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Natural Year Challenge: Food - Month Ten
Make a Cultured Condiment
Welcome to the final step in our Natural Year Challenge! It's not easy to change the way we eat and prepare our food, is it? Whether you've made big changes or small ones, no doubt you've experienced some of the rewards of healthier eating and been encouraged on your journey toward a more naturally nutritious, flavorful diet!
In our final month together, we take one more look at cultured foods. Lacto-fermented condiments make a wonderful addition to any meal, offering a nice probiotic boost as well as extra flavor! From pickles to hot sauce to guacamole, cultured condiments add important friendly microorganisms to help the digestive process. We'll explore three options here, with special emphasis on lacto-fermented mayonnaise.
- Ketchup
Enjoy this flavorful alternative to sugar-laden, processed ketchup. Add a little honey, apple cider vinegar, and a few spices. (If homemade tomato paste is not an option, consider Bionaturae tomato paste.)
- 2 c. tomato paste
- 2-3 tbsp. raw honey, molasses, or unrefined sugar
- 1/4 c. fresh whey (see our Month Six Food Challenge: Make Whey)
- 2 tbsp. raw apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. allspice
- 1/4 tsp. cloves
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne (optional)
Combine above ingredients with whisk. Pour into mason jar and cover with cloth or lid. Allow to sit at room temperature for 48 hours. Move to fridge.
- Mustard
If using mustard powder, consider this Lacto-Fermented Honey Dill Mustard recipe from GNOWFGLINS. If using mustard seeds, consider the following recipe using both brown and yellow mustard seeds. Yellow seeds offer a milder flavor, so adjust the amounts of seeds to taste.
- 1/4 c. whole yellow mustard seeds
- 1/4 c. whole brown mustard seeds
- 1/3 c. filtered water
- 2 tbsp. raw apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp. fresh whey
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- Optional: 2 garlic cloves, lemon juice
Soak mustard seeds in water overnight. The next day, blend all ingredients in food processor or high-powered blender. Add more water if needed. Transfer to mason jar and cover with lid. Ferment for 48 hours and move to fridge.
- Mayonnaise
This recipe adapts well to any oil. However, a blend of sesame, olive, and coconut oil makes a wonderfully flavorful mayonnaise. This recipe is adapted from the book Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary Enig.
- 1 whole egg at room temperature
- 1 egg yolk at room temperature
- 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar or 1 1/2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp. fresh whey
- 1 tsp. Dijon mustard (optional)
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- 3/4 c. oil blend (Mary's blend: 1/4 c. olive oil, 1/4 c. sesame oil, 1/4 c. coconut oil)
Blend all but oil in jar with immersion blender or food processor. Slowly add oil and lift immersion blender as you are blending oil with egg mixture. If using a food processor, be sure to add the oil drop by drop. Blend until desired consistency.
Transfer to jar (or simply cover the jar if using immersion blender). Cover jar lightly and allow to sit at room temperature for 7-8 hours. Transfer to refrigerator.
For more outstanding condiment recipes, see the Cultures for Health website.
In this video Andrea demonstrates the above mayonnaise recipe,
using the immersion blender technique to blend the oil into the egg/whey mixture.