Easy Fermented Vegetables

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• 1/3 tsp Agave syrup
• 1/6 each Jalapeño
• 1/6 each Red bell pepper
• 1 each Red onion
• 1/4 each Ginger
• 1/4 clove Garlic
• 1 each Cabbage
• 1 each Red cabbage
• 1/2 each Green onions
• 1/4 rib Celery
• 1/4 each Carrots
• 1/3 tsp Salt

1. Begin by sanitizing your workspace and running three 12 oz canning jars through your dishwasher on high heat to sanitize them. Alternatively, you can also sanitize your jars by submerging them in boiling water and then allowing them to air dry.
2. Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine agave syrup, 1 jalapeño (seeded), ½ red bell pepper (seeded), ¼ red onion, peeled ginger, and garlic cloves.
3. Pulse vegetables and agave in a food processor until all vegetables have been broken down into a paste-like consistency, with any visible vegetables all being the same size, minced. Set aside.
4. Prep all the vegetables: roughly chop or slice both cabbages, roughly chop the green onion (discarding only the very tip of the root), dice celery, julienne carrots, remaining ½ red bell pepper, and remaining ¼ red onion. This step is a great time to practice your knife skills or skip laboring over cutting everything and just chop it up coarsely. This recipe is very forgiving, and it’s fun to have a lot of different shapes that will contribute to the texture once it is fermented later.
5. In a large mixing bowl, combine all prepared veggies and salt. With clean hands, massage the salt into the prepared vegetables until they are all very soft. (It’s arm day, y’all! Use those muscles, and don’t stop!)
6. After at least 10 minutes of massaging the vegetables and salt, add the prepared, processed vegetable and agave mixture. Continue to massage the vegetables and the spicy-sweet processed mixture together for another 5-10 minutes, or until a significant amount of water is released from the veggies, and you can see it pooling at the bottom of our bowl.
7. With clean hands, spoon your mixture into jars and push it down firmly with the spoon once full. You should see a significant amount of liquid brine rising to the top, covering your vegetables whenever you push it down with the spoon (or clean fingers!) Don’t waste the brine; top off the jars as much as you can to cover the veggies.
8. Place lids on jars loosely and wipe down the jars. Transfer the jars to a dark place in your kitchen for 24 hours. I like to place my jars in a spare Tupperware container and keep them under the sink, so they are contained and in a warm(ish) place to help with the early fermentation process.
9. After 24 hours, carefully “burp” each jar by simply removing the lid to allow some of the naturally occurring gasses to escape. If your kitchen is particularly warm, you may want to burp your jars after just 12 hours to avoid a small (potent!) explosion. :)
10. After the initial 24-hour fermentation period, burp your jars every 8-12 hours until you see consistent, active bubbles every time you open the lid. Once you see a lot of bubbling on a regular basis, you can screw the lid on tight and transfer the jars to your refrigerator. It’s done!