Licorice Flavored Jar of Goodness

Okay, you either have a love or hate for licorice. I’m all in on this collection. BUT, if you like all the other ingredients, skip the licorice and add herbs or spices from your collection.

INGREDIENTS: 2 QUARTS, Easily Doubled or Halved

Note: For the size of recipe I want to ferment—whether 1 pint, 1 quart, or half-gallon, I do this hack to save time. Fill your chosen jar with water and then pour it into a large bowl. Use a grease pencil or piece of tape and mark the waterline on the bowl. Pour off the water and now your bowl is ready for your cut up produce. As you cut each ingredient, toss it into the bowl and keep adding the other ingredients until it reaches the mark. Next, toss everything right in the bowl before you add it to your fermenting jar. If you are over the waterline mark, use the excess as part of your salad for the next meal!

• cauliflower – 4 cups, 1 inch florets
• carrots – 2 cups, razor thin slant slices [I use a mandoline]
• onion – 1 cup, thin slices
• fennel bulb – 1 cup, thin slices [or celery]
• fennel leaves – slightly bruised
• garlic – 1 TBS, chopped
• fennel seed – 2 tsp, slightly bruised
• anise seed – 2 tsp, slightly bruised
• mustard seed – 2 tsp, slightly bruised
• tarragon leaves, fresh – 2 TBS, slightly bruised, don’t chop
• brine – 4 cups filtered water and 2 TBS unrefined salt

INSTRUCTIONS: Using a mortar and pestle or other tools to bruise the spices and herbs opens them for easier flavor exchange.

1. See note above and ready a bowl for your cut up produce
2. Prep all the ingredients except the brine and toss well in the bowl
3. Make the brine and whisk well to dissolve the salt into the brine
4. Add the ingredients to your clean fermenting jar, then pour in the brine until a half inch or so from the lip
5. Follow your fermenting kit directions to seal and complete fermenting as directed. This usually takes 4 days at 75º

2022 Recipe by B. Hettig