Culturing vegetables is a lot of fun.  Sort of like doing a little science experiment in your kitchen.  You take veggies, such as cabbage, kale, peppers, broccoli, celery, dill, carrots, daikon and grate them in a food processor or with a cheese grater, combine them with a culturing starter, such as whey or sorghemeuse culture starter and leave on the counter in a sealed jar for 4-7 days to ferment.  Fermentation or culturing increases the bio-availability of the nutrients in the vegetables.  In other words they are easier to digest and the enzymes, vitamins and minerals are increased and easier to absorb and assimilate.  Eating fermented vegetables adds good bacteria to your intestines which we need for proper digestion, asborption and elimination.  The recipes take about an hour to make, but once prepared you will have salad at your fingertips or “fast food” salad whenever you want for months.

Equipment you will need: food processor, blender.

Here are three simple recipes:

Basic Green Cultured Vegetables

• 1 head chinese cabbage, grated

• 1 head broccoli, grated

• 2 sour green apples, grated

• 2 red bell peppers, grated

• 3 shallots, very thinly sliced

• 6 ribs (or half a bunch of celery), leaves and all, very thinly sliced

• 1 Tablespoon dill seed or fresh dill

• 3 cabbage or kale leaves

Basic Orange Cultured Vegetables

• 10 carrots, peeled and grated

• 3 daikon, peeled and grated

• 4 inches fresh ginger, peeled and grated with a ginger grater

• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and grated with a garlic press (optional)

• 2 heads fennel, peeled and grated

• 3 cabbage or kale leaves

Basic Purple Cultured Vegetables

• 1 head purple cabbage, grated

• 3 daikon radish, grated

• 1 head radicchio, grated or sliced very thin

• 1 cup pomegranite seeds

• 3 shallots, very thinly sliced

• 6 ribs (or half a bunch of celery), leaves and all, very thinly sliced

• 1 head cilantro, roughly chopped

• 3 cabbage or kale leaves

For each recipe following these instructions:

Combine vegetables in a large bowl.  Remove about two cups of the vegetables and blend with a little water in a blender to create a brine the consistency of juice.

According to package instructions warm about 1/4 cup water to body temperature and add a tablespoon of whey or some form of lacto-bacillus or 1 package of Body Ecology vegetable starter and 1/2 teaspoon of something sweet, like: agave, sucanat, rapadura, lakanto to the starter water to activate the good bacteria in the starter.  Let sit for 20 minutes - you’ll know it’s ready when the water gets cloudy.

Combine starter water with the vegetable brine.  Pour over the prepared vegetables, mix thoroughly and then pack tightly into canning jars  rubber lip and clamp (see photo) leaving about an 2 inches of space between vegetables and top of jar.

Roll up two or three kale or cabbage leaves and place on top of the vegetables to protect vegetables and clamp jar shut.

Leave jar on the kitchen counter for at least 4 days, but 7 is really optimal.  You will see some bubbling indicating vegetables are fermenting.

Place in refrigerator when ready to stop the fermentation process.  Vegetables keep for 3 months in the refrigerator.

Enjoy cultured vegetables with olive oil drizzled over the top or sliced avocado.

Note: there are other ways to culture vegetables without a starter.  My friend, Elena Samadar Volkova of Vibrant Nutrition in Massachusetts is the expert as far as I am concerned in traditional Russian methods of food fermentation. She has been making and teaching how to make kombucha, kefir, soured grain bread, sauerkrauts and the likes her entire life.  Her recipe for sauerkraut is featured in her  December 2009 Newsletter.  Check it out!