5 Simple Fermented Carrot Sticks Recipes [Crunchy Goodness] (2024)

Fermented carrot sticks are delicious, easy to make, an inexpensive way to get probiotics into your diet, and are loved by children and grownups alike.

I regularly enjoy my naturally fermented sauerkraut, but when am I looking for vegetables toplunge into a creamy dip—blue cheese, hummus, or ranch all work for me—nothing beats a nice crunchy carrot stick.

And, when I came across anarticle touting the hormone balancing effects of raw carrots,I decided to double those benefits by making fermenting them.

Plus, they can add a rainbow of color to your day. Just check out what I found during a recent trip to my local farmer’s market.

Plus, fermented carrot sticks are great ferment for first-time fermenters.

Rarely does something go wrong during fermentation,

And…

They’re ready in a short time.

Before I get to the recipe, let me share two benefits:

The hormonal balancing from eating carrots daily, and

The added benefits of fermenting carrots.

Hormone Balancing Impact of Carrots

“There are interesting associations between vegetable “fiber” and estrogens. Because of my own experience in finding that eating a raw carrot daily prevented my migraines, I began to suspect that the carrot fiber was having both a bowel-protective and an antiestrogen effect. Several women who suffered from premenstrual symptoms, including a migraine, had their serum estrogen measured before and after the “carrot diet,” and they found that the carrot lowered their estrogen within a few days, as it relieved their symptoms.” – Ray Peat, Natural Estrogens

Eating one raw—unpeeled—carrot a day can help to:

• Remove toxins from your body.
  Raw carrot skins—the peel—containinsoluble fiber that binds to toxins in our intestines and is eliminated in our stools.
• Balance your hormones.
  Endotoxins are a particular type of toxins that are bound to the insoluble fiber in carrots. Endotoxins can cause an imbalance in your hormones. By consuming carrots, endotoxins—particularly excess estrogen—get safely carried out of your body.
• Improve peristaltic movement.
  Insoluble fiber relieves constipation and increases regularity.
• Can help your liver remove excess estrogen.
  One of the jobs of your liver is to remove excess estrogen, but when it is burdened with toxins from the foods we eat and the stress in our daily lives, it can’t keep up. Excess estrogen then becomes a huge problem causing all sorts of health issues—in both men and women—such as mood swings, acne, allergies, thyroid issues, and lack of muscle tone. Consuming insoluble soluble fiber lightens the load on your liver.

Health Benefits of Fermented Carrots

If you ferment your carrots, they are packed with the same goodness as sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables. They:

• Are an excellent source ofprobiotics.
  Similar to those found in yogurt, probiotics produced during fermentation are known to have many health benefits: improved digestion, enhanced immune system, and better brain function to name a few.
• Have increased nutritional value.
  Lactic-acid fermentation produces and enhances the levels of enzymes, vitamins, and minerals.
• Are easier to digest than raw or cooked vegetables.
  Fermentation breaks down hard-to-digest cellulose.
• Are safer to eat than raw vegetables.
  Raw vegetables can have E.coli on them, but lactic acid produced during fermentation kills off the E.coli bacteria. They can’t survive in the acidic environment of fermentation.

How to Make Fermented Carrot Sticks

Don’t Use a Brine Chart

My recipe for naturally fermented vegetables is different than most of the other recipes on the internet that rely upon numbers off a brine chart.

Most recipes have you pack your jar with vegetables (including some of mine that I have not yet updated), mix a salty brine, and then pour that into the jar.

Results will vary greatly because the weight of the vegetables you packed into the jar varies greatly.

As I researched and developed recipes for my In A Pickle! online course, I realized that you can’t have consistent, safe, mold-free results by just pouring a salty brine into a jar of packed vegetables.

The bacteria responsible for fermentation, need a set salt concentration to create the lactic acid necessary for a safe ferment.

You have to know the weight of both the vegetables and the water in your jar and calculate your salt based on that.

Once you know this weight, you multiply it by the recommended salt concentration for the vegetables being fermented and then add the correct number of grams of salt to the jar.

Don’t worry, it’s simple to do and I’ll take you through it step by step.

First, here’s the recipe in pictures followed by tips for success, 5 suggestions for flavoring your carrot sticks, and then the step-by-step recipe.

Step-by-Step Recipe Photo Instructions

Purchase Fresh Carrots

Fresh carrots are your best choice. A bag of carrots from the grocery store works just fine, but if too old, they may not ferment as well.

Choose a Way to Flavor Your Carrots

Garlic, ginger, onions, jalapenos, and various spices can all be used to flavor your fermented carrot sticks. In the recipe below, I give you several suggestions.

Prepare Flavoring Item

For example, for Sweet Garlic Carrot Sticks, slice garlic cloves into slivers. Place in the bottom of your jar.

Weigh Jar

Use a digital scale to obtain the weight—tare—of your jar (471 grams, for example). Write this number down.

Pack Jar

Pack flavoring Ingredients into the jar. Cut carrots to size to fit into your jar leaving 1 to 2 inches of headspace.

Pour Water Over Carrots

Pour water into the jar, stopping 1-2 inches below the threads of the jar.

Obtain Weight of Veggies + Water

Weigh your packed jar. The number on the scale is the weight of the jar from step 4, plus the weight of the vegetables and the water (1322 grams, for example).

Subtract the jar weight from the total weight (1322 – 471 = 851, for example).

Calculate & Add Correct Grams of Salt

Carrots require a 2.5% total salt concentration.

Multiply the weight of the contents in your jar by 0.025 (851 x. 0.025 = 21, for example).

Tare a small dish and weigh the correct grams of salt (21 grams, for example).

Add this salt to your jar of carrots. Screw on the canning lid and rim that came with your jar and shake for one minute to dissolve the salt.

