Lacto-Fermented Turmeric Ginger Carrot Sticks

 

There is no secret that I absolutely love fermented foods – Kombucha is a pretty popular drink around our house and my kids get really upset when we run out and don’t have any left.  

We recently spent a few days out of town and had quite a huge fridge of local farmers market produce – we didn’t want it to waste while we were gone, but we certainly couldn’t eat it all in a span of one single night.  One of the best ways to use up produce quickly is by throwing in a jar and fermenting with some brine – so that is what we did.

Fermented carrots are also amazing for gut health – unlike kombucha, carrots are fermented using lacto-fermentation.  When you ferment carrots, you simply combine a brine of salt and water that works hard to prevent the growth of bacteria and fungus.  

That same brine also serves a dual purpose by providing the perfect environment for lactobacillus (the bacteria that leads to lactic acid) to grow.  We added ginger and turmeric for flavor – my turmeric seems to like to float to the bottom even though I seem to stir, stir and stir…

But when they were done, the flavor was definitely there. ?

To successfully lacto-ferment anything, the veggies have to be submerged under the brine completely. You can tuck a jelly jar inside of a wide mouth canning jar to keep the veggies submerged. Or.. you can take the avenue of filling up a ziploc bag with a little brine solution and placing that in the top of the jar to keep the veggies submerged.

Or, if you do enough fermenting, then you may want to invest in a set of fermentation lids  (like we have pictured above). They aren’t all that expensive and you will have a more controlled fermenting environment without the worry. The lids with airlock pictured above are available on Amazon in a set of 3 and come with instructions on how to use them.

To ferment carrots, you can opt between shredding them in your food processor, or cutting them into sticks – I find that cutting them into sticks is easier to keep them submerged than shredded – but do what works for you!

The quart jar actually allows me to push those carrots just under the lip of the jar, so they stay under brine – and then I pack the smaller pint jar really tight so they can’t really float up like they would if they were shredded. Let the jars sit in a dark area (my pictures are light, because I had the pantry light on) – I choose my pantry because it’s easy to keep everything an even temp.

What you’ll need to make lacto-fermented Turmeric Ginger Carrot Sticks:

• 1 quart size (or 2 pint size) wide mouth mason jars
• Fermenting lids with airlocks or 2 small jelly jars
• Sea Salt
• Ground Turmeric

When they are done fermenting, take it easy opening the jar – pressure builds up from the ferment and so you may have some spillage – I would open it over the sink just to eliminate the chance for messes.

Enjoy your carrots – the flavor gets better as they age! They are great for kids to snack on and even better to take for lunches at work or as a simple snack at home.