When Brussel Sprouts were in season last year, we enjoyed them halved and stir fried in bacon or chorizo sausage. Of course, everything tastes better with bacon - organic and preservative-free! In the past we’ve had them served under a blue cheese sauce but I have to say Brussel Sprouts are not a green vegetable of first choice.

Recently a Facebook friend showed a picture of her whole, fermented Brussel Sprouts so I was inspired to see if I could also ferment them. As sprouts are a member of the Brassica family, they come with their own population of microorganisms so keeping them under salty water is the way to go. The brine mixture can be increased or decreased depending on the quantity of sprouts that are to be fermented.

The interesting thing about this fermentation is that Brussels Sprouts are quite chunky packages compared to the finely chopped cabbage used in sauerkraut and kimchi. My friend definitely kept the sprouts whole and successfully fermented them.

Sadly, my first batch ended in the compost!  I had to leave them to ferment for 10 days in a Brisbane winter, as bubbles kept appearing, letting me know the microorganisms were active. However the smell that developed over those days was disgusting – even to me! That ‘poo’ smell was not good! I couldn’t bring myself to taste them so into the compost it all went.

For the second batch, I decided to give up on keeping the sprouts whole and instead finely chop the sprouts. I’ve been successfully fermenting sauerkraut and kimchi for years with finely chopped cabbage, so I decided to keep to what works!

I fermented this mixture in September, as the weather was warming so it took 4 days to ferment. I knew this ferment had worked as soon as I unscrewed the lid – that fermented sour smell was lovely!  And the taste was great too. So I’ll be adding Brussel Sprouts to my list of vegetables to ferment.