Food Today: Fermented Vegetables/Easy Sauercraut

Recently we were at the temple.  In the middle of the afternoon I had the opportunity to go to the lunchroom to eat my boring lunch.  I was blessed to sit with Sister Miller and others.  The conversation came to fermented vegetables.  Sister Miller told us all how to do it.  I decided I would give it a try so when we got home I purchased a cabbage as we did not have one in the house.

A week and a half ago I went to North Carolina for a week to stay with my sister for a wedding in her family.  I knew it would take about two weeks for the vegetables to ferment so I decided to make some vegetable mixture up quick like a bunny so they would "work" while I was gone...making the waiting easier to handle

So...before I left on the Friday before, I used my Cuisinart food processor and chopped up cabbage (half a cabbage), some carrots and some celery. I mixed it with enough salt to please my tongue and then put it into a 2-quart canning jar.  I had squeezed the vegetables pretty hard with my hands so the juice would begin to extrude, a very important step in the process.  When I had done as much as I could and put the vegetables in the 2-quart canning jar, the juice was more than halfway up the jar.

Fermenting vegetables!  They need the dark and room temperature.

On top of the vegetables I placed two or three of the outer tougher cabbage leaves to be a sort of cover for the vegetables and pushed the leaves down hard to be in contact with the chopped and salted vegetables.  I  then filled the jar to the top with plain water, which covered the outer cabbage leaves.

If I had been home I would have checked every few days to see if I needed to top of the liquid with plain water.  Dear One was not very committed to this project due to his rather mild interest in vegetables so I did not ask him to check while I was away!

 Next I covered the top of the jar with a towel which I secured with a rubber band. I put a dark towel around the bottom of the jar and secured that with another rubber band,  then walked away and let it sit for 14 days on the kitchen counter.

When I got home I saw that the liquid level was down a little bit so I added water and let it continue percolating until it was the full 14 days. I could not wait any longer!

Cabbage leaf cover still in place

Covering cabbage leaves removed

I have just now eaten a whole wheat tortilla with some lettuce from our garden, a little bit of tuna and mayonnaise, some of the percolated vegetables with sliced Vidalia onions on top.  It made a superior sandwich. 

Tortilla sandwich loaded and ready to wrap.  And eat!

First use of fermented vegetables...the eating was ever so delicious1

Now I have put the actual cover on the jar and am storing it in the refrigerator.  I will be able to eat it whenever I want.  It is sort of like a mild sauercraut. I believe I could eat it plain  as a side dish or on top of all kinds of things, like a baked potato, scrambled eggs, a Reuben sandwich, almost any savory thing.