Easy Lacto-Fermented Radishes
Every Saturday, I start my day by going to my local farmers market (Good Local Markets in Dallas, lately). I love farm fresh fruits and vegetables; the taste is just so much better than anything I can buy at the grocery store, even if I’m spending the money on organic vegetables. I don’t always know what to do with everything I buy, or just don’t get around to using it all, especially when farmers sell bigger bunches or bags of certain items. I’ve found that fermenting those extras is not only a way to limit food waste, but an excellent way to boost the health impact, as lacto-fermented foods are anti-inflammatory, boost your immune system, and have anti-cancer and anti-diabetic effects. Nevermind the fact that they just taste great!
Since it’s winter and my local farmers market is closed, I receive a box of vegetables from Jubilant Fields Farms, a local farmer who offers greens, microgreens, and root vegetables through the cold, winter months. The past couple of weeks I received a bag of turnips and a bag of radishes and decided to ferment the radishes, as I love to eat them as a snack on their own and on top of salads throughout the week. Radishes are an excellent source of vitamin C, helping to keep my immune system strong through the winter, as well as fiber, a nutrient that only 5% of Americans eat enough of.
Radishes, and root vegetables in general, are very forgiving vegetables to keep around as they can keep for a long time and you can take even ugly looking vegetables and use them since you usually will chop them up for anything you cook or make. As I was making this recipe, I went ahead and added in my turnips since I didn’t have anything planned for them, and quite frankly, I just love the taste of fermented turnips in addition to radishes. The great thing about this recipe is you can leverage the technique for other root vegetables; I’ve also fermented carrots and beets this way and they come out great.
Fermentation is an active process, so just be sure to check on your vegetables every few days, tasting along the way until you get to the flavor you’d like. I find that about a week is usually the sweet spot for me, but it may vary for you. You can refrigerate them once they reach that point and they’ll keep for months in the fridge. The recipe may look a little daunting, but once you go through the process once, you’ll see how easy it is to ferment vegetables at home; it takes me 10-15 minutes from start to finish now. Put these on salads, use them as toppings for bowls, add them to slaws that you might use for tacos or sandwiches, or just snack on them on their own!
Recipe: Easy Lacto-Fermented Radishes
Lacto-fermentation is a way to use lactic acid bacteria to easily and cheaply preserve food. It’s a great way to preserve fresh vegetables and limit food waste. Radishes were used in the recipe below, but most root vegetables would work well, including turnips, beets, and carrots. Use the resulting fermented vegetables on salads, as part of slaws on other dishes, or just as a snack on their own.
Ingredients
Note, measurements for ingredients have not been provided, but fermentation is based on ratios, so you can use the vegetables that you have and water and salt amounts will change accordingly based on instructions below.
Radishes (or other root vegetables like turnips, beets, or carrots)
Garlic (optional)
Filtered water
Sea salt
Procedure
Gently wash radishes (or other root vegetable) under cold water and cut off any stems and tails from radishes.
Cut radishes into quarters; you want all pieces to be of similar size so they ferment at about the same rate, so you may need to cut larger radishes into more than quarters in order to achieve similar size pieces.
If you would like to include garlic, peel 1-2 cloves of garlic and leave whole (optional).
Place a canning jar without lid on kitchen scale and zero out scale. Set scale to grams for better accuracy.
Place radish pieces and garlic in canning jar; the jar should be about ¾ - ⅚ full, so be careful not to over or underfill the jar so you have space for weights but don’t leave too much air in the jar.
Fill the jar with filtered water so that water just covers the radishes.
Calculate weight of radishes and water in jar (weight of jar should be excluded since scale was zeroed out with empty jar). Multiply weight in grams by 3.5% to calculate the amount of sea salt to use (Example: Radish and water weight is 650 grams; multiply 650 x 0.035 = 22.75. You would use 22-23 grams of salt in this example).
Weigh salt on scale based on prior calculation and add to the jar with radishes and water.
Place the lid on the jar and shake vigorously to disperse salt in water.
Open the lid and place fermentation weights in the jar to weigh down radishes and keep them submerged in water.
Place an airtight lid on the jar and store at room temperature in a dark space; place in a cabinet or pantry.
Open the lid and check fermentation every 3-4 days. You’ll notice the fermentation activity when you check on the vegetables, and taste until fermentation is at your preference. Generally, 6-8 days is sufficient and then you can move the jar to cold storage in the refrigerator.
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Fermentation Time: 6-8 days