, and about 1/3 head celery and a few big handfuls of all the mixed veggies.

The veggies just mixed together before hand were so good especially the thai basil mixture.

This made 8 mouthwatering jars!

[Rita]

Am making lots of fermented veggies.....and loving them!!! Just one question?...what do you do with the left over elixir after your through consuming the veggies.....seems a waste to throw it out. Any suggestions other than drinking it? Tks!!!

[mary]

I usually just drink it. but I did use it as a starter to make a new batch once and it worked ok.

Rita said:

Am making lots of fermented veggies.....and loving them!!! Just one question?...what do you do with the left over elixir after your through consuming the veggies.....seems a waste to throw it out. Any suggestions other than drinking it? Tks!!!

[mary]

My Amazing lunch today!!! It is sooooo goooood I am having a hard time contolling myself--seriously, I am.
I made this sandwich on onion bread with apple cider vinegar stone ground mustard, avacado and topped with cultured veggies.