Gingered Fermented Root Vegetables (recipe and review) (2024)

I’ve mentioned before how much I love growing my own probiotics but this fermented root vegetables recipe is especially fun because it has a bit of an asian flare to it. It’s great as a side dish with any asian inspired cuisine or on it’s own.

Being on the AIP (auto-immune paleo) diet, the list of things I can eat is shorter than the list of things I can’t eat so I need to find new ways to spice up my menu once in a while. New tastes are greatly appreciated!

I also need to keep the probiotics constantly flowing for good digestion and healing. I can eat coconut milk yogurt for the probiotic benefits but it can be expensive to make (coconut milk is expensive after all). It’s also nice to have a fermented vegetable because of the benefits of the vegetables too!

Why Grow My Own Probiotics?

Humans have been eating fermented foods for centuries or longer. Our ancestors didn’t buy their probiotics online but grew them themselves. Fermentation is a great way to preserve food for the winter so many traditional cultures ate fermented foods on a regular basis throughout the cold months.

Fermentation has fallen out of favor over the last century as commercial and industrial preservation took over. But fermenting your own food at home is simple and can be a great way to preserve your garden produce for the winter. Fermented foods are ripe with probiotics so not only are you preserving food, but you’re growing medicine (supplements) for basically free.

There are a number of reasons why homemade probiotics are amazing:

1. Growing food and medicine at home almost always saves you money.
2. Fermented foods have many more strains of probiotics than supplements.
3. Fermented foods have just more probiotics in general. Typically a supplement is 10 billion CFUs (colony-forming units) or less. According to Dr. Mercola, fermented food was shown to have 10 trillion CFUs.
4. You’ll have better digestion and nutrient absorption. A proper balance of gut flora and enzymes help you break down your food for digestion better, which also helps you to extract the most nutrition from it.

How to Ferment

Lacto-fermentation is a process where natural bacteria feed on the sugar and starch in the food, creating lactic acid. Though lacto- and lactic sound like lactose, it is completely non-dairy.

Essentially you are putting your produce into a salt water bath and allowing natural fermentation to happen. The salt water helps eliminate the growth of bad bacteria while allowing the good bacteria to grow.

The salt to water ratio is important because too little salt may not inhibit the bad bacteria from growing. Too much salt may cause the food to be too salty and may even inhibit the growth of the good bacteria.

Other tips to keep in mind:

• Fermentation takes time so be patient!
• Small batches take less time to ferment than bigger batches.
• A warmer room speeds up fermentation while a cooler room slows it down.
• Taste your fermentation often to get just the right taste. Some like it barely sour others like it as sour as possible. When it comes to dill pickles I like it sour but other ferments I prefer a little milder.

Fermented Gingered Root Vegetables

When I was given the chance to review a fermentation kit from FermentoolsI was so excited! I’ll take any excuse I can get to come up with a new fermented foods recipe that helps get more of the good bacteria into my family. This fermented root vegetable recipe definitely does that!(All opinions are my own).

• 3 cups root vegetables
• 2-3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2-4 thin slices, or 1 tsp grated, fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 2 cups warm water
• 2 pint jars, sterilized

Wash vegetables.

Shred root vegetables, add garlic and ginger, and pack into jars.

Add salt to water. It helps to heat it so that the salt fully dissolves (Fermentools salt is fine enough to dissolve in cool water). Pour salt water brine over vegetables.

Place weight into the jar to hold the vegetables under the brine. Because this recipe uses finely shredded vegetables I also put a cabbage leaf in just before the weight, to keep any small shreds from popping out around the side of the weight.

Wipe the rim of the jar clean to avoid mold growing.

Place the fermentool airlock on the jar.

Place the jar in a room temperature place, out of the sunlight. Leave for 3-5 days for a mild taste or longer (7-10) for a deeper flavor.

Yield: ~2 pints

A simple fermented root vegetables recipe that everyone loves.

Ingredients

• 3 cups root vegetables
• 2-3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2-4 thin slices, or 1 tsp grated, fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 2 cups warm water
• 2 pint jars, sterilized

Instructions

1. Wash vegetables.
2. Shred root vegetables, add garlic and ginger, and pack into jars.
3. Add salt to water. It helps to heat it so that the salt fully dissolves (Fermentools salt is fine enough to dissolve in cool water). Pour salt water brine over vegetables.
4. Place weight into the jar to hold the vegetables under the brine. Because this recipe uses finely shredded vegetables I also put a cabbage leaf in just before the weight, to keep any small shreds from popping out around the side of the weight.
5. Wipe the rim of the jar clean to avoid mold growing.
6. Place the fermentool airlock on the jar.
7. Place the jar in a room temperature place, out of the sunlight. Leave for 3-5 days for a mild taste or longer (7-10) for a deeper flavor.
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My Thoughts on the Fermentools Kit: Making My Fermented Root Vegetables

I love the weight! For recipes that don’t use finely shredded veggies (like this fermented root vegetables recipe does–sauerkraut would probably be okay), it will make life much easier. Instead of figuring out how to hold the food under the brine with a cabbage leaf or jelly jar, I can just use the weight and be done.

The air-lock is great for walking away from your fermentation and not having to worry about “burping” the jar (opening the top to let out the fermentation gasses). Do you absolutely need it? No, but it can definitely be useful.

I also noticed that the air-lock jar didn’t overflow with juices like my other jar did, so less mess to clean up too.

Overall, I think it’s a useful kit for simplifying fermentation.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Have you ever used a Fermentools kit? What did you think? Also, what’s your favorite fermented root vegetables recipe?