Beet kvass is a natural beverage made from fermenting beets. In Polish cuisine, it is most often used to make Christmas Eve borscht but many people just drink it on its own because it’s extremely healthy. You only need about 5 minutes to make it (yes, it’s that simple) and then you need to leave it for a minimum of 6 days to ferment.
Ingredients
- This is a basic beet kvass recipe. You can add some additional flavorings like rosemary or thyme.
- You don’t need an exact beets to brine ratio. Important thing is, that the brine covers all the beets + there is 1 inch (2-3cm) water over the beets. Beets can not float to the water surface! They need to be completely submerged in brine (otherwise mold will form). If they float you need to press them down with a heavy object.
- Water to salt ratio: it’s 1 tablespoon of table salt for 1 qt / 1 liter of water (4 1/5 cups).
- There’s a lot of garlic (I love garlic), but don’t worry, the drink won’t taste too garlicky.
- Many recipes call for adding a piece of sourdough bread. You can add a small piece of sourdough bread’s crust if you have a good quality sourdough bread (preferably homemade, without any preservatives) otherwise mold can form! The addition of bread only accelerates the process of fermentation, but it is not necessary so I don’t add it.
How to make it step by step:
Start with preparing the brine: bring the water to a boil, add the salt and stir until it’s dissolved. Leave to cool (it doesn’t need to be cold, just lukewarm, but it shouldn’t be warm).
Prepare a glass jar (2 qt /1.8 liters): pour boiling water into the jar (do not use metal or plastic containers). Discard the water (the boiling water is used to disinfect the jar).
STEP 1: Peel the beetroots and cut into large 1.5 inches (4 cm) pieces. Wear gloves! Peel and cut the garlic cloves in half.
STEP 2: Arrange the beets in the jar, alternately with the chopped garlic cloves and spices.
STEP 3: Pour over the cooled brine.
STEP 4: Close the jar tightly and set aside in a warm place for a minimum of 6 days (it can be longer, for up to 14 days). After this time, strain the beet kvass and pour it into a clean jar. The beet kvass is ready to use. Store it in the fridge for about a week.
Enjoy!
How to use it
- beet kvass is very healthy and many people drink it on its own (yes, it´s delicious)
- in Polish cuisine, it´s used to make Christmas Eve Borscht (beet soup)
- you can also use it to flavor this basic beet soup, beet kvass adds a pleasant sour flavor to the soup – it could be compared to sourdough bread – a regular bread tastes kind of flat but sourdough bread has that pleasant delicate sour flavor and it is the same with beet soup
Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!
Beet Kvass (Video)
Ingredients
- 2.2 lbs beets (1kg)
- 4 cups water (1liter)
- 1 tablespoon table salt
- 5 cloves garlic
- 4 allspice berries
- 4 bay leaves
- 20 black peppercorns
Instructions
- Prepare the brine: bring the water to a boil, add the salt and stir until it's dissolved. Leave to cool (it doesn't need to be cold, just lukewarm, but it shouldn't be warm).
- Prepare a glass jar (2 qt /1.8 liters): pour boiling water into the jar. Do not use metal or plastic containers. Discard the water (the boiling water is used to disinfect the jar).
- Peel the beets and cut into large 1.5 inches (4 cm) pieces. Wear gloves!
- Peel and cut the garlic cloves in half.
- Arrange the beets in the jar, alternately with the chopped garlic cloves and spices.
- Pour over the cooled brine.
- Close the jar tightly and set aside in a warm place for a minimum of 6 days (it can be longer, for up to 14 days). The longer you leave the kvass, the more sour it will be. I´m using it after 6 days, it´s perfect.
- After this time, strain the beet kvass and pour it into a clean jar. The beet kvass is ready to use. Store it in the fridge for about a week. You can discard the beets or use them to make a salad.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- After 5 days of fermenting, you can start to taste the beet kvass. Take a clean teaspoon and brew it with boiling water. Try to taste if the kvass is already sour enough and you like its taste. The more days it ferments the stronger the flavor will be.
- This is a basic beet kvass recipe. You can add some additional flavorings like rosemary or thyme.
- You don’t need exact beets to brine ratio. Important thing is, that the brine covers all the beets + there is 1 inch (2-3cm) water over the beets. Beets can not float to the water surface! They need to be completely submerged in brine (otherwise mold will form). If they float you need to press them down with a heavy object.
- Water to salt ratio: it’s 1 tablespoon of table salt for 1 qt / 1 liter of water (4 1/5 cups). You don´t need to use up all the brine, important is that the beets are submerged under the water.
- A foam will form on the kvass’ surface – this is ok. It should start to disappear after a couple of days. If you see mold, you need to discard the kvass! (no, it can not be salvaged).
- If the kvass’ flavor is too strong for you to drink you can dilute it with water.
2 Comments
Julia
1 February 2023 at 03:38First time making this- I saw it said that the beets should not rise to the surface for mold can occur. But if garlic and some spices do is it the same??
Aleksandra
1 February 2023 at 16:25Yes, they should also be covered, that´s why I layer the beets with the garlic and spices and they don´t come up to the surface.