I am in LOVE with these carrots! I can’t say that enough. Love, Love. Love! And I can’t take full credit for this recipe, although I wish i could, because they are AMAZING. I have been eating too much of these (if that is even possible). My favorite way to eat them is with chips. Seriously this is my new salsa. I load huge spoonfuls into a ramekin and then eat them by the scoopfuls with organic, non-gmo blue corn chips. Chips are my guilty pleasure. Sometimes I add in a ripe, creamy avocado and mush it all together to create a very tangy and flavorful dip. I ate a whole avocado with the ginger carrots one night for dinner. So much for self control.
Like I said, I can’t take full credit for this recipe. It is inspired by Firefly Kitchens‘ Yin Yang Carrots which I found in their book, “Fresh & Fermented, 85 Delicious Ways to Make Fermented Carrots, Kraut, and Kimchi Part of Every Meal”. The ingredients are the same, but my measurements are slightly different. I wish I could have found a way to make the recipe better with the addition of my own ingredients, but it’s perfect the way it is. It doesn’t need anything else, except maybe some chips and guacamole ;) The whole book is great too if you want some ideas on how to incorporate more fermented foods into your meals. They have some very clever ways of adding them into foods, such as adding kraut to smoothies, cheese dip and even desserts. I highly recommend the book if you would like to learn more ways to add sauerkraut to your meals. It inspired me.
Now back to the Raw Pickled Ginger Carrots. They are packed with ginger, are tangy and the sweetness of the carrot will linger on your tongue. The first batch I made was a little too salty, so I adjusted the salt in this batch and it came out just right. Some really good advice for adding salt to your kraut, which I got from the book and I will continue to do for now on, is to add salt a little bit at a time and taste it as you are making it. It should taste slightly saltier than you would normally eat. Some of the saltiness goes away during fermentation.
The recipe below makes about 2 quart sized mason jars. You can cut the recipe in half by cutting the ingredients in half. I just found it easy to buy a 5lb. bag. They always have them at the grocery store. You can also use carrots of different colors. My first batch had a combination of orange and red carrots.
Health benefits (just to name a few)
We eat to nurture our body so it’s important to eat nutrient dense foods. Raw pickled ginger carrots are packed with vitamins, enzymes, probiotics and the medicinal properties of ginger. It seems that everything I make this time of year has ginger in it. I have to stop myself from posting more recipes with ginger for awhile or I will have to rename my blog something like ginger fermented food lab.
- Carrots are rich in vitamin A and contain vitamins K, C and have a small amount of calcium too. According to the the article, “What Are The Health Benefits Of Carrots?”, by Dr Mercola,
There’s good reason to include carrots in your regular diet, as the science is very strong that they may help reduce your risk of chronic disease.
- Ginger has a long list of health benefits. It improves digestion and is anti-inflammatory. I list more health benefits of ginger in my post, “How to Make Ginger Infused Water”.
- Fermenting the carrots and ginger increases the health benefits by adding in probiotics and making the vitamins and minerals more bioavailable. In other words your body absorbs more vitamins and minerals from fermented foods.
Make these Raw Pickled Ginger Carrots and bring your meals to life by adding them to dips, salads, sandwiches, wraps or your own creation. If you make these and incorporate them in a recipe, please leave a comment below.
- 2 quart size mason jars
- 5 lb bag of organic carrots grated
- 2 tbsp high quality sea salt
- 6 tsp grated ginger
- Grate the carrots in a food processor or by hand. Add them to a big bowl.
- Add in the sea salt and grated ginger.
- Using your hands, massage the sea salt and ginger into the carrots for about 5 minutes. Making sure to evenly distribute the salt and ginger.
- Let sit for 10 minutes. The salt will draw out the liquid from the carrots making them limp and wet.
- Pack the carrots tightly into a mason jar with your hands or use a vegetable stomper. The carrots will become submerged under the liquid. Continue packing in the carrots until they are an inch from the top of the jar. You can place a weight on top to keep them submerged under the brine or push them back down under the brine daily. Seal loosely with a lid so gases from fermentation can escape.
- Let them sit in a dark place on your counter for 4-7 days. Make sure they are not in direct sunlight.
- If any mold or scrum appears on the top of the carrots just scrape it off. This is common and the carrots under the brine are still good.
- Taste them after 4 days. When they are tangy and you like the taste then put them in the fridge. They will store safely in the fridge for several weeks.
Resources
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