Vietnamese Pickled Carrots (Đồ Chua) - Naturally Fermented
 
Prep time
Total time
 
Serves: 1.5 litre
Ingredients
  • 1 x 1.5 litre (1.5 quart) flip top lid glass jar
  • 350 gms (12 oz) each of carrot and daikon or 1kg carrots for shredded carrots
  • 1.5 tbsp (22 gms / 0.77 oz) good quality sea salt (buy on iherb or amazon)
  • Optional tbsp starter culture (reduce the salt to 1 tbsp) (buy here or here in AU use discount code 'loveurbelly')
  • 2 tbsp (30 gms / 1 oz) raw organic sugar (buy on iherb or amazon) (after 2 weeks of fermentation, most if not all the sugar has been consumed by the bacteria and the carrots are not sweet at all)
  • filtered water
  • 2 large outer cabbage leaves
Instructions
  1. Wash your glass jar with hot water and distilled (white) vinegar (do not use soap or your kitchen sponge)
  2. Set aside to air dry while you prepare your vegetables
  3. Peel and chop your vegetables or using a julienne peeler shred the carrots (do not use a food processor or box grater, you will not get the right texture for Vietnamese pickles, a mandolin would work)
  4. Place the vegetables in a large mixing bowl and add the salt and sugar
  5. Massage for approximately 10 minutes to dissolve the salt and sugar and bring out some of the liquids from the vegetables
  6. If time allows, set aside for an hour to allow more liquids to accumulate
  7. Add vegetables to the jar including any juices and push down as much as you can, ensure there is at least a 2 inch gap from the top to avoid leakage and spillage
  8. Add in enough filtered water to just cover the vegetables once pushed down and compacted
  9. Roll up the 2 outer cabbage leaves and push the vegetables down, this should bring the water level up to the top, more liquid will be produced from the vegetables over the next few days
  10. Leave for at least 7 days (I usually do 14 days)
Recipe by Intuitive Food Design at https://intuitivefooddesign.com/food_recipe/vietnamese-pickled-carrots-do-chua-naturally-fermented/