Fermented Radish, Carrot and Beetroot Recipe

At this time of year the allotment gives me more radishes, carrots and beetroot than we can eat fresh, and a jar of fermented vegetables like this is how I keep them. Salt, cold water and about a week on the kitchen side turn them sour and crunchy, and they keep going in the fridge long after the beds are empty.

I ferment them in a Chinese water-seal jar, the round kind with a water rim around the lid. The idea comes from Sichuan pao cai, and the method is the one I use for all my kiszonki: vegetables, salt and water, and nothing else.

The beetroot is in there for more than its flavour. It turns the brine pink, and as the days go by the colour creeps into the radishes and carrots, so you can see how far the jar has got just by looking at it.

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Fermented, Not Quick-Pickled

A lot of recipes called pickled vegetables, and even some called pao cai, are quick pickles: vegetables soaked overnight in vinegar, salt and sugar and eaten within a few days. There is no vinegar in this jar. The sourness comes from the bacteria that live on the vegetables themselves, which take over once everything is under the brine and away from the air.

That changes how you read the jar. In a ferment, brine that goes cloudy after a day or two is the sign it has started, and so are the little bubbles that rise when you tap the glass. In a vinegar pickle, cloudy brine is a bad sign, and plenty of those recipes tell you to throw it away. So if you are used to quick pickles, do not panic when this one goes cloudy.

It takes longer, too. A quick pickle is ready the next day, and a jar of firm root vegetables like this wants about a week.

Why I Use a Water-Seal Jar

I bought this jar for the water lock, and it is very convenient. The lid sits in a rim that you fill with water. The gas the ferment makes bubbles out through the water and air cannot get back in, so there is nothing to open and nothing to burp.

The shape helps as well. The jar narrows at the shoulder, so you can fill the brine almost to the top and keep everything pressed under it. What goes wrong in a ferment usually starts with vegetables sitting in the air, because that is where a film of yeast and mould gets going. The less air in the jar, the less room for the wrong microbes.

If you do not have one, a large glass jar with a weight to hold the vegetables down and a loose lid on top works on the same idea. You just have to keep a closer eye on it.

The Salt and the Water

The brine is 3.5%: 35 g of salt for every litre of water, weighed on a scale rather than measured in spoons. Spoons are the weak spot in a lot of ferment recipes, because a tablespoon of fine salt weighs a good deal more than a tablespoon of flaky salt, so two people following the same recipe can end up with very different brines. My fermentation brine calculator works out the salt for any amount of water.

That is already plenty of salt, and I would not go any higher. A saltier brine only makes the vegetables saltier to eat and slows the ferment down.

Use salt with no iodine or anti-caking agent in it; I used rock salt. For the water I used bottled spring water. Tap water is often treated with chlorine, which can hold a ferment back. If yours has chlorine in it, leaving it out overnight or boiling it and letting it cool gets rid of it. If it has chloramine, as a lot of US tap water does, neither works, so buy bottled.

A Closer Look at the Ingredients

• Red radishes, 400 g. The main part of the jar. They stay crunchy, and they take up the pink from the beetroot, which is how you read how far along it is. I leave the skins on and just scrub them. Instead: mooli or daikon, cut into thick batons.
• Carrots, 200 g. Sweet and firm, and they hold their crunch the whole way through. I peel mine and cut them into thick batons. Instead: swede or turnip, cut to the same size.
• Beetroot, 150 g. Raw and peeled. It is not much, because it is there for the colour as much as the taste, and a little goes a long way. Instead: leave it out and the brine stays clear, but you lose the colour guide.
• Garlic, 10 cloves. Peeled and lightly crushed, so the flavour gets into the brine without taking over the jar. Instead: use fewer cloves if you want it milder.
• Fresh ginger, 20 g. Sliced thin, so it is easy to fish out. It gives the brine a clean warmth. Instead: leave it out, and the jar ferments just the same.
• Peppercorns, 1/2 tsp. Black or Sichuan, whichever you have to hand. Black pepper gives a little heat, and Sichuan pepper gives the tingle pao cai is known for. Instead: a couple of dried chillies.
• Rock salt, 35 g. Weighed, for 1 litre of water, and with no iodine or anti-caking agent. Instead: sea salt or kosher salt, weighed rather than spooned.
• Water, 1 litre. Cold bottled spring water. My jar took about 900 ml of it, and the rest keeps for topping up. Instead: tap water with no chlorine or chloramine in it.
• Chinese leaf, optional. One or two leaves folded over the top hold the small pieces down under the brine. Instead: the jar’s own inner cup, or a small plate that fits inside the neck.

