Fermented strawberries are sweet, sparkling and delicious. They are perfect as a pretty and probiotic topping for ice cream, waffles or stirred into yogurt.
Here are a few reasons why you should consider making fermented strawberries:
- It’s an easy way to preserve a large crop of strawberries. Slice them up, add in the probiotic culture and you’re done!
- Fermented strawberries can be used in so many different ways. Pureed into a thin sauce or a thick jam. Leave the fruit whole for a beautiful addition to breakfast or dessert.
- If you ferment in straight-sided mason jars, they can be frozen so you can enjoy a burst of spring flavour in the winter.
- It’s healthy, probiotic and low-sugar (or sugar-free), keto-friendly, vegan, gluten-free and delicious!
How to Make a Sauce, Cordial or Jam
It’s really easy to take the basic fermented strawberry recipe and turn it into a sauce, cordial or jam.
Strawberry Sauce
For a thin strawberry sauce drain the liquid from the strawberries after the fermentation, reserving the liquid. Then puree the strawberries either with a stick blender or a regular blender. Add back in the reserved liquid until you have the desired consistency.
Here are a few ways to serve your probiotic strawberry sauce.
- Perfect for pouring over ice cream or pancakes.
- Stirred into yogurt for a healthy snack.
- Make a strawberry vinaigrette.
Strawberry Cordial
Strawberry cordial is a flavorful concoction, designed for mixing into sparkling water or for a summery cocktail.
To turn your fermented strawberries into cordial, pureeing everything together after its finished fermenting. If you want a clear cordial, pour the pureed strawberry mixture through several layers of cheesecloth. The pulp is delicious, so be sure the eat it too!
Strawberry Jam
In order to keep the probiotics in your strawberries alive, avoid cooking after fermenting. Here’s how to turn your strawberries into a thick and nutritious no-cook, sugar-free (or low sugar) jam.
- After fermenting, drain the excess liquid from the strawberries.
- Puree until you’ve reached the desired consistency. Either completely smooth or with small pieces of strawberry, it’s up to you.
- Taste the puree, and add sweetener if you want. I recommend 1 tbsp of honey or maple syrup for really tart strawberries.
- Stir in 1 tbsp of ground chia seeds per cup of strawberry puree.
- Store the jam in the fridge for at least 24 hours so the chia seeds can thicken the jam.
- The jam may be sparkling for the first few days, especially if you added extra sweetener. Don’t worry, that should slow down over time.
Fermented Strawberries
Making fermented strawberries is the easiest way to preserve a large crop. See the sections above for information on how to turn your strawberries into a probiotic sauce, cordial or jam.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
- Category: Fruit
- Method: Fermented
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 2 cups of slice strawberries (about 1 pint)
- 1/4 cup of culture (see notes)
- 1 tbsp of sugar (optional)
- 2 tbsp of filtered water (enough to cover)
Instructions
- Wash and slice the strawberries.
- Pack the berries into a 500 ml jar.
- Pour in the culture. See below for five different options.
- Stir in 1 tbsp of sugar, if you want. This is a sweet ferment, so adding extra sugar will cause the strawberries to ferment more quickly, however it isn’t necessary.
- Pour in enough water to cover the strawberries. Use a weight to keep them from floating. If you are using a wide-mouth mason jar, then a jam jar works nicely.
- Cover with a cloth to keep the fruit flies out, and leave the jar to ferment at room temperature and out of the sun for 2 to 4 days. A kitchen cupboard is ideal.
- The strawberries are finished when they have softened and the liquid is slightly sparkly. Put a lid on the jar and store them in the fridge. Alternatively, turn the strawberries into a sauce, jam or cordial by following the instructions in the section above.
- Fermented strawberries taste best if enjoyed within 3 weeks. Otherwise, freeze them in straight-sided mason jars for longterm storage.
Notes
- This is a sweet ferment, so use a yeast-based culture. Personally, I like using ginger bug, which gives the strawberries a bit of extra flavour. Kombucha, water kefir or cider vinegar with a mother will all work as well.
- Alternatively, you can ferment strawberries with honey. To make honey fermented strawberries, omit the sugar and culture. Instead, stir in 2 tbsp of unpasteurized honey.
- Don’t use strawberries that have started to go off. You don’t want to contaminate your ferment with mold.
Keywords: probiotic, jam, sauce, cordial, ginger, honey, kombucha, water kefir, storage, preserve, spring, summer, easy, simple, healthy, keto, vegan
do you know if you can ferment strawberries with hot peppers. I am thinking about adding mangoes, ginger root and a little cultured vinegar.
You can definitely add any flavours you want! Cultured ACV is great at fermenting pretty much anything. Mangoes are quite sweet, so you can probably skip the sugar. Otherwise, I recommend it to feed the ACV mother. Enjoy!
Can I use defrosted strawberries?
★★★★★
I haven’t tried using frozen fruit, but as long as you have an active culture it should work!