Lacto-Fermented Sourdough Green Beans

Big green bean harvest this year? They are fantastic fermented! This recipe is a combined fermentation method. We use other fermented products to initiate the fermentation in sterilized foods such as these steamed green beans or even canned beans and vegetables.

Because green beans are slightly fibrous when they are raw, in this recipe we bring a pot of water to boil and steam stringed green beans for 4 minutes. This softens them up BUT at the same time actually sterilizes the beans. Which means we need to re-activate them with good bacteria and yeasts in order to start a fermentation process and preserve these beans in a living way!

Here we stringed (ends cut off and stringy part removed) and steamed the beans (4min) then chopped them up in halves or quarters. We finely chopped up some onions, poured over a 3% salt brine (30 grams of salt per 1 liter of water) and to reintroduce active bacteria and yeasts we added a small tea-spoon of Cornelius our sourdough starter.

After 24-48 hours at room temperature the beans begin bubbling and juicing over (remember, a sign of success!) so put them in a bowl or plate to catch the liquid. Leave closed for at least five days. No opening! Let the proper lactobacillus bacteria build up and create a sour and safe environment and thus avoid white kahm yeast and off flavours.

You can enjoy after 5 days to a week, but personally I find it is tastiest after two weeks of room temperature fermentation! 😋

Make dead food living again!

Here is the general how-to:

• wash and string your beans
• steam beans for 4 min
• cut beans in desires lengths and fill a jar - no packing down needed
• if desired add diced onions within the mix or on top
• make a 3% salt brine (30 grams per 1000 ml of water)
• pour brine over beans
• add a small amount of living culture to your beans. This could be: sourdough, whey from living yogurt, juice from a previous ferment, a spoon of non-pasteurized honey
• let sit at room temperature for 5 days to two weeks
• put in cool storage and enjoy!