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Equipment You Will Need

How to Make Fermented Radishes, Carrots and Beetroot, Step by Step

1. Scald the jar. Wash the jar, the lid and the inner cup, then pour boiling water in and over them, swirl it round and tip it out. Leave the jar to cool down before anything goes in, because a warm jar would warm the brine. A clean jar and clean, fresh vegetables are what keep the wrong microbes out, which is why I never need to add alcohol.
2. Make the brine cold. Weigh 35 g of salt into 1 litre of cold water and stir for a few minutes, until every crystal has gone. Keep it cold. Warm brine poured over the vegetables would harm the bacteria that live on them, and they are the ones doing the fermenting.
3. Prepare the vegetables. Scrub the radishes well under the tap, leave the skins on and halve any big ones, so the pieces end up roughly the same size. Peel the carrots and cut them into thick batons, and peel the beetroot and cut it into chunks, wearing gloves if you have them, because beetroot stains your hands. Keep everything chunky, because small pieces soften faster. Crush the garlic lightly with the flat of a knife and slice the ginger thinly. Use vegetables that are fresh and firm: a soft one will not firm up in the jar.
4. Pack the jar. Pack the vegetables into the jar, scattering the garlic, ginger and peppercorns through the layers rather than leaving them all at the top. Press everything down firmly as you go, so there are as few gaps as possible. If you have Chinese leaf, fold one or two leaves over the top, which holds the smaller pieces down once the brine goes in.
5. Pour in the brine. Pour the cold brine in until the vegetables are covered by about 2 cm. The jar narrows at the shoulder, so you can fill it almost to the top, which leaves very little air inside. Put the inner cup in, or a small weight, so nothing floats up, because anything poking out of the brine is where mould starts. Keep any brine left over in a bottle in the fridge for topping up.
6. Seal it and let it ferment. Put the lid on and fill the rim around it with plain water. Leave the jar at room temperature, out of direct sun. Within a day or two the brine turns cloudy and pink and small bubbles come up through the water in the rim, which means it is working. Top up the rim whenever it runs low. Start tasting from day 3: the radish is usually the first to turn, crunchy and balanced rather than sharp with raw brine. The carrot and beetroot take longer to soften, so give the jar the better part of a week before judging it by them, and the pink spreading into the radishes shows you how far along it is. When it tastes right, move the vegetables and their brine to the fridge, which slows it right down.

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Recipe Card for Fermented Radishes, Carrots and Beetroot

Storing Them

Once the vegetables are as sour as you like, keep them in the fridge in their brine, still covered. They carry on souring slowly and keep for at least a month. Take them out with a clean fork rather than your fingers, so nothing new gets into the jar.

If the jar stays out on the side, it keeps fermenting and gets sourer and softer by the week, so the fridge is the way to hold them where you like them.

What to Eat Them With

I eat them as a side with almost anything: next to rice and a stir fry, with a pork cutlet and potatoes, or chopped into a sandwich. A spoonful of the brine is good in a salad dressing too.

FAQ for Fermented Radishes, Carrots and Beetroot

Why has my brine gone cloudy?

That is the ferment starting, and it is what you want to see. The bacteria multiplying in the brine make it cloudy, usually within a day or two. Cloudy brine is only a bad sign in a vinegar pickle, which is a different thing altogether.

There is a white film on the top. Is it mould?

A flat white film on the surface is usually a yeast that grows where the brine meets the air. Skim it off and make sure everything is back under the brine, because left alone it eats the acid and lets spoilage in. Fuzzy, raised patches of colour are mould, and so is anything that smells rotten rather than sour: throw that jar away.

Do I need to add alcohol, like some pao cai recipes do?

No. Some people add a splash of strong spirit to hold back unwanted microbes, but if the vegetables are fresh, firm and properly washed and the jar has been scalded, there should be no need. I never add it.

Do I need to add sugar?

No, it is optional. A little sugar can speed the ferment up, but carrots and beetroot bring plenty of their own and I like to keep it simple.

Black peppercorns or Sichuan peppercorns?

Whichever you have to hand. Sichuan peppercorns give the numbing tingle that pao cai is known for, and black pepper gives a little heat instead. The jar ferments the same way with either.

Why has my garlic turned blue or green?

Garlic sometimes changes colour in a sour pickle, a reaction between the acid and garlic’s own sulphur compounds. It is a colour change rather than mould. Dropping the cloves into boiling water for a few seconds before they go in makes it less likely.

The water in the rim dried out. Is it ruined?

Usually not, as long as the vegetables stayed under the brine. Top the rim up, then look and smell: if it is clean and sour, carry on. If there is mould on the surface or it smells rotten, throw it away.

Can I reuse the brine?

In Sichuan the brine from one batch is kept going for the next, with fresh vegetables and a little more salt added each time, and a good brine can run for years. Only reuse brine that looks and smells clean and sour.

A Few Words from the Chef

I have made plenty of ferments over the years, and I keep them simple: fresh vegetables, salt, water and a clean jar. The beetroot is my favourite part of this one, just for watching the colour spread through the jar. If you make it, tell me in the comments what you put in yours.