Fermented Carrots with Garlic
Description
This is an absolutely delicious way to preserve carrots. They remain firm and crunchy, and fermentation is a great way to preserve nutrients while conserving energy and water.
I adapted this from Shannon Stonger's recipe in her book, Traditionally Fermented Foods. This wonderful book should be in everyone's library!
These make a great snack, hors d'oeuvres, or side dish.
Ingredients
Instructions
Chop your carrots into sticks or disks, whichever way you like to eat them. Remember that the smaller you cut the carrots, the faster they will ferment.
Put your garlic cloves (peeled but not chopped up) into the jar first. Add whatever red pepper flakes you have. I use my ground up dried padron peppers, but you can use other types. In this ferment, the peppers are dried. I don’t grind them up very small.
The fewer tiny things you have in the jar, the fewer tiny floaters you’ll have, and you don’t want those.
Now stuff your carrots into the jar. Fit as many as you can. Add the salt. I like Himalayan pink salt, but sea salt works fine. Pour the water in, covering the carrots and leaving 1 inch headspace, and put in the fermentation weight. Make sure there are NO floaters. These will ruin your ferment! Put the lid on the jar, and burp the jar daily by opening it quickly and then closing it. This is when you examine it to see if anything is floating on the surface. Remove any floaters!
After 7-10 days, put the jar in the fridge. The carrots are ready!
