Rejuvelac Recipe

Aug 18 2014

Filed under Blogs, Recipes

Have you wondered ever wondered what rejuvelac is or how to make rejuvelac? Today I’ll walk you though what you need to know, some of the possible health benefits of rejuvelac, how to make rejuvelac and provide you with an easy rejuvelac recipe. There are also some great uses for rejuvelac that you might not have heard like making vegan cheese.

What is rejuvelac?

Rejuvelac is a probiotic beverage made from first sprouting grains and then fermenting those sprouted grains into a bubbly, fizzy fermented drink full of life. A grain all by itself is not very digestible and if you tried to chew it, some of them are so hard they can break teeth so usually grains are processed into a form that’s more digestible in one or several of the following ways:

Cooked – cooking grains make them more digestible than their uncooked form, but doesn’t necessarily reduce the anti-nutrients in grains or unlock their full potential when it comes to improving their nutrient content
Ground – grinding a grain does make it more digestible in the sense that the body doesn’t have to work to break it down into smaller components but has the same drawbacks as only cooking grains
Fermented – fermenting grains begins the process of actually digesting the grains before your body has to work to digest them and also starts breaking down anti-nutrients like phytates and tannins
Soaked – soaking grains can be considered as the initial stage of either fermentation or sprouting which floods the grain with moisture thatsoaks into the grain making it softer
Sprouted – sprouting a grain makes the grain think it’s time to start growing so the grain then starts using up some of the carbohydrates that are harder for us to digest and germinates which increases some of the nutrient dramatically

What are some possible health benefits of rejuvelac?

Some people regularly drink rejuvelac for its health benefits. Whether these benefits will apply to you is up to you, but some of these things include:

What are some uses of rejuvelac?

You can obviously drink rejuvelac but there are other uses you might not be aware of.

You can use rejuvelac to start some of your fermentations including nut & seed cheeses
It can be s slight energy drink since the nutrients are readily available
Soaking your grains or other foods in rejuvelac could start the digestion process early, saving your body some energy and work

How do you make rejuvelac?

Now that you know about some possible health benefits and uses for rejuvelac, let’s get to the main topic of how to make it. It does take a few days to make but if you’re making it for things like raw cheeses and you have too much, freeze some in smaller batches so you can thaw and use it later.

Rejuvelac is a great probiotic, fermented beverage that contains a good amount of nutrients and has many uses including getting the fermentation process going for vegan cheeses or just a natural fermented beverage full of life.

Equipment:
1 quart mason jar
Screen or cheesecloth with lid for rinsing and draining

Ingredients:
1/2 cup grains (wheat, rye, millet, quinoa, barley, etc.) *rye makes the best tasting
~ 1 liter unchlorinated water

Pour the grains in the mason jar and cover with water and leave soaking overnight. As a side note, rye is supposed to taste the best.