Kanji - fermented vegetables in brine

A great way of having raw vegetables while increasing the nourishment you can get out of them is simply letting them be in salt water for a few days. You can start with purple (or regular) carrots or beetroot or radish.

Kanji is a fermented drink made during the winters in north India. This is another example of using seasonal crops to support your body.

Make a small batch to start with.

1. Chop two carrots or beetroots finely.
2. Transfer to a medium sized jar with an airtight lid and fill it with water, making sure the vegetables are covered. If left exposed to air, fungus might start growing. There should be at least one inch left to the top of the jar, otherwise the fermenting juices will spill out. Still, place the jar on a plate to contain any spills.
3. Add 1tsp salt, 1tsp freshly ground mustard seeds and 1 bayleaf.
4. Place the jar in the sun. Have the brine (the fermented drink) after three to four days. You can also have some of the vegetables.
5. Refill. Add salt and mustard seeds again and leave to ferment for another three to four days. This can be done for another round.
6. If you’d like, you can put the jar in the fridge after about a week and eat the pickled vegetables over a few days. The vegetables retain their crunch, though lose their flavour over time. You can also use them for soup.

This drink and the raw vegetables are good for your gut bacteria. And all healing starts in the gut.

Don’t wait for validity from science in support of traditional knowledge and practices. Go back to them.

I am Indian, so I write about what I know: food and lifestyle practices adopted by people living on the Indian subcontinent. But all cultures have recipes with fermented food. The Germans do this with baby cucumbers and cabbage. The Koreans do it with their variety of cabbage. The herbs and spices used bring in their own value. A lot of these recipes have become obsolete or forgotten because we are busy earning money rather than earning health. Because we have forgotten our priorities, lost the ability to judge how much money is enough, because yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut, pickled cucumbers, kimchi can be bought.

We have also lost the ability to judge (or even have the thought come to our mind) how industrially produced store-bought stuff would compare to that made ourselves at home.

What have your ancestors been fermenting?