Read Food Friday Feast - Fermented, Raw Salsa Recipe

I have always loved tomato, in any form. I had tomato sauce on EVERYTHING as a child. In fact, I was so enamored with tomato sauce that I asked my mom if I could have it on my ice cream;) It made sense to my young mind. Tomato sauce made everything taste good and I hated ice cream so I figured that tomato sauce would make it taste better! It didn't enter my head to go without ice cream!?

Anyway, given that conventional tomato sauce is loaded with high fructose corn syrup, I had to start doing without it when I went free-range, organic and chemical free. It was hard. But I have found the most amazingly delicious, and incredibly good for you, replacement!

Fermented foods are unbelievably good for you. I went into quite a bit of detail about them when I blogged about Fermented Chilli Sauce. In case you haven't wondered, I LOVE my spicy foods;) This salsa doesn't HAVE to be spicy (although it seems like a waste of good salsa;) But that's just me!) but even without the spice it's just so tasty and it's one of the best foods you can put in your system. What's even better about this recipe is that it's raw. Raw, live food can be incredibly powerful because it provides your digestive system with the necessary enzymes to digest your food properly. You should always eat something raw with EVERY meal to ensure your body gets all the nutrients it needs.

Here is a quick reminder of why fermented foods are good for you:

• They contain probiotics: Eating fermented foods introduces good bacteria into your body and improves the balance of bacteria in your digestive system, which is often upset by bad diet and antibiotics. It's also been proven that probiotics help slow or reverse some diseases, improve bowel health, aid digestion and strengthen your immune system. If you think you may have Candida, fermented foods can help prevent, and improve it.
• It improves your absorption of food: Having a lot of good bacteria in your colon helps your body absorb more of the nutrients in the food you eat. This is especially beneficial if you are eating a clean, organic, real food diet, AND eating fermented foods. You'll find that your body absorbs a lot more nutrients from the food you're eating and you won’t need as many supplements and vitamins as you used to, because you’ll be absorbing more of the live nutrients from the food you eat.
• Economical: Eating organically can get expensive if you don't know where to shop, but fermented foods definitely make it more affordable because you can buy veggies in bulk and ferment all of them so they last you for months. You can make your own whey at home for the price of a litre of milk and then all you need is a good mineral salt, water and the veggies. Adding these foods to your diet also cuts down on the number of supplements you need, which helps your budget AND lowers possible future medical costs.
• It preserves food easily: Homemade salsa only lasts a week or so in the fridge but fermented homemade salsa lasts months (although in our house it STILL lasts about a week because we love it so much!) Lacto-fermentation allows you to store food for longer periods of time without losing the nutritional value.

There are 4 very good reasons to try out this recipe! Before you make this recipe, you need to get your hands on some whey. Whey is the buy product of raw, unpasteurised milk that is left outside the fridge for 3-4 days. So the first trick here is to get hold of some raw milk and you WON'T find it at a grocery store. Terre Madre sells it and you'll also find it at your local farmer's market. Once you have the milk, here's how you make whey:

• Pour the milk into a glass bowl, cover with a cloth and leave for a few days. Keep an eye on it. 
• It will start to curdle and separate, into curds and whey (like little Miss Muffet;) 
• After it's completely separated (about 3-4 days in summer), get another glass bowl and put a dishcloth over it. (use one that you don't mind getting dirty!)
• Pour the contents of your other bowl, onto the dishcloth.
• Grab all the corners of the dishcloth and gather them together so that the curds are inside the cloth. Tie a knot in them and then leave the whey to drip slowly out of the dishcloth, into the glass bowl beneath it. (I tie piece of string around the knot of the dishcloth and then tie it to one of my cupboard handles in my kitchen and leave the bowl underneath it on the counter for about a day to slowly all drip out.)
• The liquid in your bowl will be the whey you will use for your fermented foods and the solid stuff in the dishcloth is actually cream cheese! It's delicious and exceptionally healthy and tasty as a dip or a spread.
• Pour your whey into a glass jar and place in the fridge. It will keep for a few months. If you find you won't use it often, put it in a container in the freezer.

Now you are ready to make your salsa!

Fermented Raw Salsa

6 medium organic tomatoes
1 small organic onion or leek (feel free to make it 2 onions. I can't eat a lot of onion so I keep it minimal)
1 medium size chilli (feel free to leave this out OR add more!!)
2 organic garlic cloves
A small bunch of fresh organic coriander (if you don't have this parsley is just as nice)
1 tsp dried organic oreganum

Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
Juice from 1 organic lemon (don't use store bought lemon juice as it contains preservatives)
1 Tbs mineral salt (himalayan rock salt or sea salt)
1/3 cup whey

A clean glass jar or two

Method

• Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters (depends on how tough your food processor is!)
• Add the onion, coriander, chilli and garlic
• Give the mixture a few quick spins in your processor
• Add the salt, cayenne pepper and oreganum
• Pour in the whey and lemon juice
• Give it a few good spins in the processor. If you like a chunky salsa then don't spin it too many times. I like it more like a sauce so I nuke it!
• Sterilise your glass jars by boiling your kettle and filling them up with boiling water. Leave them to sit for a while to kill off any germs. You don't want your good bacteria fighting with any bad ones. Don't dry them with a cloth our you'll put some germs back!
• Once they are clean, pour your salsa into the jars leaving about 15mm between the salsa and the lid of the jar
• Put the lid on tightly and put the jars on top of your fridge for a few days. The amount of days is up to you. I left one jar for 4 days and the other one for 7 days. The longer you leave it, the more good bacteria you will have. 
• Once they're ready, simply put them in the fridge and eat as desired. Don't get a fright when you open the jar and there is a little explosion of gas and some bubbles. That means it's worked VERY well and it's very good for you!

Your digestive system and your immune system will thank you for eating this stuff. Incidentally, so will your tastebuds;)

Have a fantastic, healthful weekend!