In my experience, fermented food is one aspect of Traditional Diets that is difficult to consistently incorporate into family meals with young children in the home.

Fermented beverages like kombucha aren’t too difficult as they are typically tasty, fizzy and delightful.

Probiotic rich, digestion soothing fermented foods, on the other hand, are a completely different animal for children to accept.  The inherently sour and sometimes tart flavors seem to overwhelm their young taste buds and turn them off even in the small, condimental amounts used by Ancestral Societies.

I’ve had better luck over the years getting creative when a brickwall is firmly erected rather than trying to force the issue.

Homemade Sloppy Joe with Probiotic Rich Sauce

There is no doubt that a tasty sloppy joe sandwich is one of the most beloved of all time for children.  In our home, I make it with grassfed beef and lacto-fermented ketchup to sneak it into the children’s dinner in an enjoyable way that they don’t mind at all.

The trick to this particular sloppy joes recipe is to add homemade fermented ketchup so that the probiotic rich sauce isn’t actually cooked and therefore retains all the beneficial probiotics and enzymes once served at the dinner table.

Try this homemade sloppy joe recipe if you’ve been encountering obstacles introducing digestion enhancing fermented foods to your family. This is one dish they won’t complain about at all!

If you’ve tried this recipe using a fermented sloppy joe sauce already, what did you think?  Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist