Reviving Traditional Foods
Four Thieves Vinegar can cure the plague, at least, that’s what French folklore teaches us. And while I can’t comment on the veracity of this statement (and, no, it hasn’t been approved by the Food & Drug Administration), I will say that in every little garden whether it’s an expansive lot on a farmstead, a [...]
Homemade ketchup – it sounds complicated as though you’d spend all day in the kitchen pounding your way through vats of tomatoes and slowly simmering them away in kettles on a wooden stove. Making homemade ketchup from scratch seems complex, almost unfathomable in an era when quick-fix, all-in-one bagged skillet dinners constitute “cooking from scratch.” [...]
Fermented hot chili sauce – explosive with heat and teeming with food enzymes, beneficial bacteria, vitamin C and carotene. Traditionally, all hot chili sauces were prepared through fermentation – and many of the world’s most renowned and well-loved sauces are still prepared through this time-honored technique of combining hot chilies with salt and allowing it [...]
Miso Soup with Clams is one of those special foods – simple and quiet and humble, but also elegant in its simplicity. Sometimes the best dishes are the simplest. In our home, broths and stocks form the foundation of many of our meals, and with good reason. Broths and stocks are potently rich sources of [...]
This giveaway is now closed, and the winner is Jenn W who’ll be crocking up a batch of beet sauetkraut in no time! In the mean time, Cultures for Health is offering Nourished Kitchen readers a great discount. . I love fermentation, the whole entire process: the mysterious and nearly magical way invisible microbes transform [...]
Kombucha vinaigrette, may seem like an unusual take on the classic combination of olive oil and balsamic or red wine vinegar, but, when complemented by the unique flavors of clove and allspice it can become a nourishing, if unique dressing for any salad. I find it pairs particularly well with the sweetness of beets, apples, pears and nuts. Reminiscent of apple cider vinegar in combination with club soda, kombucha offers a unique flavor that is growing in popularity as more and more natural foods enthusiasts learn to cherish the beverage – a sweetened tea that undergoes a unique fermentation process through the use of a mother or symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast.
Prebiotics and probiotics represent essential aspects of a wholesome, nourishing diet. Though not the same, prebiotics and probiotics complement one another and work together to improve overall health and wellness. Simplistically, a prebiotic promotes the proliferation of beneficial bacteria while probiotics contain live beneficial bacteria that help to recolonize your intenstinal flora. [...]
Has a lost love of soda pop been nagging at you too long? We’ve developed a love of water kefir or tibicos in our home. A fermented beverage teeming with beneficial bacteria, it’s easily flavored, remarkably simple to prepare and more palatable than kombucha, offering a pleasant alternative to commercial sodas. Similar [...]
Fermented food, enjoyed across the globe, conveys health benefits through lactic acid fermentation. The fermentation process can transform the flavor of food from the plain and mundane to a mouth-puckering sourness enlivened by colonies of beneficial bacteria and enhanced micronutrients. While fermented food like yogurt, sauerkraut and kefir are well-known many other lesser-known foods also [...]
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Confused about grains? You're not alone! It seems that everyone is telling you - to either get … [read more]
Did you know that a simple process can actually increase the nutrients your body absorbs from whole … [read more]
Jenny McGruther is a wife, mother and cooking instructor specializing in real and traditional foods. Her work has been featured on CNN, the Globe & Mail, the Atlantic, the Christian Science Monitor, Denver Post and WebMD. Click here to learn more.
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