Fermented fooods

[GunnGrl]

Prior to starting the W30 program, I drank homemade milk kefir daily.  I have given that up, but would like to ferment vegetables using the whey from kefir since I still have living kefir grains.  Would this be compliant with Whole30 given the whey is derived from dairy?

 

Does anyone have experience fermenting vegetables and do you have any suggestions or recommendations?  

 

Advice greatly appreciated.

[ShannonM816]

Whey is not okay on Whole30, but you don't actually need it to ferment vegetables. You really only need the vegetables and whatever herbs and spices you're going to include, plus salt (possibly in a saltwater brine, depending on the vegetables).

 

There are several recipes on the Killer Pickles blog, that's probably a good place to start, or if you prefer books, try either The Art of Fermentation or Wild Fermentation, both by Sandor Katz, or if you're on Facebook, the Wild Fermentation group is helpful.

 

Sauerkraut is the obvious place to start, but I've also had good luck fermenting onions. Those are the two that are consistently good, I've tried some other vegetables and had mixed results, but I have a bad habit of not following recipes exactly, just sort of winging it, so that might be part of the problem.