Fermented and cultured foods are a wonderful source of probiotic bacteria needed to support good health. If you’ve been thinking about adding more of these foods to your diet, but are unsure of exactly how to accomplish this, these twenty suggestions for including fermented and cultured foods into your meals and snacks may help you out.
BREAKFAST
- Cultured dairy (yogurt, kefir, buttermilk) are naturals for breakfast. Add yogurt, kefir or buttermilk to your morning smoothies or top granola or oatmeal with fruit and homemade yogurt. Don’t do dairy? Try homemade coconut yogurt.
- For the more adventurous, make breakfast bowls with yogurt and cooked beans and grains.
- Top your scrambled eggs with fermented salsa.
LUNCH
- Add chopped fermented pickles to tuna, salmon, or ham salad sandwiches.
- Use fermented mayonnaise in place of store-bought mayonnaise.
- Tuck some lacto-fermented dilled carrot chips into bagged lunches. These are always a favorite with kids.
- Put lacto-fermented ketchup on hot dogs and hamburgers.
DINNER
- Have a small portion of raw sauerkraut with dinner. It pairs well with almost everything. Start with a tablespoon and slowly increase the amount to avoid gastro-intestinal discomfort. When you are ready, experiment with different kinds of sauerkraut such as:
- If you are having soup, let the soup cool a bit before stirring in some homemade sour cream or juice from any lacto-fermented vegetable.
- For salads, try making your own ranch dressing using lacto-fermented mayonnaise and cultured buttermilk or Italian dressing made with kombucha.
- Serve some fun lacto-fermented chutneys with dinner entrées.
- Make tacos and top with sliced fermented jalapeños and cultured sour cream.
- Experiment with a new kind of vegetable salad.
SNACKS AND EXTRAS
- Pair your favorite chips with a cultured dairy ranch dip.
- Serve cut-up veggies with a kefir dill dip.
- Slice and dry sourdough bread and use to dip in fermented hummus.
- Snack on an old-fashioned lacto-fermented dill pickle.
- Make fun and fizzy water kefir sodas or lacto-fermented ginger-ale.
- Make some fun-shaped dairy-free gummies.
- Serve a probiotic-rich dessert like a kefir-gelatin, fresh fruit withyogurt sauce, or a kefir soft-serve ice cream.
