Fermented Garden Slaw Mix Recipe
*Always use salt without iodine.
*Always use water without chlorine (this means no tap water).
Ingredients:
• Any vegetables you want…carrots, cabbage, zucchini, radish, celery, yellow squash, onion, cucumber, bell pepper, jalapeno, cauliflower, turnip, green beans, peas, garlic, broccoli
• Any fruit you want. I used an apple.
• Any herbs (fresh or dried) you want.
• Any seasoning like pepper, herbs, chili pepper you want. Bread and butter pickling spice works.
• sea salt or pink Himalayan salt (non-iodine salt)
• bottled water
• If adding cucumber, black tea (a tea bag) or a grape leaf
1. Clean some glass jars and lids.
2. Grate all your vegetables and fruit with a box grater or with a food processor.
3. Add seasoning.
4. Add salt. I use about 1 Tablespoon of salt per quart of vegetables.
5. Mix it all together.
6. If you have added cucumber, put some black tea leaves or a grape leaf in the bottom of the jars. This will keep the cucumber from getting mushy.
7. Spoon the mixture into the glass jars. Pack it down into the jars to remove the air pockets. Leave 1 inch or more of empty space in the jar.
8. The salt should have drawn a lot of water out of the vegetables. This is a good thing. The liquid needs to cover over all the vegetables. So if there is not enough liquid at this point, add bottled water to cover the vegetables. Mix in the water a little to get salt into it.
9. Set the lid on the jar but do not tighten it. The fermentation process will create gas and it need to escape the jar. This can cause the liquid to spill over the jar if it is too full so set the jars in a bowl or tray. It can be left on the counter or put in the pantry.
10. Check your ferment every day to make sure it doesn’t have mold and all the vegetables are under the water. I like to stir the top inch each day to make sure no mold is growing.
11. Let it ferment for 5-10 days. The brine will get cloudy after about 4 days. This is normal.