Fermented Foods Recipe Ideas
At Bottlebrush Ferments, our philosophy around food is pretty simple – it is to be enjoyed. We love food and its ability to bring people together, to give joy, to nourish and heal the body.
We love healthy food, but do we eat it strictly all the time? No way! We love the odd burger, pizza, cheeky sausage roll or scotch egg and we like to be able to enjoy those things guilt free and without fear of completely derailing what is normally a pretty balanced diet.
We believe that by including fermented foods in our diet, we are giving our bodies enough high quality, raw vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fibre, enzymes and gut friendly bacteria that the odd splurge isn’t doing us any harm, in fact quite the opposite. We know that being able to eat what we want (within reason) helps us maintain a healthy relationship with food & makes us appreciate the “naughty” things when we have them, all the while still feeling happy and healthy. That’s a win win if you ask us.
And at the end of the day, if you’re still freaking out, you can always put some of our ferments on your burger………………We have done and trust us, it was delicious.
We believe the gut is the gateway to true health, but it can be confusing, daunting and expensive. Our aim is to try and contribute positively to our gut health in a quick, convenient and tasty way.
Co-founder Hesh is a chef, so is very capable of knocking up some pretty amazing, tasty dishes in no time at all. I (Ben) on the other hand am not, so for me, and coming from a fitness background, my meals are mostly quick, convenient & have a focus on getting a good balance of macronutrients – proteins, fats, carbohydrates & as many veggies on my plate as possible.
If it tastes good, that’s just a bonus;)
From my experience working with clients, I’ve seen that most people want to be healthy, but don’t always have the time to prepare complicated meals, so convenience is key. We’ve put this recipe idea list together to show you in a practical way how our fermented foods can be used. Some super quick & easy, some a bit more involved.
Where possible, we would always start from scratch, but we both have kids, so know that’s not always possible. Plus we don’t make our own bread & stuff like that, so are happy to buy in from people who know what they’re doing.
It’s also worth mentioning, that whilst our ferments all have their own unique individual flavours & characteristics & tend to lend themselves more to certain dishes than others, they are all very versatile, so all of these recipes are interchangeable, meaning you can put The Yellow One with red meat and put The Purple One with your chicken or brekky.
There are no hard and fast rules. Be adventurous. Go on.
Breakfast/ Brunch
You know what they say – “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day” and we are big believers in that. Start the day right and you will be set up for a day full of energy and awesomeness.
We’ve long been big fans of veggies for breakfast, getting a big hit of nutrient and fibre rich foods will keep you fuller longer as well as mentally on the ball, thanks to all those vitamins and minerals.
But we understand that it’s not always practical. With our ferments, there is no prep time, simply twist the lid off the jar and off you go.
We love them with our eggs in the morning.
The full Aussie breakfast
Who doesn’t love bacon & eggs? Errr! sorry veggie & vegan friends, but this one’s aimed at the meat eaters. I have seen people substitute the animal products with tofu, tempeh, beans, lentils, chick peas, etc and it looks delicious.
Here we have The Yellow One served up with some smoked back bacon, thick pork sausages, large flat Portobello mushrooms, poached Burford brown eggs, griddled vine ripened tomatoes and some toasted sourdough bread.
Smoked Salmon & Avo on toast
This dish is so quick & tasty it’s hard to believe it’s so good for you.
This time we’ve used A squeeze of lemon juice adds a bit of zing.
Brekky Burrito
This is another quick one, just a couple of minutes to do the eggs, throw it all together and BOOM! you’re ready to rock, convenient brekky wrap in hand.
We’ve gone for The Purple One again here, but The Red One works really well too.
We use scrambled eggs as they’re a little less messy if you’re on the run, some baby kale and a bit of harissa paste on a flat bread/ wrap.
Snacks
Here are a few snacks, which could become full meals in their own right. Depends how hungry you are really. Again, some are super quick to put together, some will take a little bit of prep time. All of them are tasty.
Baby vegetable crudités with roasted garlic hummus & baked falafels
This can be as simple or as involved as you like. Hesh made the hummus, but the falafels are bought. If you buy the hummus too, the only real time consuming thing is waiting for the falafels to heat up
We also have sprouting baby purple or tender stem broccoli, baby carrots, breakfast radishes and both The Yellow & Purple Ones.
Antipasto platter
This is another one that is super quick and tasty. We couldn’t decide which ferment worked best, so we used them all.
We’ve paired them with some chorizo slices, prosciutto, blue cheese, a brie & some sun dried tomatoes in olive oil.
The grapes and radishes are to make it look pretty, but we ate them too.
Halloumi Pops
Could there be a quicker and tastier snack out there than halloumi and some of our ferments?!
Well yes, actually, you could use a cheese that doesn’t need cooking, but it wouldn’t have the salty, squeaky, spongy goodness that halloumi has.
We are biiiig fans of this Greek/ Cypriot specialty and have been known to consume it for breakfast, lunch and dinner…………..in the same day.
Lunch & Dinner
As mentioned earlier, these two are interchangeable. Weather permitting, we would always prefer to barbecue, but that’s just the Aussie in us. Our ferments go really well with barbecued meats, chicken, fish, veggies & halloumi.
The acidic nature of fermented foods mean they cut through fatty foods and compliment them quite nicely. We love pork, lamb, beef or good quality sausages, as mentioned on the BBQ if possible, if not, we’re big fans of slow cooking.
Pulled pork, ribs, or slow cooked boneless shoulder of lamb, I do a 10 hour Mexican chicken with lots of peppers, beans, corn all in one pot and our ferments taste amazing with all of them. You will start to find your favourite ferment and combinations of foods to serve them with.
We haven’t tried them with anything that we didn’t really like, but maybe we’re biased.
Grilled lemon and thyme chicken breast
We have accompanied the chicken with a roasted vegeatble and couscous salad, with a creamy harissa sauce and served it with The Red One.
The Yellow One also works really well here, the pineapple and ginger in this popular ferment go well with white meat and fish.
Pulled pork bao buns
These are delicious. Hesh makes everything from scratch (except the buns), so made his own barbecue sauce and even did the pickled onions himself, whereas I use a rub or store bought sauce.
If possible, cook the pork for about 4 hours so it is falling off the bone, then serve it up on the buns with some chopped cos lettuce and any one of our ferments. We used them all and they all tasted amazing.
Fish and chips
An Aussie favourite, as much as an English one. We’ve put our unique, gut friendly spin on it.
We prefer grilled fish, we would normally go for Snapper or Sea Bream, but here we’ve used Tilapia. Any meaty white fish will work and then we’ve made thick hand cut chips and used The Red One to give it a bit of kick.
