Lacto Fermented Salsa Recipe You Can Make At Home
***I will be using a 2.5% salt for the fermentation process. Meaning if the total ingredients weigh 785 g, multiply that by .025. That total is 19.625 g which is the amount of salt needed. If our scale doesn’t read decimal points, round to the nearest whole number.
Ingredients:
8 roma tomatoes or 10 oz cherry tomatoes
1 yellow onion
5 cloves garlic
5 serrano peppers or 3 jalapeno
Fine sea salt (calculated by weight, 2.5%)
Tools needed:
Cutting board
Strainer
Sharp knife
Mason jar or vacuum sealer with bag
***The following link is an amazon associate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, I make a small commission if purchased at not extra cost to you.
How to make it:
Wash tomatoes and peppers under cold running water, let air dry.
- If fermenting in a vacuum sealed bag:
Rough chop tomatoes with core removed. Rough chop onion, slice peppers, peel garlic with root end cut off. If using cherry tomatoes, halve the tomatoes.
Place mixing bowl on scale set to grams, tare (zero) the scale.
Place ingredients in the mixing bowl and record that weight. Multiply that amount by 2.5 percent. This is the amount of salt needed.
Place small dish on scale, tare the scale and add salt until the scale reads the calculated amount.
Add the salt to the ingredients in the bowl, gently toss to evenly coat ingredients with the salt.
With one end of the vacuum sealer bag sealed, place the ingredients into the bag. Vacuum and seal the bag.
Place the vacuum sealed ingredients in your pantry or on the counter top away from direct sunlight. Let ferment 7-10 days. You may need to release the gas from the bag if it gets too inflated and reseal. This may occur after 3-5 days. depending on how warm your temperature is in your house. Best temperature range is 68-75 degrees f. Any warmer and it will ferment faster, colder it will take a little longer.
Once fermented, open the bag. Strain reserving the liquid and place all ingredients into a food processor. Pulse the processor 3-4 times adding the reserved liquid as desired for consistency. Once fully broken down, place your salsa into a glass container with a lid and keep in the refrigerator. This will stay good for about 1 month.
-If fermenting in a jar:
Core tomatoes, remove stem from peppers, rough chop onion and peel garlic. If using cherry tomatoes, halve the tomatoes.
Place the ingredients into a food processor, pulse 4-5 times to break up the ingredients into a rough small chop.
Place mixing bowl on scale, tare the scale. Add ingredients to the bowl and record that weight. Multiply that by 2.5 percent. This is the amount of salt needed.
Place a small dish on the scale, tare scale. Add the salt until it reads the calculated amount.
Add salt to the ingredients and gently mix to completely incorporate the ingredients with salt.
Place salted ingredients into a mason jar and weigh down with a fermentation weight or ziplock bag filled with water.
Ferment for 7-10 days ensuring the natural liquid covers the ingredients fully.
If mold develops with either procedure, discard and restart the batch. If you have a pH meter, check the pH before consuming. It should be less than 4.5 pH to be considered safe to eat. Mine had a pH of 3.7.
Serve with breakfast tacos, as a dip for chips or over chicken!
Enjoy!
Logan
