Gourmet Vegetarian Kitchen

Healthy Vegetarian & Plant-Based Foods

Fermented Food

Red Cabbage Sauerkraut Salad is a dish I make when I want to eat something healthy and quick that can be done in no time. It’s sour, savory, and has a little sweetness that is extremely healthy and beautiful.

I adapted this dish from my childhood memories eating fermented and salted bok choy. In Thailand, there is a simple vegetarian dish that I chose over any meat dishes called stir fried fermented bok choy, and I sure loved the taste of it.

As I always have all kinds of fermented vegetables in my fridge, including Red Cabbage Sauerkraut, it’s a very convenient way to make Red Sauerkraut Salad. One of the good things about eating simple and healthy is to accept food for not being “authentic,” and to enjoy what I create from what I find. I also think it’s better environmentally to eat local instead of trying to get things from different parts of the world to make them just like the original.

So, Red Cabbage Sauerkraut is no different, it’s not exactly the same from the original I ate, but it has the same deliciousness & healthiness!…

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enjoy it a little bit at a time often

Red Cabbage Sauerkraut is the prettiest homemade probiotic I know. It contains loads of good bacteria known to be great for your gut–right from your own kitchen!

Here is a link about the benefits of eating sauerkraut that I think you might enjoy reading.

I make sauerkraut a lot, and like to keep it on hand in the fridge. It’s simple to prepare, with only cabbage and salt. However, making Red Cabbage Sauerkraut, I add water to give it some extra brine as red cabbage is a bit tougher and doesn’t make enough liquid on its own. It always comes out great.…

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Fermented Bean Salsa ideas always come to mind when I want to make a quick and easy, yet healthy appetizer. It’s so good for when we crave Mexican-American type foods, and also great for entertaining guests before meals, or simply for taking to picnics and potlucks!

Why fermented beans you may wonder? In case you are not familiar with fermented beans, let me pass on some info I have learned in the past few years. All beans and legumes contain anti-nutrients that make it hard for our bodies to digest them. Fermenting and sprouting before consuming them are the best way to to reduce the anti-nutrients, and to make the beans more digestible, thus causing less gas.

Other benefits you get from cooking your own beans are staying away from the BPA in can linings, and helping to reduce container use.

If you want to know more reasons why I ferment beans (and whole grains) check out my post about why I ferment whole grains. 

However, the process of fermenting and sprouting requires some time, and is probably the reason why most people and canned bean companies don’t do it. So, the best way is to do it by yourself. I found it’s hard at the beginning, but not once I got used to it. With some planning, I always have fermented beans on hand….

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tie the napkin with the rubber band, insert the stick through and hang it on the pitcher

tie the napkin with the rubber band, insert the stick through and hang it on the pitcher

I heard about whey and protein whey, both in the form of powder, for a long time. I only heard about liquid whey when I started fermenting whole grains and vegetables.

It sounded difficult talking about it, but it’s actually very fun and easy to make.

If you like cream cheese, you’ll like making liquid whey as you get homemade cream cheese from the process too.

You can use liquid whey in all kinds of soaking and fermentation of foods, so if you want to start a new way of eating through fermentation, it’s very handy to have on hand. It keeps in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, but I usually use mine up quickly and make it fresh almost every week.

Here are the things you need:…

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dried whole grains of choice

Organic whole grain cereal and whole oatmeal were the ideal options for healthy breakfasts in my family for a long time. It was easy and convenient to open a box of cereal, or to cook oatmeal straight from the storage jar in the morning. However, I completely changed my way of eating whole grains since 2013, when I learned how phytic acid might be associated teeth problems.

Soaking and fermenting whole grains can reduce phytic acid, and this method was how people in the past prepared their grains before consuming them. Unfortunately, nowadays, people aren’t spending time doing it much. I was fascinated with what I learned, and it steered me to prepare grains in these ways.

Are you ready to try eating fermented whole grains properly prepared in a traditional way?

I’m going to show you first how to soak or ferment and cook raw whole grains, and the second one is how to soak rolled oats & barley flakes. I used both of them mostly for breakfast….

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After day 7th in the fridge, the vegetables should be ready to be eaten

For sentimental reasons, what I’m going to write in this post reminds me so much of my childhood and what my mom did raising us. It’s been so long since I left my Thai home. Thinking about my memories gives me a lump in my throat–oh how I miss those days!!

I remember seeing my mom’s joy of growing vegetables in our garden. I also remember her pride in cooking and fermenting vegetables in our kitchen. We had a great garden by a river in our backyard, and my mom would plant everything she could think of in it all year round. I can still hear my mom’s voice asking me and my sister to stop playing and go to the garden and get what she needed for her.

Vegetables such as lemongrass, Thai chilies, or limes were typical things for us then. Back in those days, seeing my mom work so hard to get simple food, that at the same time was sold everywhere, I wished she would go to the supermarket and buy everything just like other “modern families” did. I’m so glad she didn’t do that now, and instead she went the extra mile to feed us well….

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Like most people, I considered yogurt a healthy part of my diet for a long time. Even though I always saw Kefir on the same shelf as yogurt, I didn’t know its real benefits until a few years ago when I was learning about fermentation. It surprised me to find out it has many more beneficial bacteria strains (probiotics) than yogurt. Before long, I tried it and quickly switched from yogurt to kefir almost entirely, as it actually tastes great, and is easier to drink too.

Whenever I hear fellow parents complain about their children’s upset stomachs, that they can’t go to the bathroom on a regular basis, or being lactose intolerant, I try to introduce kefir to them. Most of the time I end up answering this question: “What is kefir?”  Well, from all my research, I can easily explain that kefir is one of the most probiotic rich foods, and it has been used in European countries for many centuries.

Similar to yogurt, it can be made from either cow’s or goat’s milk. The magical 24-hour fermentation process transforms the regular milk into a slightly sour and thick milk when it becomes kefir. During the process, yeast and good bacteria eat most lactose, also known as “milk sugar,” from the milk. It has been proven that many people who are lactose intolerant can safely drink kefir. It’s also rich in vitamin B, calcium, magnesium, folic acid, and has a lot of good bacteria known as probiotics that help with digestion….

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