This 2-Ingredient Recipe Will Change Your Life

Believe it or not, this two ingredient recipe is going to change your life. Welcome to the bubbly and lively world of lacto-fermentation, where tiny microbes transform everyday fruits and vegetables into what I describe as flavour bombs. This natural preservation method not only keeps the food safe from spoilage and harmful bacteria, but also adds a delicious tang that's beneficial for our gut microbiome. Lacto-fermentation is wonderfully versatile and applicable to nearly any surplus fruits or vegetables that you might have, and the results are simply outstanding. Now, as you can see, I have a wide variety of different ingredients that I've lacto-fermented over the last few weeks, and this is my prized possession right now, but it's only a small collection of a collection that's going to be huge in the coming months when my garden kicks off completely, and I've got loads of ingredients to harvest. And when I want to prolong the flavour and that harvest, lacto-fermentation is an incredible way of preserving, so that's what I'm going to be doing this year. And at the moment here, I've got a few on the go that are fermenting and a few that are finished and I'm eating regularly, like this one. This is a carrot lacto-fermentation, and I didn't grow these carrots myself, I just found some organic carrots at the supermarket going really cheap in the sale, and I thought, I can utilize those, so I just bought a load and made my own lacto-fermented carrots that are going to last forever now and taste even better. I've got some cabbages, so I did a curry flavour, and also it's just a plain one, and this is just basically sauerkraut, because sauerkraut is lacto-fermentation. And here, I've got my home-grown tomatoes from last year, last summer I made this, and I keep these in the fridge and I eat them every now and then and they taste delicious, because during the lacto-fermentation process, the flavours of the ingredients get supercharged, particularly with tomatoes, it's almost like an umami bomb. Actually, I've written on the label, flavour bomb, because it's that good. And then recently, I picked a load of wild garlic, and with the excess that I had after making beautiful dishes like raviolis and stews and pesto and kimchi, you can see all those recipes on the channel, I just decided to make a simple lacto-fermented wild garlic sauerkraut, and this is delicious. The only thing is, as soon as I open the fridge when this is in there, you get wafts of garlic and it's so, so strong. That's the only downside, but it tastes incredible. But today, I'm going to show you how to do lacto-fermentation, regardless of what ingredient you have, but I'm actually going to be doing it with one of my favourite all-time ingredients that I just harvested from my neighbour's garden, rhubarb. Yes, I'm going to do lacto-fermented rhubarb. This is just incredible, I can't explain to you how amazing the flavour of lacto-fermented rhubarb is. It's sweet and sour, tangy, you wouldn't think doing it with a fruit, but once you have, you will never go back. That sweet and sour flavour is unbelievable. So let's make lacto-fermented rhubarb. You can just recreate this recipe with whatever fruit or vegetable you have, it'll work just as well. First up, I'm going to lightly wash my neighbour's rhubarb and then cut it into some nice chunks before getting it into my sterilised jar. So I decided to cut my rhubarb into big long chunks, the reason being because I wanted it to be like a big old pickle that I could grab and take a delicious bite out of. You can however cut it really fine and small and it would be the perfect garnish. The science of lacto-fermentation is basically utilising the beneficial bacteria that is on all fruits and vegetables, and that lacto-bacteria is harnessed to create delicious flavour, to make it more nutritious for us, and in order for that to thrive, what we need to do is create an environment so that no other bacteria can get involved and spoil it. So what we do is introduce salt into the mix, along with water, which is going to create this oxygen-free environment for that lacto-bacteria to thrive and multiply and make that ferment and the magic happen basically. So I'm going to keep packing this jar until it's really tightly packed, full as much rhubarb as possible, and then I'm going to make a salt water brine. Alright, so the easiest way to work out how much brine to add is to get your jar with the contents in on some weighing scales, set it to zero, and then we're going to weigh some water. We're going to actually add enough filtered water to cover over the rhubarb by about a centimetre or two, or whatever fruit or veg you're lacto-fermenting. Pour that water then out of the jar, because we're going to actually work out three percent of the water's weight, and add that weight in sea salt. This salty solution is then poured back into the jar to shield the contents from any harmful bacteria, while encouraging the beneficial lacto-bacteria naturally present on the skins of fruits and vegetables to flourish. Alright, this is an important step. You've got to get a weight to hold everything beneath that brine. Obviously we don't want anything getting any oxygen, otherwise that will introduce a harmful bacteria, and mould may occur during the fermentation process. So use a glass weight like this one, and I'll pop links to my equipment beneath this video, or I've seen people use like a sterilised pebble from the beach, or a sandwich bag