There are a ton of recipes on the internet. Yup. All it remains is for a person to pick one…just ONE that they like above all others to follow and then eventually tweak to make it their own. Well, honestly I am not here to reinvent the wheel. But I am going to give you a new recipe for my kimchi. Now, keep in mind that while I have experimented with making healthy foods for a long time, yesterday was the first time I made fermented brussel sprout veggie kimchi from the ingredients listed.
 

I am a 'little bit of a here and a little bit there' kind of cook. I made a delicious 'whatever' dinner from chicken breast, assorted ingredients and bacon. My sister LOVED it!! and wanted the recipe!  WHAT recipe????
 

So this time I actually wrote down what I did and what I put into it. Every time I opened the fridge to dump a bit more of something that caught my eye, I wrote it down. Now, since it was just made yesterday, I will still have to wait about 2 weeks to see how it turns out. So….set your watches, mark your calendars or write a note on the back of your hand to see the update in two weeks…..OR…..If you are brave, follow along and make it with me.

My assorted cut vegetables

Not only does this fermented Brussels sprout veggie kimchi  give some awesome health benefits, but gosh…it tastes good. The spiciness of it is always up to you. And I may have made this one a bit spicy so watch out.

Fermented Brussel Sprout Veggie Kimchi. How to Begin
 

I used the fresh brussel sprouts I had in my fridge. These are not the very tiny kind you can get frozen in a package. These are a pretty nice size. Because of that and due to the fact that the fermentation and flavors permeate them better if they are cut in half length-wise, i cut them in half. I had a package of baby carrots that I thought would add color. To top it off, I added onions, garlic, radishes and peppers from my garden. 
 

Wash them well, cut, dice or slice as you prefer. I did more slicing that dicing in this case.
 

Have a clean and sterilized jar handy. As you can see, I"m fond of pickles as I have another jar just like the one you see to make my flavored kambucha.
 

I'm afraid I didn't measure or weigh the ginger I had, but you can see the root. I think it was approximately a little over 1 1/2 inches. I sliced it as thin as possible, but never peeled the root. Along with the peppers, this will add some heat to the mix.
 

(In fact, with ginger so expensive and because I use it in so many things, I'm growing my own. I will show you how easy it is in another post .)
 

Digging in my fridge, I decided to also use teriyaki sauce, some of my garden jalapenos, and some of my Anaheim peppers that I also grew this year.
 

With the ginger, red pepper flakes, jalapenos and everything else, goodness this batch will be a bit warm!
 

Once the veggies are cut and ready, and your jar is clean and ready, go ahead and either mix the veggies in a bowl, tossing together most of the ingredients. Or, if you are more organized than I am, layer them according to the kind of  veggies, color or size. Me? I don't care. I'm scooping them out of the jar and eating them later on anyway. So it sure doesn't matter to me how they go in or how they come out 🙂
 

You'll need about 3 tablespoons of salt in 4 cups of water. Rather than dump this into the jar right away and hope the salt would dissolve in time, I heated the salt, a cup of water and a tablespoon (or two depending on your taste) of teriyaki. Then I nuked it for a few minutes. After the salt was dissolved, I simply added the rest of the water to cool it down.

With the veggies already in the jar, along with  all of the remaining ingredients, I poured the water and spice mix over them all. I made sure to cover the top of the veggies. 
 

Fermented Brussel Spout Veggie Kimchi. Final Steps
 

Then I put the lid on. Now…..keep in mind that we're talking about fermentation here. This means possible explosions in your kitchen. I've had them…and so will you as you are first learning. Trust me, there will be a time in your future where you may have to paint the ceiling and the walls ! (or get your husband to do it). This is why I just place the lid on top but do not screw it on. This allows fermentation gases to escape. Another idea is to double, or triple, cheese cloth and

My fermenting veggies. Yum!

Then make a note of when you started your fermented brussel sprout veggie kimchi. Or put a post it note on the jar. Check daily. After a week you will have the beginnings of a nice ferment and flavor. After 2 weeks, even better. How long a ferment goes and how deeply you want your mix to be flavored is really up to you. But when you feel the batch is done, you can refrigerate to slow and stop the fermentation.

NOTE. to keep veggies from spoiling while fermenting, you need to keep the veggies under the liquid. On our ranch we had a huge garden and sauerkraut was always on my summer gardening to do list. I used a heavy flat rock that I had scrubbed, bleached to remove bacteria and then washed. Placing this on the saurkraut kept it submerged. You can probably do the same thing with a large glass of water, glass bottle etc. There are glass weights you can get that help with this problem. Personally, the lock and vent caps I mentioned about and other paraphernalia you can get for fermenting are great. But you don't need them right away. Especially if you are finding out if fermenting is something you want to continue. However, the glass weights I DO recommend. I've tried bottles and glasses etc and I've always got spills or they didn't submerge the veggies well enough.
 

Recipe
1 bag of raw Brussels sprouts cut in half length wise
one onion, quartered, then quartered again
one small chunk ginger, sliced fine (1 1/2 inches)
1 cup of radishes sliced
4 garlic cloves sliced
1 jalpeno pepper
1 anaheim pepper sliced
1 /4 to 1/2  a head of raw cauliflower chopped
1 small bag of baby carrots
t tblsp red pepper flakes
1 or 2 tblsp teriyaki sauce
2 tblsp red wine vinegar
3 tlbp salt dissolved in 4 cups or so of water

Cut veggies, mix. Add spices. Heat 1 cup of water with salt to dissolve salt. Mix with remaining cups of water.
Pour over veggies in a clean jar. Add glass weight to the veggies and cover loosely with a cap, or secured coffee filter. Store out of direct sunlight for 1 to 2 weeks. Check daily. After one week check taste. Want a stronger taste, wait one more week. Refrigerate.

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This offers a great little kit covering everything….3 fermentaion lids, an extractor pump, and a recipe ebook. Best of all, the lids fit large mouth jar and it has a 5 star review. I am  planning on ordering this one sometime soon and will give a review on this one.

There are other kinds and styles and some cheaper, but this is an entire set with great reviews.

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This set is a bit cheaper, but it too has a great 5 star reviews. However, IMHO the air lock system is a pain to mess with. Though I have not used this set, I have used air lock systems when making wine. I found a balloon to work much better! But the price and the reviews are good.

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These fermentation glass weights will be a breeze to use. Easily keeping your foods below the liquid, they are also easy to clean because they are a smooth.

These disk weights are certified food safe.

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These weights are only a couple of dollars cheaper and come with a 4 star review instead of a 5. If this does not matter to you and if the small differenence in price is helpful, then choose these. These fermentation weights are also made of good safe glass and will fit inside a wide mouth mason jar.

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