A bit of culture for the weekend

This week, I went to an all-day seminar at the Royal Society of Medicine about the gut microbiome and its association with many different conditions.

Gut health is something I consider in all of my clients, and I often make recommendations for improved gut health, even when the symptoms that the client is experiencing seemingly have nothing to do with the gut.

One way in which we can all support out gut health is by eating foods which contain beneficial live bacteria. This includes foods like kefir, sauerkraut and yogurt. In fact, before the invention of fridges and air freight, this is how many people would have eaten their foods out-of-season.

Last week I made my own fermented vegetables for the first time, and they went down very well with the pickle-loving members of the family! Here's how I did it:

First of all, I took a glass storage jar with a tight seal. I sterilised it by pouring boiling water over the entire jar and over the rubber seal.

I washed and prepared vegetables. I used carrots, yellow pepper, celery, cauliflower and broccoli, and packed the vegetables tightly into the jar. I added some ginger root and garlic cloves for flavour, covered the vegetables with filtered water leaving about 2cm at the top to allow for expansion, and approx 50g sea salt. I gave it a good shake and covered the opening with some cling film before sealing the lid shut. I left for 4 days on my kitchen surface before tasting it. I was pleased with the taste and the fermented vegetables are now residing in the fridge. They have been a tasty condiment alongside many meals this week.

Next time I am going to try adding black peppercorns or mustard seeds instead of the ginger and garlic - yum!