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Fun Find Friday – Books about Fermentation.

by | Aug 25, 2017 | Fun Find Friday, Fun Find Friday, Home/Blog

Happy Friday everyone! It’s time again for Fun Find Friday, where I put my shopping addiction to good use and share my favourite health-promoting finds with you all. 

I am sure you have noticed a theme on the website over the last few weeks. Specifically, fermentation! I have posted my favourite accoutrements, Sueson has shared her top tips and tricks and of course there have been wonderful recipes too (fermented salsa, kraut, kvass). Well, in the process of writing some of this content I noticed that my books were a bit out of date. My favourite one is not even really available on UK Amazon any more unless you want to pay a lot for it. So, what’s a nutritionist to do? Of course I immediately bought some new books, to see what else is around. 

I bought 4 new books and, spoiler alert, I am going to return 2 of them. All books about fermentation are NOT created equal, even if they have beautiful photography and food styling. 

Fermented Foods for Vitality & Health. Dunja Gulin

This book is lovely to look at! It’s beautifully styled and photographed. But it was not for me. To be very fair, the way I eat is fairly specific, so a recipe book that is more for the general public is not likely to be that useful to me personally. I found the recipes in this book to be less about making fermented foods and more about how to make a dish that has some fermented foods in it. Using ferments as an ingredient. I think this is a great idea, except I don’t really advocate heating ferments as it reduces the bacterial count, and also the recipes weren’t ones that I would use. The actual fermentation recipes were few and very simple. A quick Pinterest search would pull the same up and more. 

Fermented: A Beginner’s Guide to making your own sourdough, yoghurt, sauerkraut, kefir, kimchi and more. Charlotte Pike. 

Really weirdly, my review of this book could basically be a copy and paste of the above. I was so surprised to get two books so similar in this way! 

Again, just didn’t match my eating style and not enough actual fermentation recipes for me. And I don’t make sourdough etc. 

Also, I don’t feel like one needs a proper recipe for adding fermented foods to your meal. Just put them on the plate with the rest of the food and eat them together. Simple, and delicious! 

Fermented Vegetables. Kirsten and Christopher Shockey. 

Jackpot. I LOVE this book. It is actually my new favourite fermentation book. I want to write the author a fan letter. It’s a big, thick book, beautifully presented and photographed and absolutely chock-full of amazing ways to lactoferment vegetables. All kinds of veggies that I wouldn’t have been able to work out how to ferment myself. Like eggplant (aka Aubergine). 

Here are some examples of the cool recipes found in this book. 

  • Golden ginger beet kvass
  • Hot smokey sprouts
  • Pickled cranberries
  • Preserved limes
  • Pickled Shitake
  • Garlic Eggplant Wedding Pickles

I kid you not, this book is just packed full of interesting and fun recipes that I am so excited to try out. 

It also has a VERY useful section on trouble-shooting when things go wrong, and great basics for each section. Lastly, the authors also include a small section on how to incorporate ferments into each part of a meal, from breakfast through to dessert. And while this is the same basic idea as the first two books, I feel like they actually nailed it. 

Living Tea. Louise Avery. 

Another happy surprise for me. I love to make kombucha. But as a creature of habit, I usually make it plain or with ginger only. Well this book is going to change all of that! A simple and beautiful book full of delicious kombucha flavour variations. Plus, again, lots of great advice on how to be successful at this endeavour. 

Here are some of the recipes I’m excited to try out. 

  • Pink grapefruit and rosemary tea
  • Pear cardamom and lime sour 
  • Passionfruit and vanilla 
  • Chilli and pineapple
  • Beet and lime
  • Lavender love
  • Turmeric immune boost
  • Black Moonlight or White Dragon variations on the basic recipe. 

How delicious do they all sound!! 

Plus, I discovered (from google) that the author is a small business owner who is starting her own kombucha microbrewery in East London. So I am excited to support her in that. I have long lamented that there was no good commercial kombucha here in the UK, compared to the delicious assortment available in the USA. Louise I wish you every success!! 

RP Health Favourite Fermentation Books

Ok then, now that you have the best books, my own recipes as well and all the right kitchen equipment. What are you waiting for? I can’t wait to see what you all come up with. Remember to tag me #robynpuglia so I can see your creations!! 

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Robyn is a Clinical Nutritionist with a specialised interest in the Functional Medicine approach to health. Robyn is very involved with the field of Coeliac Disease, Gluten-Reactive Disorders and Autoimmune Disease. Her passion for the healing power of food, has led her to work with complex cases, involving multiple diagnoses, and chronic health issues such as ME, auto-immune diseases and fibromyalgia. She also has a passion for working with the growing tide of chronic, lifestyle mediated illness; diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity, and runs a lifestyle intervention clinic for these issues. Robyn works with patients to nutritionally support their bodies, so that they can heal. She has successfully helped many people around the world improve their health and increase their quality of life. Robyn sees clients in London, Tokyo and New York, and has a virtual practice that allows her to work with people all over the world.

Robyn Puglia
FdSc DipION IFMCP
mIFM mBANT

My mission in life is to share my knowledge in order to help people heal. I love to unravel the health stories and the biochemistry to get to the heart of the problem, and to help support nutritional and lifestyle changes that have the ability to transform people’s health. I have seen incredible changes in the health of my clients, and I hope to do the same for you.

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