Carrot Sticks Ready for Fermentation

Screw a fermentation lid on snugly, or a plastic lid left a tad loose, and place your jar in a shallow dish on your counter out of direct sunlight to ferment for 7-14 days.

See Also

8 Can Chicken Taco Soup - The Recipe Critic25 Modern Passover Recipes for Your Family's SederHomemade Vanilla Extract Recipe | Simple and EasyBest Sugar Cookie Recipe EVER

Recipe Flavor Suggestions

I like to keep these simple, though you might not believe that is possible for me with the wide range of creative recipes in my Fermentation Made Easy: Mouthwatering Sauerkraut book.

Here are five ways to infuseyour fermenting carrot sticks with just a bit of extra zing.

1. Sweet Garlic Fermented Carrot Sticks

For Fermented Sweet Garlic Carrot Sticks, slice 1-2 peeled garlic cloves into slivers. Place in the bottom of your jar.

2. Fermented Ginger Carrot Sticks

For Fermented Ginger Carrots, slice a 1-inch piece of ginger root into slivers. No need to peel the ginger. Place in the bottom of your jar.

3. Fermented FirecrackerCarrot Sticks

For Fermented Firecracker Carrot Sticks, slice one or two jalapenos into quarters. To reduce heat, remove seeds and membrane. Place in the bottom of your jar. Feel free to add a pinch of oregano, cumin seeds, and red pepper flakes for a greater depth of flavor.

4. Fermented Dilly Delight Carrot Sticks

For Fermented Dilly Delight Carrot Sticks, use 1 teaspoon dried or 1 tablespoon fresh dill. Place in the bottom of your jar.

5. Fermented Three-Onion Carrot Sticks

For Fermented Three-Onion Carrot Sticks, roughly chop one green onion and finely slice a bit of red and yellow onion. Place in the bottom of your jar.

Get ready to be surprised by the wide variety of pickles you can safely & easily preserve at home.

Learn the Perfect Pickle Process in my online program and “grow” your own probiotic-rich superfoods. YUM!

Check out In A Pickle!

Tips toSuccessfully Ferment Carrot Sticks

• Recipe directions are for a one-pint (500 ml) batch.
  Feel free to double the recipe and use a larger jar. Some like to use a narrow-mouth jar finding that the smaller opening helps to keep the carrot sticks submerged. With larger jars, there is no need to be careful about the length you cut your carrots.
• Packaged baby carrots?
  I would not use these—though very handy—due to the fact that they are typically given a chlorine bath—which inhibits fermentation—during processing.
• To peel or not to peel?
  I’m a peeler though I probably shouldn’t be. Guess why?
  The greatest concentration of microbes—that make fermentation happen– reside in the peels of root vegetables (The part that comes in contact with the dirt where those little buggers live.). By peeling the carrot, one might be hindering the process of fermentation.
  And… as we learned above, the peel contains insoluble fiber thatbinds to toxins and removes them from your body.
  Time for me to eliminate one of my hangups: The bright and clean carrot look!
• My favorite salt for fermentation is Himalayan Pink.
  I talk about the best salt for fermentation here. In short, use non-iodized salt.
• Use a 2.5% total salt concentration.
  Use 2.5% salt by weightfor the weight of both the vegetables and the water in your jar.
• Below the brine.
  For worry-free fermentation, it is best to use some sort of weight to hold the carrot sticks below the brine. However, if packed tightly they seem to stay below the brine on their own.

• No airlock?
  Airlocks allow excess gases to escape. If you don’t have an airlock and you want to be super safe, though I don’t feel carrots create enough CO2 to warrant it, burp the jar once daily during the first 3 days.
• Simple flavors.
  I’ve kept the recipes simple with the addition of just one flavoring item, usually. You can also ferment them on their own with no extras. A hard one for me.
• Looking for some kimchi flavor?
  Add 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of Korean red pepper powder to a batch.
• Adjust fermentation time based on ambient room temperature and desired product.
  Ideal fermentation temperature is 65-70°F (18-21°C) is ideal.
  Adjust the length of fermentation based on the temperature of your kitchen. If it is super hot, shorten; cold, lengthen.
• Eat the fermented flavoring items.
  When using garlic, ginger, hot peppers, etc. to add flavor to your ferment, you are also fermenting those items and they can be eaten as well.
• Calculate and use freshbrine for each batch of fermented carrots.
  See my recent post on why I say:Don’t reuse the brine—or feel you need to use a starter.
• Do drink leftover fermented brine, or use it to make salad dressings.
• Keep your fermented carrot sticks handy.
  My fermented carrot sticks greet me front and center when I open the refrigerator and are just begging to be snacked on. You might need to do likewise so they are not forgotten somewhere in the back of your refrigerator.

My Five Favorite Fermentation Tools

Fermented Carrot Sticks Recipe

Ways to Eat Fermented Carrot Sticks

Either eat your fermented carrot sticks straight out of the jar or try plunging them into one of these dips:

My Yogurt Cheese recipe flavored to your liking and thinned a bit for dipping.

Herbed Yogurt Cheese from Circle B Kitchen

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing from I’d Rather Be A Chef

15 Health Benefits of Hummus, According to Science (+ 9 Delicious Hummus Recipes) from Jen Reviews

How to Make Hummus from Scratch from The Kitchn

Yogurt Ranch Dip by Nourishing Days

Sources

Can You Balance Your Hormones with Carrots? + A Recipe!by Holistic Health Herbalist
How Eating One Raw Carrot a Day Can Balance Hormones + Detox the Body by Organic Olivia
Natural Estrogens by Ray Peat

What is your favorite dip for carrots? Let us know in the Comments.

Last update on 2024-03-27 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API