berries and kefir

berries and coconut kefir kream

One thing we need more of in the USA are cultured foods. In Korea, we have fermented and probiotic rich pickles like kimchi and sauerkraut, which aid our digestion while helping rebuild healthy bacteria we’ve destroyed through stress and antiobiotics. Fermented raw foods are the highest form of living foods. The probiotics and friendly bacteria predigest this food for us.

For breakfast today I enjoyed local organic blueberries topped with a kream i made by blending coconut meat with water kefir.

To make your own kefir kream, just scoop the meat from 2 Thai baby coconuts into your blender. Add about a 1/4 cup of your water kefir, and blend to mix smooth. Scoop kream into a container, leaving at least 1/3 of the container empty. Don’t fill up all the way, it needs room to expand.

Cover kream, and leave out (I leave it on top of my fridge where it’s warm) overnight to ferment. You can see how the fermentation creates bubbles in the kream, below.

kefir kream

kefir kream

Store in your fridge, and enjoy on salads, soups, as a dip, in smoothies, and on fresh fruit as you would any yogurt.

This recipe is in my new book, Ani’s Raw Food Essentials. (available everywhere April 1, 2010)