Skip the jarred jalapeño slices and make a healthy batch full of beneficial bacteria and vitamins in no time.
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Nachos. Tacos. Enchiladas. Sandwiches. These fiery jalapeño slices are great on just about any dish. My husband, shamelessly, adds the brine to soups for some extra heat. In addition to that kick, these peppers also provide naturally occurring probiotics that come with lacto-fermentation.
Fermenting jalapeños?
Lacto-fermentation is the process of preserving food, mainly vegetables with generous amount of unrefined salt. Harmful bacteria cannot tolerate much salt. The process of lacto-fermentation destroys the bad bacteria in the first phase and produces good bacteria, Lactobacillus in the second phase. The good bacteria then consumes the carbohydrates naturally found in the vegetables and transforms it to lactic acid which preserves the food as vinegar would. Personally, I prefer lacto-fermentation to any other type of food preservation method because of it’s rich content of the friendly bacteria.
Fermenting jalapeños is truly as easy as fermenting any other vegetable. The key is to always have enough salt to destroy the bad bacteria and create a brine. You’ll notice the water will begin to change from translucent to cloudy.
Fermenting jalapeños on just about anything
These peppers are a staple in our fridge. My favorite way to eat them is on tacos, nachos, and salads. I usually buy a large batch of peppers towards the end of their growing season and preserve enough to last us through the next year. This recipe, keeps them firm, yet tangy and spicy the entire time.
And the best part? It has only two ingredients, not including water. Two. Jalapenos and some healthy salt of your choice. When fermenting or culturing vegetables including these peppers, I like to alternate between my favorite salts: Celtic Salt, Himalayan Salt and Real Salt as they all contain different mineral content.
Ingredients
- 20 jalapeno peppers (with pith and seeds), sliced
- 3 tablespoons of unrefined salt (my pick)
- 3 cups warm water
Instructions
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In a bowl or measuring cup, dissolve salt in warm water. Allow to cool.
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Rinse and slice jalapeños into 1/4" thickness and transfer them to a quart size jar (like this).
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Pour enough brine into the jar to completely submerge them. Seal the jar and allow to sit at room temperature, away from direct sunlight for 2-4 weeks.
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Once jalapeños achieved the perfect tang to your liking, transfer the jar to cold storage for up to a year.
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Enjoy on your favorite Mexican dish or as you please.
I’ve never actually seen red jalapenos before! They are such a great contrast when looking at the pictures you’ve shared of your ferment. I love the way the red shines through all the sea of green jalapenos. Thank you for sharing this recipe! I can’t wait to see the flavor fermenting jalapenos adds to them.
I buy the red jalapenos along with the green at the farmer’s markets. They do look pretty. Thanks Billy for your comment. Hope you enjoy these as much as we do.
We bought some gorgeous big and fat Jalapenos last fall and most were red. The green and red ones had stripes on them. I think the red ones are simply the green ones that have ripened to a degree but they were so pretty. I canned them all but to my dismay they got mushy although I followed the recipe to a T. I will try fermenting some this coming season and I also use the juice for different recipes Anya.
I have not tried canning them but I love this lacto-fermented version of the jalapenos. Enjoy!
Yesterday my step-dad brought over a bag full of peppers from his garden. These are from plants he planted in the spring of 2016. They froze in the winter, then came back this spring!
Anyway, I’m going to pickle them tonight. In the last month I’ve made radish pickles, cucumber pickles, and carrot pickles. Definitely looking forward to these!
With all three of my other ferments, the pickles were ready after 6 days on the counter. Your recipe suggests 2-4 weeks. Why do you think there might be such a difference?
Hi Eric,
Pickles have a different texture and composition. Most of my vegetable ferments are at about 1 week like you mentioned. You can see the progression of the fermenting process for these peppers in the photo above. Two weeks is when they start to really take on “fermenting.” However, I have put the peppers in cold storage after a week on the counter and it continued to ferment there, just takes longer. Hope that helps.
Hi Anya, I realized some of my other pickling was with the AC turned off, so my kitchen was probably hotter than room temp and they may have led to shorter times.
I just put jar 1 of the jalepenos in the fridge after 7 days. Man are they HOT! I plan to leave jar 2 for a few more days and jar 3 even longer.
Also pickled some rainbow chard stems at the same time. They taste kind of like salty beets now . . .
Thanks again for your post!
Love this little experiment you’re doing! So fun! Yes, they are hot – we love to add them to pretty much anything and everything. Thanks for your comment. 🙂
This sounds (and looks) intriguing! I am anxious to try these…. I have Himalayan salt… as well as Kosher salt… Both do not seem as “salty” as regular salt does… My question – is the proportion still the same, with either of these salts?
Thank you, Anya.
Hi Adele,
I would probably add slightly more Himalayan salt since it does have less sodium. You want to make sure you have enough sodium to avoid mold – so I always err on the side of caution and go happy with the salt. If anything, you can always dilute it later or rinse if it’s too salty. Hope that helps. Enjoy the jalapenos. 🙂
“Cold storage”…a fridge?
Yes. 🙂
What do you mean by seal the jars?
Sorry Christy for the confusion – screw the lids on tightly. 🙂
I just want to be sure I understand, so after fermenting can I take off the fermenting lid and put on a regular mason jar lid to store in fridge? I want to ferment other things.
Thanks in advance.
Yes! You can swap the lids (if using a fermenting lid) and transfer to refrigerator. Or you can start with a regular mason jar lid and just “burp” daily to release those gases in order to avoid overflow.
Hi I want to make these in a smaller batch do you have a recipe for a smaller batch
The salt/water ratio is 1T salt/1C water. Fill your desired container with sliced peppers, cover with proper salinity water, wait. The quantity can be adjusted up or down.
This may be a stupid question but do theese taste very salty? We have been cutting down on salt and my husband dont like very salty.
Thanks
Hi Marie,
I don’t find them very salty — just enough for fermentation and preservation. However, I prefer unrefined real salt and I love that it contains important trace minerals.
The salt/water ratio is 1T salt/1C water. Fill your desired container with sliced peppers, cover with proper salinity water, wait. The quantity can be adjusted up or down.