filled up with water. You can use pretty much anything, just keep everything beneath that brine. Often when I do things like sauerkraut with cabbage, I'll use a big cabbage leaf to plug everything beneath that brine. Now I'm going to label up my jar, making sure I've popped the date on so I know exactly when the fermentation has started, and then the jar goes into my fermentation station, which is just my counter in a dark place, for around one to two weeks. Yeah, so this is my lacto-fermented rhubarb that I set to ferment about a week and a half ago, and the colour has changed completely, it's actually magical. So during the course of that week and a half's fermentation, I just pop the lid every now and then to release some of the gases, because particularly if you've overfilled the jar, you'll find that some of that brine will bubble out, because there is a little air vent in these lids, so it will let some out. Sometimes I'll have to put it on a plate, but just burping that jar every now and then just helps release some of those gases. And I'm just wary, I keep an eye out for any sort of moulds or anything like that that can appear on the surface of the brine. It generally is harmless, and it's often caused when something is not beneath the brine, especially if you've added spices and things like that to your lacto-fermenting jar, you know, they can cause like a mould or a yeast to occur on top of the brine. As I said, it generally is harmless, and you can just pour it away, or spoon it off, or add fresh brine, and it should solve the problem. But luckily, mine is mould and yeast-free, it looks absolutely spectacular. The fermentation has slowed right down now, and it's time now to check the acidity. I want to give it a taste, and if that brine is like tasty and umami and rich, it's ready to eat. Obviously you don't have to eat it all at once, this will store now in the fridge for months and months and months, and in the fridge the fermentation will slow down completely. So let's give it a taste and see if it's ready. So it may seem weird just to taste a little of this brine, but trust me when I say this is so good for my gut. I'm not gonna have too much, but just a sip. Oh, it is crazy to think that all that is, is just brine, salt water, but the fermentation has made it like, it's almost like soy sauce. It's that rich, tangy, and obviously during that time in the fermentation, the salt on that brine is pulled out the flavour, and the tanginess, and the sourness, and all the flavours that are locked within the rhubarb. So this will make the perfect salad dressing. You can add some olive oil, and some tahini, and some mustard maybe, and some herbs, whip that up, maybe a little sweetness as well. Oh, oh my god, maybe I could drink it. That is unreal, and you'd think it'd be really salty, but it's not, it's not at all, it's delicious. So should we taste some of the actual rhubarb? I'm so excited. Taste time! I haven't had this since last year, and I've been craving the flavour, so I definitely have to make a load, so that I have enough to see me through until next year's harvest. Oh, this rhubarb, and it's almost cooked in that brine. Look at that, wow. Already I can tell that that texture is really nice. It has literally cooked, cooked it basically. It's got that really nice succulent texture. Now I'm imagining all the kinds of amazing dishes I'd serve this with, and that's something that I often get asked by my dad, mainly when I sample these krauts and fermented foods to him. He's like, what would I serve with it? But for me, a dish has to have a level of acidity, no matter what it is, and fermented foods is a great addition. So replace pickled things maybe with fermented foods. I'm getting really nerdy over it now, and I'm loving this, exploring it more, especially with the produce that I'm growing. Anyway, I'm going to stop talking. What I was trying to say is you can serve them with basically everything, but I want to dive into this. Oh my gosh. Right, okay, there's layers here. So the first thing is that crunch. It's held onto a beautiful crunch, succulent on the inside, and then you're hit with a tangy, salty, umami, meaty flavor. It's really delicious, and then it goes into a traditional rhubarb flavor. It sort of tricks your mind. It's really strange, but sensational. This is the best ingredient, I think, to ferment. It would look a lot more sophisticated cutting this with a knife and fork on a plate, but you know how pickles and gherkins are so widely popular all around the world, and people just eat them out of the jar? Same thing with this. This is what I'm going to do, but as I said before, a fancy fine dining dish with a few crunches and maybe some creamy, I don't know, creamy something would be amazing with this. Absolutely delicious. That is my lacto-fermented rhubarb, and as I said at the start of the video, repeat this exact process with whatever ingredients you have, whether it's plums, whether it's pears, whether it's cabbage, leek, carrots, tomatoes. The list is endless, and just experiment with it. It's a great way of preserving. It's great for your gut. It tastes unbelievable. It transforms flavours into something new and delicious, and then you've got all that brine that you can use in salad dressings. It is a win-win, and it's something that's been done for thousands of years, so let's continue that tradition, save on food waste, make healthy, nutritious, delicious, fermented food that are going to give our bodies the nutrients it needs.