fermenter: diy fermentation for vegan fare, including recipes for krauts, pickles, koji, tempeh, nut- & seed-based cheeses, ferme

Heads (of cabbage) are gonna roll! Learn how to make funky, flavorful ferments + tasty food that incorporates them. Fermenter is perfect for those looking to add some serious culinary wizardry and revolutionary DIY spirit to their vegan kitchen.

Like The Noma Guide to Fermentation but with a punk, DIY aesthetic and a it’s-OK-to-fail ethos, Fermenter provides the sought-after secrets and words of wisdom from top fermentation educators, Aaron Adams and Liz Crain.

Based in Portland, Oregon (vegan capital of America), the Fermenter restaurant specializes in culinary fermentation to achieve their unique funky flavors. Learn how to handcraft local bean-and-grain tempehs, fresh and aged vegan cheeses, fizzy probiotic drinks, and koji ferments and revolutionize the flavor profiles in your home kitchen! They empower you to follow them down this highly addictive (and inexpensive) path, resulting in totally DIY food, free from mass-produced or corporate anything.

Whether you’re a pickle wizard already or a just want to level up your home-cook vegan cred, there are more than 60 tantalizing recipes, including:

• North Coast Kraut (made with seaweed!) is a great beginner’s lacto-ferment, full of probiotic goodness
• Chickpea Miso: a more complex, longer-lead ferment & pantry staple
• Koji Beet Reuben: put those koji skills to work with this umami bomb
• Cheesy Jojo Supreme with Tempeh Bacon: the perfect stoner food, like if stuffed potato skins were a nacho dish

AARON ADAMS is a chef and fermentation educator based in Portland, OR. He opened his first restaurant in 2002, followed by restaurants that all in one way or another featured fermented food and drink. He zeroed in on and grew that love of fermentation at Fermenter, which showcases everything traditional, wildly experimental, and local and global ferments--from koji to kombucha--along with delicious dishes that incorporate them.

LIZ CRAIN is a longtime writer on Pacific Northwest food and drink. She is the author of Dumplings = Love and coauthor of the cookbooks Toro Bravo, and Hello! My Name is Tasty, as well as 420-friendly Grow Your Own. She is also cofounder of the annual Portland Fermentation Festival.