problems with Kefir and the Solutions – Sour Taste and Not having to make it everyday
People tell me they have 2 problems with kefir:
- They don’t like the taste of it because flavoring it takes too long.
- Making it every day, even though it takes less than 5 minutes can be cumbersome.
Here are the Solutions:
If you don’t know how, the second ferment happens when you take the grains out and flavor the kefir. See my full blog on how to second ferment here.
First Regarding Taste:
If you have the time there is a lot of second ferment ideas in my other video. If not here is a great option for you.
Make your original kefir with 50% high quality Milk & Pure non-dairy milk. You can use:
(click photos for links)
Coconut Milk
Coconut and almond milk
Hemp and cashew milk
Rice milk
I prefer coconut milk or coconut and almond milk. It makes for a nutty flavor. Just don’t use Soy – it’s unhealthy even when it’s non-GMO. That’s included every version of soy except Natto, which is fermented soy and that is good on occasion as well as occasionally tempe. See why soy is unhealthy below.
Just pour the milks into a glass jar with the kefir grains
Get Kefir grains here by clicking photo if you need them:
Milk kefir grains
Learn how to do a first ferment here if you don’t know how.
If you have to re-hydrate your grains, learn to do that here
After you remove your kefir grains separating the milk, you will take the kefir into a glass bottle and add any or all of these three ingredients: (Click photos for links)
Organic Ceylon Cinnamon
Raw Cacoa
Dates
That’s it! All 4 ingredients in here are excellent! The good bacteria will continue to grow in here feeding off the dates and you can eat those as well. Leave it out for more fermentation or just put it in the fridge like I do.
Second Regarding Time
Now to address the second problem of having to do this everyday. Since I only recommend eating about a cup in the morning and one at night, I was trying to make only about 2 cups a day not to have all this excess kefir. But with little milk the kefir grains were quickly turning it into curds and whey every time because there was not enough milk and it was tasting very sour.
Instead of adding just a little milk, fill up a mason jar with the half regular milk and half non-dairy milk straining it and refilling for about 3 days, storing the extra kefir you don’t eat in the refrigerator. You will then go through about a gallon of milk in 3 days. That’s enough kefir for about a week for one person with 16 cups of milk in a gallon.
Add the cinnamon, cacao and dates, and continue to full up your bottle in the fridge only eating about 2-3 cups per day. Then when you get to your last bit of the gallon, put a cup or 2 of milk in the mason jar with the grains, cover it with cloth and put that in the refrigerator as if you were going away for a week. This will put the grains to sleep until you are ready to reactivate them by taking the jar with the grains out of the refrigerator.
Coconut Kefir
Making a Vegan Milk Kefir:
Vegans often ask me if they can use just non-dairy milk. There are 2 ways to do this:
1. Strain your kefir grains out of the dairy milk and place them into just coconut milk.
The grains will eat the sugar in the coconut milk, but lactose from regular milk is what sustains and nourishes them. So you could get about 7 to 14 days probably out of just coconut milk. Then you have to put them back in the regular milk for a couple of days, straining them every day for 2 or 3 days to revitalize them. Then start the cycle again with your coconut milk. The good news is the grains multiply fast especially in the summer, so you can put some aside for experimentation.
2. Another way to make this totally vegan is by using water kefir grains – see my video on that here and after making the water kefir add coconut and/or nut milk to the second ferment.
– Use a ¼ cup of water kefir with 1 quart of non-dairy milk. Then add whatever fruit you want to make it taste great.
Click the Picture for:
Milk kefir grains
Water Kefir Grains
Mason Jars
Nylon Strainer
Why is Soy bad for you?
– Soy contains Isoflavones, phytoestrogens – These function as Endocrine Disruptors that interfere with normal function of hormones in the body. This may affect the risk of breast cancer as well.
Men – Can lead to testosterone imbalance, lower libido, fat accumulation around the waist and loss of energy, increase risk of cancer, stamina and virility and even man boobs (gynecomastia).
Women – Abnormally high levels of estrogen could disrupt your periods, fertility and put you at risk for breast cancer.
Infants – There is significant evidence that soy-based infant formula can cause harm, both via its isoflavone content and its unnaturally high content of manganese and aluminum. A male baby needs to have his hormones in the proper ratio to develop normally and a baby boy needs a lot of testosterone to form is sexual traits. Too much estrogen at this stage can cause failure to thrive, underdeveloped testicles and problems when puberty comes like gynecomastia, lack of facial hair and emasculation. It is said that the amount of estrogen-producing soy in some formula preparations could be the equivalent of consuming 5 birth control pills per day.
– Soy contains high levels of goitrogens, compounds that inhibit the thyroid’s ability to utilize iodine correctly which could lead to hypothyroid problems.
– Soy is often promoted as an alternative food for celiac and gluten intolerant people, but its lectins can be harmful to the intestines and prevent healing even when gluten is removed.
– As if lectins and phytates where not enough, soy also has protease inhibitors, also called trypsin inhibitors. These toxins block the action of enzymes that have the responsibility of digesting certain proteins, but it can also lead to a host of other problems.
– Consumption of soy foods increases the body’s need for Vitamin D, Vitamin B-12, calcium and magnesium.
Soy and the Environment:
Soy crops are probably the most destructive of all the monocrops. They rob the soil of nutrients without giving back, they’re one of the pesticide laden crops and they are now almost all genetically modified. The major part of it goes to feed livestock, who get sick eating it. Some factory produced cuts of meat are now injected with extra soy. This is yet another reason to stay clear of factory-farmed animals: save yourself and the environment from soy.
