Kimchi Salad

I was inspired by the sauerkraut salad to make this kimchi salad.
The peanuts and peanut butter were inspired by my friend who eats peanut butter and kimchi together on pancakes, oatmeal and sandwiches. 0.o
I’m surprised by how good this salad is. If you’re unsure, leave out the peanut butter and try it with just a few peanuts. Or trust me?

1/2 cup honey
4 TBSP soya sauce (I buy Oshawa Organic’s in unpasteurized. It is not as strong tasting and so if using a different brand you may want to add less.)
1/2 cup oil (I used grapeseed, avacado and olive)
1/2 cup Kombucha or vinegar
1/2 cup (or more!) of the brine from the kimchi
1 cup peanuts
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 TBSP sesame seeds
4 tbsp chia seeds (optional. I just added this to thicken the dressing)

4 cups of kimchi
2 cups chopped cucumber

Mix together all the first ingredients until smooth, except the kimchi and cucumbers.
Add kimchi and cucumbers.
Enjoy!

Kombucha Sauerkraut Salad

This salad turned out WAY better than I expected. I’ve been thinking of new ways to use sauerkraut and so I googled sauerkraut salad. Many recipes came up and most had a ton of sugar. I’m talkin’ 4 cups sauerkraut to 1.5 cups sugar.
I’ve augmented this recipe from somebody’s Great-Grandma Dixon to make it super probiotic and super tasty.
I found this tasted best after marinating overnight. It will also last for a long time in the fridge. My partner loved it in his lunches. I hope you will love it too. 🙂

Kombucha Sauerkraut Salad:

1 quart sauerkraut, drained (4 cups)
1 onion chopped
2 stalks of celery chopped
1 large carrot chopped
1 bell pepper chopped, I used red
1 tsp mustard seed
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup sweetener depending on your tastes; I used maple syrup and stevia.
3/4 cup oil (I used grapeseed, olive and hemp)
1/2 cup of well fermented Kombucha or vinegar
1 can of pimento peppers or green chilies, found in Mexican food section (4 oz.)

Mix all ingredients together. Voila!

Kombucha Sorbet- Cherry Lime

I love sorbet but usually find it way too sweet. I was looking at recipes online and decided to sub the lemon juice for Kombucha. It turned out perfectly tart and sweet. If you don’t like sour, try halving the amount of kombucha or adding more sweetener. This recipe makes a lot. I had leftovers that I put into Popsicle moulds for later.
I am sure that you could substitute any of these ingredients to your own tastes and ingredient availability, here is what I did:

1 cup water (omit for a stronger taste?)
1 cup Kombucha
1 cup light maple syrup
4 egg yolks
2 TBSP arrowroot
4 cups of pitted sour cherries
3 limes juiced
Lime zest (instead of zesting I cut off a quarter of the previously juiced lime and threw it in)

Blend the first 5 ingredients together, I used a food processor.
Slowly add the rest of ingredients and blend until smooth.
Taste and adjust to your liking.
Put in ice cream maker or Popsicle moulds.
Enjoy!

Sourdough Cream Peas (Nutrient Dense)

I love cream peas. It was a childhood treat to have cream peas with our Holiday meals. This recipe includes healthy fats, broth and sourdough instead of flour:

Nutrient dense Sourdough Cream Peas:

Combine in a saucepan:

1/4 cup fat (Butter, coconut oil. I used chicken fat)
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1/2 cup broth (I used chicken, you could sub milk, water)
1/2 cup cream (heavy is possible)
Spices (rosemary, garlic, pepper, salt)

Cook on low-medium heat until thick.

Add to saucepan:

4 cups of peas fresh or thawed.( I ran my frozen peas under water.)

Cook until hot. Taste and adjust salt, pepper. I added a drop of stevia.

Glorious Milk Kefir

It’s time I wrote about milk kefir. Here you see them, these are a few of my grains, come out of their jar for this occassion. Milk kefir is made by using these rubbery little grain-like cultures. You put them in milk to ferment and they are not actually a grain, but a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast).
It has a sour taste that one can easily get use to and come to love. I now drink it plain with joy. It’s easy to start incorporating milk kefir into your diet with a spoon of it here and there into a soup, meal or snack. You can add it to
Anything as long as it is not too hot. I do use it in baking which murders the probiotics but makes the baking easier to digest.
Milk kefir can have up to 60 different types of beneficial bacteria (probiotics). That’s amazing when you consider that expensive supplements are around 10, yogurt is 5 or less, most often 2 or 1. There’s a lot of bang for your buck with milk kefir especially if your making it at home.
Donna Schwenk of Cultured Food Life is absolutely in love with milk kefir and enjoying and spreading its magic. She has many resources for milk kefir including recipes.
I love a glass of kefir as a boost to energy and mood. My children love it in smoothies and it appears to help with promoting deep sleep.
If you are not convinced yet of kefir’s power with my humble ramblings, check out these links:
Cultures for Health
http://www.kefir.net/
Dr. Mercola on milk kefir

Mesophilic Yogurt, the easiest ever.

