8 Fermented and Pickled Recipes to Try at Home

Salt, time and patience turn ordinary vegetables and tea into something sharper and more interesting than they started as. That is the whole idea behind every one of these fermented and pickled recipes.

Some of these come from my own allotment and my Polish kitchen, and a couple are Korean techniques I have picked up and made my own. Pick one and give it the week it needs. Smacznego!

1. Polish Żurek (Sour Rye Soup)

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Żurek is Poland’s sour rye soup, and the sourness is not vinegar or lemon, it comes from żur, a rye starter you ferment yourself from nothing more than flour, water, garlic and bay over five to seven days. Made properly it is eaten from a plate or a hollowed-out loaf with smoked bacon and sausage, potatoes and half a boiled egg, finished with a spoonful of cream, and it is nothing like the packet version from a Polish shop. It belongs to Easter above all, though it is good on any cold evening. Get the recipe →

2. Beetroot Kvass

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Beetroot kvass is a tangy, deep red fermented drink, and in my kitchen it mostly earns its keep as the base for a proper Polish beetroot soup, because a good barszcz starts with a good kvass. It could not be simpler: raw beetroot, water and salt with garlic, bay, allspice and peppercorns, then about a week on the counter while the fermentation does the work. I grow my own beetroot for it, which is sweeter and nowhere near as bitter as a lot of what the shops sell. Get the recipe →

3. Ogórki Kiszone (Polish Dill Pickles)

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Ogórki kiszone are how I turn a big summer crop of cucumbers into something crunchy that lasts all year, and this is how Polish families have done it for generations. There is no vinegar and no hot water bath, just cucumbers, salt, garlic, dill and horseradish left to ferment naturally in a salted brine. When you have far more of one vegetable than you can eat fresh, this is one of the best ways I know to save it. Get the recipe →

4. Korean Cucumber Kimchi

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Cucumber kimchi, or oi kimchi, is what I make every summer when the allotment gives me more cucumbers than I can eat, and it is the easiest ferment on the whole site: no cabbage to quarter, no weeks of waiting, ready in two days. The cucumbers are salted first to draw the water out, then coated in a paste of gochugaru, garlic, ginger and grated apple, lighter and crunchier than cabbage kimchi and meant to be. For the Polish way to use up the same glut, I have ogórki kiszone too. Get the recipe →

5. Kimchi in Vacuum Bags

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If you love making kimchi but have no room for a shelf of jars, fermenting it in a vacuum bag is a genuinely good answer: it saves space, keeps the air out, and lets you ferment smaller batches so you can tune the spice and salt to your own taste. The method is simple enough for a first attempt at homemade kimchi, and I walk through the packing, sealing and how to tell when it is actually ready. Same gochugaru, garlic and fish sauce paste as any other kimchi, just a different vessel. Get the recipe →

6. Fermented Radish, Carrot and Beetroot

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At this time of year the allotment gives me more radishes, carrots and beetroot than we can eat fresh, and a jar like this is how I keep them: salt, cold water and about a week on the side turns them sour and crunchy, then they keep in the fridge long after the beds are empty. I ferment them in a Chinese water-seal jar, an idea borrowed from Sichuan pao cai, using the same method I use for every one of my pickles. The beetroot does more than flavour the jar, its colour creeps into the radish and carrot as the days pass, so you can see how far the ferment has got just by looking. Get the recipe →

7. Homemade Kombucha

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Homemade kombucha is easier than it looks, and once you start you tend not to stop, I always have a scoby sitting in the cupboard waiting for the next batch. All it really takes is tea, sugar, a scoby and a bit of patience while it quietly turns sweet tea into something fizzy and tangy. From there you can flavour it however you like with fruit or ginger for a second ferment. Get the recipe →

8. Simple Sourdough Starter

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There is nothing quite like the smell of a loaf of proper sourdough, and every one of them starts with a healthy, active starter. This is the practical side of building one from flour and water and keeping it alive, including how temperature, timing and feeding actually affect it, since a cool kitchen is behind most of the problems people run into. I will take you through building it, recognising when it is ready to use, and keeping it going for everyday baking. Get the recipe →

FAQ

Which is the easiest one to start with?

Cucumber kimchi is the quickest, ready in two days, and needs nothing more than a bowl and some patience. The others take longer, from three days for the cabbage kimchi in vacuum bags up to two weeks for the ogórki kiszone, because that is genuinely how long the flavour needs to develop.

Do I need special equipment for any of these?

Not really. Most just need a jar or a container and something to weigh the vegetables down, or a vacuum sealer if you want to ferment kimchi that way, though a jar works just as well. Kombucha needs a scoby to get started, but nothing here needs specialist gear.

Which of these keeps the longest?

Ogórki kiszone keeps the longest, about a year in a cool spot, and the cabbage kimchi in vacuum bags keeps for months in the fridge too. Cucumber kimchi is the one to eat quickly, best within days rather than weeks, since it is not built to keep the way a proper cabbage ferment does.

What will you ferment first?

None of these need special equipment beyond a jar and some patience. Smacznego!