Making fermented garlic is an incredibly easy way to preserve and enhance the flavor and nutritional profile of your garlic. Not to mention the amazing benefits it holds for your gut microbiome, immune and digestive systems .
In addition, the garlic brine that results from the fermentation process is a very valuable and tasty resource on its own! It can be used in salad dressings and marinades, taken as a digestive aid, or when a cold is coming on.
In this article, I will go over how to make and prepare fermented garlic and touch on a few of the incredible health benefits fermented foods hold for us.
What is a Fermented Food
Examples of amazing fermented foods are things like yogurt, apple cider vinegar, wine, cheese, sourdough bread, and kefir. They all provide a wonderful variety of benefits, but the fermented vegetables really are the powerhouses. Things like fermented garlic, fermented Jerusalem artichokes, and sauerkraut, to name a few.
Really, any fresh, healthy vegetable can be made into a tasty, delightful fermented food. You can use any spice mix you like or none at all. Below, I will go over the spice and brine mixture I use for all my fermented vegetables and pickles.
Benefits of Fermented Foods and Garlic
Fermented foods are full of beneficial bacteria and nutrients.
The fermentation process creates a healthy environment for beneficial bacteria to thrive.
Those little guys are hungry, and they don’t mind working hard for their food.
They break down and predigest the foods that are being fermented. Leaving the food easier to digest, full of beneficial bacteria, and easy to absorb nutrients.
Besides supplying us with amazingly easy-to-assimilate vitamins and minerals, the beneficial bacteria go on to colonize our guts and intestines. Crowding out and destroying things like fungus, candida, and other unsavory characters that we don’t want to be carrying around!
These incredible fermented foods help improve our digestion, build and strengthen our immune systems, and provide us with nutrient-dense, living food that goes on to feed and promote a thriving, diverse microbiome in our guts and bodies.
How to Make Fermented Garlic
Equipment
- 1 large bowl
- 1 small to medium bowl
- 1 cutting board.
- 1 solid knife.
- 1 large 2 cup measuring cup
- 1 spoon
- 1 clean glass jar with a lid – (Big enough to house your garlic cloves, with an inch of air space at the top.)
Ingredients
Spice Mix
- 3 or more sprigs fresh or dried dill fresh is best, but dried still works well too
- ¼ tsp whole peppercorns
- ¼ tsp whole mustard seed
Brine
- 2 cups warm, unchlorinated water
- 1 tble sea salt
Instructions
- Gather up all your beautiful garlic bulbs.
- Break the cloves apart and remove any that are soft or appear to have issues.
- Peel all the garlic cloves, placing them in a clean bowl for later. Note: I find pinching the bottom growing portion of the garlic to be the easiest way to get the peel to come away from the inner clove.
- Get your clean glass jar and add your spices to the bottom
- Cut off the growing end of the garlic, where the roots would grow from. Place the cut garlic into the jar. Continue until all the garlic is trimmed and your jar is full.
- Make brine
- Mix the brine with a spoon till all the sea salt is dissolved. Then pour the brine mixture into your jar, covering all the garlic cloves; leave a 1- to 1.5-inch air space at the top for the gasses to escape and to keep it from bubbling over and making a mess.
- Place the jar on a plate or bowl to catch any bubbles that may overflow, then find a nice, warm, clean spot that is out of direct sunlight. This will be a good place to keep your garlic jar while it ferments over the next 5 days or so.
- You can cover the top of the jar with cheesecloth and an elastic band to secure it, or just lightly place your lid on top of the jar to allow the gasses to escape.
