Fermented Jalapenos (Easy Lacto-Fermented Recipe)
Fermented jalapenos have a tangy, spicy flavor and make for a delicious and healthy treat!
I don’t know about you, but, there is something so magical about harvesting food from your garden and bringing it to the table. It inspires me!
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I find it comforting to see the fresh food waiting for me to prepare it with love and care. When it comes to jalapenos, I almost always ferment them.
Fermented Jalapenos are not only delicious, but, a gut healthy treat that goes with most meals!
The health benefits are well documented for consuming fermented foods.
We grow several jalapeno plants every year. It’s our favorite pepper! With many plants, there are many peppers to deal with at one time.
My go to method for preserving them, is fermentation.
What is Fermented Jalapenos?
All this means is you add salt water to fresh jalapenos, keep them submerged under the water, allow for gas to escape, and leave on the counter.
Over a few days, the beneficial bacteria that lives on the veggie and in the air will take over. The salt in the water inhibits the bad bacterial from taking over.
What you end up with is a delicious, gut healthy side dish! We eat fermented foods at least twice a day. So, I have to keep several things going at once.
I have a favorite though:) You guessed it: Jalapenos! They are spicy and briny and have tons of flavor to add to pizzas, salads, tacos, or just as a snack!
Fermentation is a great way to use all of those jalapenos from the garden.
I prefer fermented jalapenos over pickled jalapenos because of the gut health benefits.
What you need to make Fermented Jalapenos
- Fresh, clean Jalapeno Peppers – Grocery store jalapenos work just fine! (This process will work for any hot peppers as well!) Also, check with your local farmers market if you don’t grow your own.
- Water – Use filtered, unchlorinated water.
- Salt – I prefer a fine sea salt that is iodine free. I use Redmond’s Real Salt which is an unrefined sea salt.
- Wide-mouth quart-sized mason jar – Regular mouth mason jars are harder to use when fermenting. A glass jar is idea for fermentation and a wide-mouth mason jar works best.
- Fermentation weight – These are glass weights that holds the jalapenos under the brine.
- Loose fitting lid or fermenting lid
Looking for another way to jalapeno pepper recipe? Try my cowboy candy recipe!
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To allow gas to escape, you will need a loose lid or a fermenting lid
For keeping the jalapenos below the brine, you can use a fermentation weight
How to make Lacto-Fermented Jalapenos
To make these, you just need 8-10 jalapeno peppers, 1 quart of filtered water, 2 tablespoons of fine sea salt, a large mouth mason jar, something to weigh it down (I use a fermenting weight), and either a pickle pipe or a loose fitting lid.
Wide-mouth mason jars are the perfect vessel for fermenting. However, you can use ceramic fermentation crocks, as well.
The main goal is a fermentation vessel that has a wide enough opening to weigh down the jalapenos.
To make the saltwater brine, bring 1 cup of water to a boil and pour over 2 tablespoons of fine sea salt. Mix until dissolved. Once dissolved, pour 3 cups cool water over the 1 cup of hot water and add 2-3 ice cubes.
Rinse the jalapenos well and pat dry. Slice in uniform slices to your desired thickness. Once they are all sliced add them to a large mouth mason jar.
Pour the COOL salt brine over the sliced peppers until they are covered. NOTE: THE BRINE MUST BE COOL BEFORE USING. Sorry for yelling ha ha!
Place the glass fermentation weight on top of the jalapenos.
For even more flavor, add fresh garlic cloves to the peppers before fermenting!
Wipe the top of the jar and put on either the loose fitting lid or the fermentation cap or pickle pipe. You can also use an airlock lid.
Airtight lids could explode off of the jar! The gas needs a way to escape.
Leave on the counter at room temperature for 2-3 days out of direct sunlight. When the brine stops bubbling, it will be done. The bubbling you see is the build up of lactic acid bacteria (the good stuff!). Fermenting time is relative to the temperature of your kitchen.
Note: You want to ferment for at least 2-3 days for the bad bacteria to be taken over by the good bacteria
The fermentation process will take less time in a warmer kitchen and may take a day or 2 longer in a cool kitchen.
Taste the jalapenos after day 2 for your preferred flavor.
Storage
Store your fermented jalapenos in the fridge for several months. They will keep very well in cold storage.
Usually, this is just Kahm yeast. It’s not unusual. You can skim it off and continue with the fermentation. The process of fermentation can be finicky with temperature changes and you will see this yeast develop in some cases. It’s not dangerous, but should be removed as it will change the flavor of the end result.
Yes, you can. I personally prefer an iodine free salt for fermenting like a fine sea salt.
Yes, tap water usually contains chlorine which could inhibit the growth of the good bacteria.
Fermented Jalapenos
Equipment
- 1 Fermenting weight
- 1 Pickle pipe
- 1 Large mouth mason jar
Ingredients
- 8-10 Jalapenos
- 4 cups Filtered Water Reserve one cup for boiling to dissolve salt
- 2 tbsp Fine sea salt
Instructions
- Bring 1 cup of the water to a boil and pour over the salt to dissolve.
- Pour remaining 3 cups over the hot water and add 2-3 ice cubes.
- Rinse and pat dry the jalapenos.
- Slice jalapenos in uniform slices at your desired thickness.
- Place sliced jalapenos into large mouth mason jar.
- Make sure brine is COOL before proceeding! Pour over peppers until they are submerged.
- Place weight on top making sure all peppers are under the weight.
- Place pickle pipe on top and ring. Alternatively, you can add a loose fitting lid.
- Allow to ferment at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can start tasting after 2 if it's warm in your house.
- Once to desired taste, remove weight, place tight fitting lid on, and move to the fridge for storage.
- **Periodically check the peppers to make sure they are still submerged and push any floaters back under the weight**
- Store fermented jalapenos in the fridge for several months. They keep remarkably well in the refrigerator.
Greetings Mary. This video came across my feed and I was intrigued. I’ve not gotten into fermenting but after watching, I’ve done just that. I heard in this video you mentioned fermented salsa. I believe I found your recipe but I’m not sure of the instructions if the brine is the lime juice and the salt. You say submerge the vegetables in the brine but the recipe itself does not mention the brine ie 4 cups water two tbl salt.
Sorry about that! The brine is 4 cups water and 2 tablespoons of water.