Hey folks! Well, I recently posted about making lacto-fermented carrot sticks and quite a few people had never heard of them. While the carrots sticks are yummy, today I wanted to share an equally yummy and perhaps even more surprising recipe. Lacto-fermented broccoli sticks! Notice the title of the post calls them "Fizzy" as oposed to "Fermented". That's because one of my favorite fellow homesteaders, @alaskahippie made the point that some family members might not go for anything "fermented".
I get it. Fermented didn't sound so pleasant to me either before I got into all this crunchy stuff, so I joyfully reminded her that some of our favorite beverages wouldn't be nearly as much fun if they weren't fermented.
You might or might not know about the food allergy issues in our household. I have one kiddo with crazy food sensitivities and carrots are at the top of the list. That’s part of why the carrot sticks are such a big deal in our house. I rarely cook carrots since if I make stew or soup, it’s for everyone to eat, so no carrots there. If I make steamed or roasted carrots alone then I have to make an additional veggie or 2 for Wildstyle (the handle my daughter chose). Anyway, I wanted Wildstyle to have something healthy she could nosh on while her siblings were crunching on carrots. I remembered I had some leftover broccoli stems that I‘d been setting aside for soup.
So, I peeled them and sliced them thinly and ta-da! In a few days, we had fizzy, salty, crunchy goodness going on!
Even my picky 5 yr old-who rarely touches broccoli, and never eats raw veggies, enjoyed them dipped in mayo and rolled up in a slice of turkey. Yum!
The instructions are literally the same as the carrot recipe, but I will share below.
Ingredients:
- Broccoli Stems
- Water
- Salt
- Optional add-ins for flavor such as garlic or dill or whatever your pretty little head desires! Of course, my kids prefer plain ol' Sea Salt!
Peel the stems. My kids do not like the tough outer layer, so I try to peel away the harder white areas.
Once you have your stack of peeled stems, you’re ready to start cutting them up to your liking. I wanted them to look similar to the carrot sticks, but you could probably cut them into coins as well.
I tried to keep them similar in length and used a smaller lid with a wine stopper as a weight to keep the broccoli submerged in the brine.
Keeping it classy with a fancy-schmancy fermenting weight! Not! I do have one weight for my large fermenting jar, but it doesn't fit here, so you know what I say! Do what you can with what you've got! Crowbar it!
Which brings me to the brine! It's a very loosey-goosey type of recipe because it depends how much broccoli you have. The brine can vary in terms of how salty you want it. You do need a certain amount of salt to create the proper conditions for the ferment to be successful, but if happen to have some whey (yes, the liquid you pour off of yogurt) or raw sauerkraut juice, then a tablespoon of that added to your water will also help create a favorable fermenting environment and you could then reduce your salt.
This time I decided to add a splash of juice from my favorite sauerkraut. Plus, it's pink! How fun is that?
If you're only using saltwater for your brine, then I've seen recipes call for 1 tsp of quality salt per cup of water, and others call for 1-3 tbsp per quart.
There's the almost finished product. If you have one of those air-lock lids, now would be a fine time to use it. I'm just going to be checking and burping the jar as needed.
And in typical crowbarmama fashion, yes, those are bubbles on the counter. How the heck do you think I kept the boys busy while prepping the broccoli?!?
Nice and simply explained! I do like a bit of fermenting, usually chilli's :0)
Thank you! I haven't tried chili's yet! Interesting! The hubby would most certainly enjoy that! Btw, I noticed something funny when serving my 5yr old breakfast this morning. He had cut into his eggs and suddenly, I saw... YOU!
You're quite slimmer than the face plate guy, but he could be your cousin, no?
Lol, there might be a passing similarity. That is a dashed handsome fellow on the plate ;0)
Chili's are awesome. You can make sriracha style sauces!
Man those do sound good! I just planted a ton of those mini broccoli thingys too! It’s also such a GREAT use for the thick stem that normally just gets tossed!
Nothing gets wasted on the homestead, right? And I do LOVE broccoli soup, but this is nice for a change!
Thank you for the idea , to make broccoli and carrots more eatable raw.
Definitely makes them more appetizing and adding nutrition and digestibility is always a good thing! :-)