If ever I needed to convert a fruit salsa hater, I would serve them this Fermented Fruit Salsa. It’s got the right balance of sweetness and heat, and the fermentation process makes the onions and the jalapeno less offensive. All the flavors meld together during fermentation. It is excellent.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Besides the fact that it tastes amazing, this salsa is super easy to make. It involves sterilizing a jar, a little chopping, a little mixing, a little patience. That’s it. It does call for whey as a culture- for more information on making your whey, scroll down to the “Frequently Asked Questions” section.
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Tools & Equipment for Fermented Fruit Salsa
- Jar: Quart or similar, or multiple smaller ones
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Citrus juicer (optional)
- Very fine strainer: only needed if your whey is not really well strained already. I needed one.
- Large mixing bowl
- Funnel (optional)
Ingredients for Fermented Fruit Salsa
- Roma tomatoes (or substitute your favorite variety)
- Pineapple: you can certainly chop up a fresh one, but I’ll be honest: my go-to for this recipe is canned pineapple tidbits (drain the juice). It works beautifully.
- Red onion
- Jalapeno
- Lime juice: I recommend juicing a lime, but you could also use a couple tablespoons of packaged lime juice.
- Salt: kosher salt or fine sea salt, no iodized table salt
- Whey: this is your culture. You have to make this yourself- this is not the whey protein from the grocery store. See the “Frequently Asked Questions” section below for instructions!
The Process: How to Make Fermented Fruit Salsa
Sterilize your jar: I do this by placing the jar in a clean sink and pouring about 8 cups of boiling water over the jar. Alternatively, pour the boiling water into the sink and submerge the jar. Remove the jar to a clean towel on the counter with tongs and allow to cool to room temperature.
Seed and dice your tomatoes and jalapenos, and dice your red onions and pineapple (or you can use canned pineapple tidbits. It will still be really, really good).
Mix your tomatoes, onion, jalapenos and pineapple in a large mixing bowl. Add lime juice and salt and mix thoroughly. Add whey and mix until all ingredients are combined.
A note on the whey: if it is not strained well enough, it will appear kind of flaky white. To avoid this (it doesn’t hurt anything, just looks a little odd) run the whey through an extremely fine strainer.
Place your salsa mixture in your jar. Use a funnel if needed. Add all of the liquid so that the liquid level is at the top of the salsa mixture (it won’t be super watery). Press down the salsa a bit if needed to help the liquid come up higher.
Lightly cover the jar and leave on the counter at room temperature for 2-3 days. At 2 days, you will likely be able to see a few small bubbles scattered throughout the jar. Begin tasting at 2 days.
After 2 days on the counter, you can tightly cover the jar and transfer to the fridge, or leave on the counter for another day or two to allow more fermentation time. Longer fermentation will mean less sweetness to the salsa, as the bacteria continue to eat the sugars in the food.
This salsa will keep tightly covered in the fridge for several months (but you’ll eat it way faster than that).
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do I Make Whey?
Whey is the liquid that separates from dairy products (the curds are the solid, hence “curds and whey”.) Whey consists of water, proteins, enzymes, and beneficial bacteria. It is a highly effective starter culture, used by many to ferment a variety of foods. You have two easy options to extract your whey:
Extracting Whey from Plain Yogurt
This is the universally friendly option (I recognize that not everyone invests in many gallons of raw milk every month). Choose a decent quality, live culture plain yogurt and place two cups of it inside a cheesecloth. Tie the cheesecloth and hang it from a cupboard handle, with a bowl underneath to collect liquid. Let it hang for 4-8 hours, and then put the whey in the fridge.
Extracting Whey From Raw Milk
For those of us that DO make frequent trips out to the farm for our raw milk fix, this is an easy option, though slower than the yogurt one. Pour raw milk in a jar, loosely cover it and leave it to sit at room temperature. After 5-7 days, the solids and liquids will have separated. Pour the contents of the jar through a strainer to collect the whey.
Can I Substitute Anything for the Whey?
In most cases, whey is an optional starter culture that can be replaced by more salt. In this case, you need to use it. Whey shortens the fermentation time, which is desirable here for a couple of reasons. First of all, high-sugar fruits like pineapple can turn alcoholic when left to ferment for prolonged periods, which is not the goal with this salsa. Second, if the fermentation time were going to be longer, the salsa would have to be completely submerged with liquid, which would make it too watery (duh?).
If you happen to already ferment your own vegetables or pickles, you can scoop some of the liquid from those as the starter culture instead.
Why Ferment My Salsa?
Lacto-fermentation is an ancient method of preserving food. The fermentation process also can make foods more digestible & more nutrient-rich, and lacto-fermented foods are rich in prebiotics & probiotics.
For more on the health benefits of fermented foods, check out this article & this one.
How Should I Store and Serve Fermented Fruit Salsa?
Store this salsa in the fridge, covered tightly, and it will be good for several months. Serve with chips, on tacos, on eggs (really), on burgers, sandwiches, salads…the possibilities are endless. My personal favorite for this one so far is plain with tortilla chips, though. This salsa deserves to be the center of attention.
Fermented Fruit Salsa
Ingredients
- 4-5 roma tomatoes
- 1.5 cups pineapple about 1 lb is usually about right
- 1/2 red onion
- 1 medium jalapeno
- juice of 1 lime
- scant 1 Tbsp kosher salt
- 2 Tbsp 1/8 cup whey
Instructions
- 1. Sterilize your jar: I do this by placing the jar in a clean sink and pouring about 8 cups of boiling water over the jar. Alternatively, pour the boiling water into the sink and submerge the jar. Remove the jar to a clean towel on the counter with tongs and allow to cool to room temperature.
- 2. Seed and dice your tomatoes and jalapenos, and dice your red onions and pineapple (or you can use canned pineapple tidbits. It will still be really, really good).
- 3. Mix your tomatoes, onion, jalapenos and pineapple in a large mixing bowl. Add lime juice and salt and mix thoroughly. Add whey and mix until all ingredients are combined.
- 4. Place your salsa mixture in your jar. Use a funnel if needed. Add all of the liquid so that the liquid level is at the top of the salsa mixture (it won't be super watery). Press down the salsa a bit if needed to help the liquid come up higher.
- 5. Lightly cover the jar and leave on the counter at room temperature for 2-3 days. At 2 days, you will likely be able to see a few small bubbles scattered throughout the jar. Begin tasting at 2 days.
- 6. After 2 days on the counter, you can tightly cover the jar and transfer to the fridge, or leave on the counter for another day or two to allow more fermentation time. Longer fermentation will mean less sweetness to the salsa, as the bacteria continue to eat the sugars in the food.
- 7. This salsa will keep tightly covered in the fridge for several months (but you'll eat it way faster than that).
Notes
Pin for Later:
What Should I Make Next?
For more fermented salsa, check out this fermented salsa roundup!
& if you’ve got more whey left to use, try making your own fermented grape soda.
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