When I first heard about Mesophilic (room temp bacteria) yogurt I was stumped as to why people would go through heating and incubating when you could do it right on your counter with milk right from the fridge. Maybe like me, they don’t know…
We now have five different Mesophilic yogurts. They are each so different in taste, consistency and texture.
My favourite is Viili (vee-lee-ya). It’s thick and mild with a big creamy taste. I
Love taking a spoon of it at night and mixing it with a cup of milk and stashing it away in a cupboard. I wake up and it feels like Christmas as I open tele cupboard to discover the magic
Of bacteria at work. Increased digestion and immune system boost from Liquid cream turned to thick yogurt I can eat off a spoon. This yogurt makes a good replacement for sour cream.
We also have a tart yogurt tasting one called Matsoni (MadZoon) or Caspian Sea Yogurt. It’s tasty and has a gluey consistency. Not everyone likes it, but many fall in love immediately.
Filmjolk has a mild cheesy taste. Perfect for baking or dips, sauces and in soup. When I over ferment it, I am reminded of Parmesan cheese. I put it on pasta.
We also have Piima and Buttermilk yet I have not tried them yet. I will update later about it.

Nourishing Chocolate Probiotic Pudding (EASY and FAST)

This pudding is so easy to make and you can alter it in so many ways and still have success. Try topping it with fruit like raspberries or bananas, it’s delicious.

Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk
1/2 can kefir or yogurt (I used the can from the coconut milk to measure)
1/4 cup chia seeds or ground chia (more if you want it thicker)
1/4 cup sweeter approx, to taste. I used less raw honey and added a drop of stevia.
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 TBSP cocoa
2 egg yolks (optional)

Mix all ingredients and refrigerate until set. It usually takes a few hours, I do it overnight.

The Fermented Food Phenomenom

I hosted yet another fabulous workshop yesterday on Fermented/Cultured Foods. It was the people who attended that made it fabulous and certainly not my nervous attempt to explain why would should eat bacteria infested foods. I’m always touched by how open and ready people are to start making and eating these live foods. Their stories leave me searching and researching for more information on how we can heal our bodies and protect ourselves from disease and toxins.
Keirsten and I have two already booked upcoming workshops in Saskatoon and Swift Current. There’s talk about two more in Regina and Lloydminister.
It’s spreading like wild fire.
People want real food; foods that are alive and nourishing. So many of us have become plagued with things that leave us fatigued, allergic to common foods, in pain, unable to cope with life, infertile. It’s so unnatural. We are looking for answers. Let us return to the foods we evolved on. The ones that made our brains go bigger and our bodies strong and resistant. Let us take back the traditional practices almost lost. Let us remember.
So, with this passion I’ll be spending the next few weeks updating this blog. I’ll include information, stories and instructions about all our various ferments. I want you to get as excited as we are. These ferments are like our children each with their own unique characteristics and healing benefits. Will you please join us?

-Nadine

Amazing Kefir Malts, Sorry Wendy.

Chocolate Kefir Malts. I may have died and gone to probiotic heaven. These are nutrient dense and to die for. I’ve found that the trick to eliminating bad foods is to keep adding in amazingly
Great tasting healthy foods. The junk will become unnecessary, boring and obsolete with recipes like these in your home:

1 can coconut milk
1 can kefir or yogurt (I filled the can from Coconut milk to measure)
1/2 cup maple syrup or less ( I used
Some stevia too. You could use raw honey)
3 TBSP cocoa
Dash of sea salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 heaping spoons arrowroot (optional I assume)
4 pastured chicken egg yolks

Blend all ingredients.
Put in ice cream maker until it is desired consistency, about 10 minutes.
You could put it in a bowl or baggie in the freezer if you don’t have an ice cream maker. Freeze it, stir it, blend it. Eat it.
We topped this with our homemade BC blueberry spread half way through eating. Mmm…

Easy Kefir Cheese

Kefir cheese is great in dips, soups, sauces. Salads, desserts and much more. Many people strain the kefir and I use to but this is much easier and there’s no cheese bag or strainer to clean.

Here’s how I make it:

I strain out my kefir grains and re-feed them with fresh milk.
Leave the strained kefir on counter and wait until it separates as shown above.
Scoop out “cheese”.

Use in anything. Anything!