Lacto-fermented Cranberry Apple Chutney

Recipe Description:

This lacto-fermented apple chutney is sweet, spicy, slightly tangy and a perfect compliment to raw cheddar, kefir, yogurt, poultry and more. It’s hard not to eat a whole bowl full of this stuff! Think of all the awesome probiotics you will get eating this lacto-fermented chutney.

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  • 13 thoughts on “Lacto-fermented Cranberry Apple Chutney”

    1. I am new to the lacto-fermentation process.

      Can I omit the salt and use only whey. If so what would be the amount of why to use in a 1 quart jar?

      1. I would not omit salt in a lacto-ferment as that is what helps to slow the process and keep bacteria in check. You can lower it if you like, but this recipe already uses a small amount. For only one quart of this, just cut each ingredient quantity in half. Enjoy!

    2. I really want to make this for my girlfriend: She’s vegan so I’d like to swap-out the whey—what does it do? Is it the lacto in lacto-fermentation? I lacto-ferment vegan kimchi; Would a soy/rice/hemp protein powder work in whey’s place? Thanks for the recipe!

      1. The whey inoculates the culture to make sure that the good bacteria will be proliferate before any bad guys stand a chance. The “lacto” refers to the type of bacteria that you are trying to grow in a culture. If she is vegan you could use this veggie starter culture pack in place of the whey. Follow instructions that come with the culture pack. Alternately, some people omit a starter culture of any kind and rely on the bacteria to populate themselves (they are naturally occurring int he environment), but since this is a low salt recipe, I don’t recommend doing that.

    3. Could honey be substituted or all sweeteners omitted to make it GAPS friendly. I’m concerned all the sugar wouldn’t be digested in the fermentation process. Or is that not a concern? Thanks!!

      1. Technically, you can sub honey, but honey has natural antibacterial qualities and so I prefer not to use it in my ferments because it could hinder probiotic growth. It would be just fine to omit the sugar completely if you’d like. It will just not be quite as sweet, but still really delicious.

      2. I just made it today (I halved the recipe just over) using 1/2 orange and 1/2c soaked raisins in place of the sugar. I will let you know how it turns out!

        Jami, thanks for the great recipe!

      1. Yes, you can use the same amount of plain water kefir to inoculate it with. I have not done this before myself, so don’t know how it affects the flavors, but I have heard of others using water kefir to start their cultures.

    4. A few more thoughts on the substitutions asked above:

      For those of us who can’t do whey, many times recipes say to simply increase the salt (from, e.g. 2T. salt + whey to 3T. salt without whey). Another option is to innoculate with leftover brine from a previous batch of cultured veggies/sauerkraut/pickles. Both of those will, of course, change the flavor compared to the original recipe, but culturing is all about micro-brew never-the-same-twice flavors anyway.

      Regarding the honey or not. You can always culture without sweeteners, then add a little (raw) honey before you eat it. It will still have mild antimicrobial properties, but at least you won’t ruin your ferment; and I doubt you will kill all the beneficial organisms in your relish.

      Do be aware that unlike most fruit, grapes/raisins are quite high in sucrose (which is what table sugar is made of). If you’re trying to stay GAPS compliant, raisins aren’t that much better. Try using dates, figs or prunes, instead.

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