This salad is a tangy shredded vegetable ferment, tossed with a delicious vinaigrette - no goopy mayonnaise here. It’s a great side for grilled meats or fish, but can stand alone as a lovely lunch salad with a hunk of sourdough and a slice of crumbly blue cheese. The first part describes how to shred and ferment the vegetables. Part 2 describes how to drain and dress the vegetables for a final delicious Fermented Slaw.
Part 1 - Make the fermented vegetables
Ingredients: (can vary according to what you have in the fridge)
1 pound of green cabbage, sliced thinly (purple? broccoli? cauliflower? turnip?)
1 large onion, red or yellow, sliced thinly (I prefer red for the color, and don’t use a sweet onion - too sugary)
1 large green bell pepper, sliced thinly, (or use a mandolin)
1 large carrot (shredded on a cheese grater, large holes)
1/2 green apple, shredded on the same cheese grater (optional)
1/4 pound celeriac (celery root, shredded on a cheese grater, large holes) or 1 teaspoon celery seed
4 tsp salt (2% by weight, so you could also weigh all your veggies for a result in grams, then divide by 100 to get the grams of salt needed)
Equipment:
Chopping board, knife, (mandolin?), large mixing bowl, 2 quart mason jars with lids
Technique:
Mix the shredded vegetables with the salt in the mixing bowl. Massage well with your hands until the vegetables wilt a little and give off some liquid. Pack into the jars, pressing the vegetables underwater. Don’t add extra brine yet. The veggies will settle down over night and express more liquid, but if some still rise above the surface of the liquid the next morning, add more brine (1 Tbs/cup water) or some extra liquid from a previous ferment. Ferment 4-7 days, until the veggies are tangy. Inspect the veggies every morning, submerging then firmly. Taste them at day 4, and continue fermenting until they taste nicely sour. Then continue with part 2.
Part 2 - Construct the Slaw:
Make about 3/4 - 1 cup of vinaigrette. It can be your favorite recipe, or try the mixture suggested below by my friend Alex Lewin (Author of Real Food Fermentation, the book which has inspired many of my recipes).
Put the fermented vegetables in a colander in a large bowl and press out the juice. Reserve.
In another bowl, mix the pressed fermented veggies with half of the vinaigrette. Add more if needed to nicely moisten the veggies - don’t drown them. Put the mixture back in your jars and refrigerate.
Voilá! Fermented Slaw! Enjoy!
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Alex’s Carolina-Style vinaigrette: 1/2 cup of juice pressed from the ferment, 1/4 C of honey, 6 Tablespoons of oil (sesame? olive? coconut? Your choice, or mix it up!) 2 teaspoons of dry mustard, 1 tsp grated fresh ginger, freshly ground black pepper.
What to do with leftover fermentation juice? Mix with oil and spices and make salad dressing. Use as a salty-sour liquid condiment or addition to soup. Use it as a marinade. For your next vegetable ferment, use it to cover the vegetables instead of plain brine. It’s a source of probiotics, so you could also drink it as a tonic - watch out, it’s very salty!!
