Fermenting Carrots is 10 Times Easier than Making Kimchi

I’ve been enjoying my  hot fermented carrots for a couple weeks now and will soon be making another batch.  Well, actually the next batch will be different, as I’m going to try different flavors than this batch because it ended up being a bit hot for Madame and way too hot for my Young Assistants.  However, I’ve enjoyed adding the spicy tangy carrots to different meals so maybe the next round should feature one jar of super-hot ones, and jar of not-hot ones.  The options are pretty endless in terms of the herbs and spices you can add to a simple jar of fermenting carrots.

 Okay, so those carrots were photographed last summer… these days carrots don’t look quite so lively, but it’s nice to remember what summer looks like….

The process is fairly straight forward.  But before I get to that I should also say if you’re new to fermenting and are considering where to start I would recommend NOT starting with Kimchi.  Not because Kimchi isn’t good, on the contrary it’s amazing!  But it is tons more work, probably 10 times the amount of work, what with all the chopping, dicing, pureeing, packing….  In the case of fermenting carrots you’re really not doing anything new if you already like cutting and eating carrots, therefore this is a good place to start.

Here’s how to get started fermenting:

1. Make a salt water brine with 2 cups hot water and 1 ½ teaspoons salt.
2. Peel and cut up carrots, place them in a wide-mouth pint jar (500 ml), packed to about 1 inch from the top.
3.  Add desired spices, herbs, seasonings to the jar.
4. Allow the brine to cool close to room temperature, dump it around the carrots.
5. Cover the carrots with a cabbage leaf and weigh down everything in the jar with a smaller jar filled with water.  Cover with a towel or plastic bag and let ferment for 1-2 weeks.
6. Start eating them.  When they taste the way you like transfer them to the fridge.  Otherwise let them keep fermenting until you reach your desired sourness and tangy-ness.

You can see the clove of garlic and the cabbage leaf floating amongst the carrots.  Eventually you can remove the cabbage leaf, it just helps get the fermentation going and can also act as something to help hold the fermenting vegetables down.

Notice that the brine is a bit too close to the top; leave a bit more space as fermentation can cause the brine to overflow a bit.

Read my original, more thorough post at Bailey’s Local Foods.  Guidance for making these fermented carrots came from Food Renegade and Well Preserved.