Fermented Jalapeño Pickles
How to make nacho jalapeños that is easy, delicious, and good for you and your gut health. That’s the best combination that you could ask for and you get it all because these are fermented and so easy to make!
I never grew up eating spicy food but I absolutely love it! This is the much tastier and better version of the jalapeños often found on nachos. But honestly I eat these with pretty much everything sometimes. I love them inside of quesadillas, on tacos, on chili, on sandwiches, and sometimes I even eat them plain. Fermenting dials down the heat of the peppers so if you don’t like them raw maybe give this a try.
This is a very basic fermenting recipe and you can use this brine for lots of other recipes such as zucchini pickles or dill cucumber pickles.
I love fermenting food and peppers are a super easy way to start. Before you get your fermenting hat on here are some things to keep in mind.
When fermenting, make sure that everything is clean before use. Wash the jar and equipment with hot soapy water and let it dry or dry with a paper towel to avoid hair and/or lint in the jar.
The brine ratios must NEVER change. This is a basic brine that can be used in lots of different ways. Please make sure to research before experimenting. The brine ratio used here is 4 cups unchlorinated water to 3 Tbsp sea salt. Boiling the water and letting it cool will help removing minerals such as chlorine that can impact the ferment.
Keep ferment at room temperature and make sure to burp the jar (open and release the gas build up) every day or every other day. In hotter climates this will need to be done every day.
Keep jar away from sunlight while fermenting.
Use a fermenting weight to keep all ingredients beneath the brine.
The ratio of the food and spices in the jar can change as long as the brine is the same. Best to always make more brine than less.
Once fermenting is done store it in a refrigerator and enjoy!
Note: For this recipe I used primarily red jalapeños but green work just as well. The red jalapeño adds more heat but also a level of sweetness that you don’t get when they are green. This will also work with other hot peppers as well.
If you are interested in a book to learn more about fermenting foods I highly recommend Fermented Vegetable by Kirsten K. Shockey and Christopher Shockey. This is a wonderful book! Check out your local bookstore or independent online book sellers to purchase a copy.
Fermented Jalapeno Pickles
Ingredients
- 4 Cups water
- 3 Tablespoons sea salt
- 15 medium jalapeños
- 2-3 teaspoons cumin
- 2-3 teaspoons coriander
- 9 cloves of garlic (but you can add less)
- Brine
Instructions
- Boil water and once done measure out 4 cups of water. Add 3 tablespoons of sea salt. Stir and let cool to room temperature.
- *Boiling the water helps to remove chlorine and other minerals that can impact fermentation. If you have a water filter that does this you can just add room temperature water but be sure that the salt is fully dissolved before continuing.
- Slice the jalapeños and measure out all the ingredients. In a clean jar, add a couple jalapeños, spices and garlic and top it by the rest of the jalapeños or as many as your jar will allow. You can push them down to remove some of the extra air in the jar. Once they are nice and packed, add the room temperature brine so that all peppers are submerged. A fermenting ceramic weight is great to help keep everything down.
- Keep the jar in a cool environment away from sunlight and burp it (open it to release fermenting gases) every day or every other day.
- The pickles should be ready in 14 days.
- Enjoy!
I hope that you enjoy this as much as I do!
Until next time,
