Fermented Salsa

We love fermented salsa. It has a unique flavor to it and it has natural probiotics. It is slightly sweet, salty, fermented, and more delicious than that store-bought stuff. Now, Don’t get me wrong, we love a good store-bought salsa, but there is nothing like this one. It is all made with fresh ingredients for the very best flavor. It is very good for you and not to mention it tastes so good. 

It goes well with chips, tacos, chili, nachos, or whatever you put it on… It will add that bit of “something something” to any dish and you get the benefits of fermented foods. That is what makes this salsa go great. 

Let’s get right into the recipe. 

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups Tomatoes – diced
1/2 of an Onion – diced
Juice of 1 Lemon
3 cloves of Garlic – minced
1 Jalapeno – seeded, cored, and diced fine ( less if you want it less spicy- more if you want it spicier)
2 tsp Salt – I use fine pink salt
3 tbsp Fresh Parsley – chopped
1 tsp Fresh Thyme
1 tsp Caraway seeds

DIRECTIONS:

1. Dice the tomatoes and place them in a large bowl. Make sure to keep as much of the liquid from the tomatoes as possible. This helps to make a more delicious brine. 
2. Chop the onion, garlic, jalapeno, and parsley and add it to the bowl with the tomatoes. 
3. Squeeze in  the lemon juice and add the thyme, caraway seeds, and salt. Mix well to combine. The salt will help extract more of the juices from the tomatoes. 
4. Spoon the salsa into a wide mouth mason jar or if you have a regular mason jar that will work just as well. Once you have the salsa into the jar you want to press the salsa down with your hand or a fermenting weight. If you do not have a fermenting weight you can pack the salsa down with some clean cabbage leaves. You want to add as many as you can so the salsa stays underneath the brine. If the salsa is not fully submerged you may get spoilage and we do not want that so make sure the salsa is fully submerged in the brine. If you do not have enough brine to submerge the salsa you can always add a teaspoon of salt to a cup of hot water and stir until melted. Let the water cool to room temp and pour the salt water over the salsa to help create more brine. 
5. Once you have established that the salsa is fully submerged in the brine with either a fermenting weight or cabbage leaves, you can now add on your lid. You can loosely cover with a clean mason jar lid OR you can add a fermenting lid. Either way works well. 
6. Place the mason jar in a baking dish and allow to sit at room temp for 2 days( I like to ferment for 24 hours). At this point you can check the salsa ( hour 12) to see if it is as the desired fermented taste you are looking for. Salsa only takes about 2 days to ferment if your house is around 70* or less if it is warmer. Just taste the salsa to see if it how you want it. If it is not, place the lid back on loosely and let sit for an additional 8 to 12 hours before trying again. 

• If you are loosing to much brine you can repeat the salt water step mentioned above to replace any liquid. 
• Make sure the salsa is always below the brine. If it is above the brine some spoilage or mold will occur. You certainly do not want that. Just be sure to keep an eye on it. 
• Serve this as you would any style of salsa.