20 Ways To Include Fermented Foods In Every Meal - Cultures For Health (2024)

Fermented and cultured foods are a wonderful source of probiotic bacteria needed to support good health. If you’ve been thinking about adding more of these foods to your diet, but are unsure of exactly how to accomplish this, these twenty suggestions for including fermented and cultured foods into your meals and snacks may help you out.

BREAKFAST

1. Cultured dairy (yogurt, kefir, buttermilk) are naturals for breakfast. Add yogurt, kefir or buttermilk to your morning smoothies or top granola or oatmeal with fruit and homemade yogurt. Don’t do dairy? Try homemadecoconut yogurt.
2. For the more adventurous, makebreakfast bowlswith yogurt and cooked beans and grains.
3. Top your scrambled eggs withfermented salsa.

LUNCH

4. Add choppedfermented picklesto tuna, salmon, or ham salad sandwiches.
5. Usefermented mayonnaisein place of store-bought mayonnaise.
6. Tuck somelacto-fermented dilled carrot chipsinto bagged lunches. These are always a favorite with kids.
7. Putlacto-fermented ketchupon hot dogs and hamburgers.

DINNER

8. Have a small portion of rawsauerkrautwith dinner. It pairs well with almost everything. Start with a tablespoon and slowly increase the amount to avoid gastro-intestinal discomfort. When you are ready, experiment with different kinds of sauerkraut such as:
   • • Cortido (Latin American Sauerkraut)
     • Southwestern Kraut
     • Golden Kraut
     • Chlorophyll Kraut
9. If you are having soup, let the soup cool a bit before stirring in some homemadesour creamor juice from any lacto-fermented vegetable.
10. For salads, try making your ownranch dressingusing lacto-fermented mayonnaise and cultured buttermilkorItalian dressingmade with kombucha.
11. Serve some funlacto-fermented chutneyswith dinner entrées.
12. Make tacos and top with slicedfermented jalapeñosand cultured sour cream.
13. Experiment with a new kind ofvegetable salad.

SNACKS AND EXTRAS

14. Pair your favorite chips with acultured dairy ranch dip.
15. Serve cut-up veggies with akefir dill dip.
16. Slice and drysourdough breadand use to dip infermented hummus.
17. Snack on an old-fashionedlacto-fermented dill pickle.
18. Make fun and fizzywater kefir sodasorlacto-fermented ginger-ale.
19. Make some fun-shapeddairy-free gummies.
20. Serve a probiotic-rich dessert like akefir-gelatin, fresh fruit withyogurt sauce, or akefir soft-serve ice cream.

Ready to Learn More?

• Learn to Make Kefir
• How to Make Labneh (Yogurt Cheese)
• Learn to Make Kombucha