This lacto-fermented carrot recipe is easy to make and healthy too! These carrots have healthy and natural probiotics and tons of flavor.
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If you have a lot of vegetables from your garden or you have bought bulk from the store, fermentation is a great way to preserve your vegetables.
What is Lacto-Fermentation and Why Should you do it?
There's a lot to fermentation, but here are the basics of what you need to know. Lacto-fermentation is a process in which good bacteria converts sugars into lactic acid. Lactic acid is a natural preservative. Lactic acid and lactobacillus, the good bacteria, preserve flavor and nutritional value of vegetables. They are super healthy for our digestion and our internal microbiome. That's why I try to eat fermented foods every day.
The process of fermentation using salt, water and vegetables makes the vegetables taste good, makes them easier to digest and is really healthy. Just think about eating fermented vegetables like taking a probiotic every day. Fermentation of vegetables is really simple.
I love fermenting carrots when I have a lot of them. They are great to snack on, and they can also give any meal a little bit of extra flavor and texture.
Supplies Needed for the Lacto-Fermented Carrot Recipe
Supplies you will need are: about a pound of carrots, non-chlorinated water, sea salt or other non-iodized salt, any herbs or spices you would like to add (I used garlic, fresh dill, mustard seed and black peppercorns), quart size jar, lids, scale, something to cut the carrots with (knife, mandolin or food processor) and cutting board.
Step by Step
Here are the steps for fermenting carrots:
Preparing the Carrots
- First, peel the carrots.
- Cut off both ends of the carrots. Save for your chickens or to put in your compost pile.
- Wash the carrots.
- Cut carrots into small rounds or long sticks using a mandolin, knife or food processor.
- After that, pack the jars with herbs and spices. For my ferment, I added a couple sprigs of fresh dill, 2 teaspoons mustard seed, 2 teaspoons black peppercorns and 2 cloves of peeled garlic.
- Pack the carrots tightly in a quart size glass jar.
- Then cover your vegetables with something to keep them submerged under the brine. It's important that you do not have anything floating on top. You can use something like a cabbage leaf, carrot slices or a glass weight to hold the vegetables down.
Preparing the Brine for Fermentation
Make your brine for this lacto-fermented carrot recipe using salt and water. You will want to make a 2-2.5% brine for carrots. You want to make sure you have enough salt for lacto-fermentation to occur but not too much salt that your vegetables are salted and not fermented. Measuring your salt by weight is a good way to stay accurate. It's best to measure by weight because all salts have different volumes.
Even if you don’t have the exact salinity, you should still be safe. Lacto-fermentation is quite forgiving. Just make sure that if you see or smell something that doesn’t look right, you don’t eat it. In this case, throw it away and start over.
In this recipe, I used milliliters and grams to make it easy and keep it accurate. For every 100 milliliters of water, I used 2 grams of salt. Usually, your glass measuring cups will have the milliliter measurements and kitchen scales can be switched from ounces to grams easily.
- For my brine, I measured 500 ml of water, which is a little over 2 cups. Make sure you are using filtered water, or non-chlorinated water.
- Use a scale to weigh your salt. Carrots require a 2-2.5% salinity to successfully ferment. You will want about 10 grams of salt for 500 ml of water.
- Mix the salt with the water until it dissolves. To dissolve the salt more quickly, you can use warmer water, but room temperature water will work too. The temperature of the water does not really matter too much as long as you make sure it isn’t too hot.
- Pour the brine over the vegetables in the jar until the vegetables are fully covered. You don’t want anything poking out of the brine!
- Put the lid on the jar and close tightly. Or use an airlock lid.
Next Steps
- Place the carrots on a plate or in a bowl in case liquid comes out of the jar as it ferments.
- It is important to let the carrots sit at room temperature out of direct sunlight for 7-10 days so they can go through the lacto-fermentation process.
- After a few days, taste the carrots. Let them ferment until they taste good to you.
- Place them in the refrigerator to slow the fermentation process when they are to your liking. These carrots can stay in the fridge for months, but I guarantee they won’t last that long.
Optionally, you can “burp” your jars of carrots by quickly opening and closing them each day to release some air. This is not a completely necessary step. I never do it. Or just use the airlock lid instead of burping.
What's Normal During Fermentation?
The brine will get cloudy.
Your carrots may get fizzy or bubbly.
Finished carrots will have a darker color than fresh carrots.
What's Not Normal During Fermentation?
Mold, funny smells and mushy vegetables are not normal. If it doesn't look, smell or taste right, just throw that batch away and start over. Use your senses to guide you. If you have problems getting the right conditions the first time around, don't give up!
Fermentation is so easy and so delicious. I know you will love this probiotic lacto-fermented carrot recipe!!
Lacto-Fermented Carrot Recipe
Probiotic Lacto-Fermented Carrot recipe
Lacto Fermented Carrots are a delicious snack or addition to any meal. They have healthy and natural probiotics and are so easy to make.
Ingredients
- About a pound of carrots
- About 2 cups filtered water
- 10 grams sea salt
- 2 sprigs fresh dill
- 2 cloves garlic peeled
- 2 tsp mustard seed
- 2 tsp black peppercorns
Instructions
Prepare the Carrots
- First, peel the carrots.
- Cut off both ends of the carrots. Save for your chickens or to put in your compost pile.
- Wash the carrots.
- Cut carrots into small rounds or long sticks using a mandolin, knife or food processor.
- After that, pack the jars with herbs and spices. For my ferment, I added a couple sprigs of fresh dill, 2 teaspoons mustard seed, 2 teaspoons black peppercorns and 2 cloves of peeled garlic.
- Pack the carrots tightly in a quart size glass jar.
- Then cover your vegetables with something to keep them submerged under the brine. It's important that you do not have anything floating on top. You can use something like a cabbage leaf, carrot slices or a glass weight to hold the vegetables down.
Prepare the Brine
- Measure 500 ml of water, which is a little over 2 cups. Make sure you are using filtered water, or non-chlorinated water.
- Use a scale to weigh your salt. Carrots require a 2-2.5% salinity to successfully ferment. You will want about 10 grams of salt for 500 ml of water.
- Mix the salt with the water until it dissolves. To dissolve the salt more quickly, you can use warmer water, but room temperature water will work too. The temperature of the water does not really matter too much as long as you make sure it isn’t too hot.
- Pour the brine over the vegetables in the jar until the vegetables are fully covered. You don’t want anything poking out of the brine!
- Put the lid on the jar and close tightly or use an airlock lid.
Notes
- It is important to let the carrots sit at room temperature out of direct sunlight for 7-10 days.
- After a few days, taste the carrots. Let them ferment until they taste good to you.
- Place them in the refrigerator to slow the fermentation process when they are to your liking. These carrots can stay in the fridge for months, but I guarantee they won’t last that long.
- You can add any other herbs or spices you like.
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