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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Videos / How to Make Beet Kvass (Recipe + Video)

How to Make Beet Kvass (Recipe + Video)

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links โœ”

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Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Beet Kvass: DIY Liquid Multivitamin!
  • Beet Kvass Recipe+−
    • Ingredients
    • Instructions
    • Recipe Video
    • Recipe Notes

Beet kvass is potent, nutrient-rich tonic made by fermenting beets. It is essentially a DIY liquid multivitamin and more effective than taking brands from the store that contain synthetics!

glass mug of homemade beet kvass with a paper straw

One of the most nutritious and health-boosting fermented beverages you can make in your home is beet kvass. Beets are chock full of vitamins and minerals. Fermenting them supercharges nutrient levels even further and enhances absorption potential.

This ancestral tonic is extremely beneficial to those with any sort of digestive complaints.

In addition, beets are highly cleansing, so those with liver issues benefit from consuming beet kvass on a regular basis.

There isnโ€™t another fermented drink that can improve health as rapidly in my personal experience.

Beet Kvass: DIY Liquid Multivitamin!

As a tonic, beet kvass is recommended first thing in the morning and after your evening meal.

Just 4 ounces or so is all you need to sip.

This highly nutritious superfood is far better than taking a multivitamin loaded with synthetic vitamins like folic acid.

Iโ€™m sipping a morning glass of beet kvass as I type this! ย What a great way to start the day and rev up your digestion each morning!

The recipe below was adapted fromย Nourishing Traditions Cookbook.

Most people make kvass with red beets. For a slightly sweeter and less earthy flavor, try making golden beet kvass.

If you find the results a bit salty, reduce the sea salt in the recipe to your liking.

How to Make Beet Kvass (Recipe + Video How-to)
4.5 from 12 votes
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Beet Kvass Recipe

Traditional beet kvass recipe that is an unbeatable morning and evening tonic for rapidly boosting health.

Course Drinks
Cuisine Russian
Keyword traditional
Prep Time 10 minutes
Fermentation time 2 days
Servings 1 quart
Calories 10 kcal
Author Sarah Pope

Ingredients

  • 1-2 beets (1 large or 2 medium) preferably organic, tops removed
  • filtered water
  • 2 Tbl liquid whey
  • 1/2 Tbl sea salt

Instructions

  1. Wash beets thoroughly and slice into chunks no smaller than about 1/2 inch across. Feel free to peel the beets if desired; doing so reduces chances for mold on the ferment.

  2. Put beet chunks into a clean, one-quart mason jar. Add whey, sea salt, and enough filtered water to fill all but 1 inch from the top of the jar. Stir and mix well. Close the lid and leave on the kitchen counter for 1-2 days. Try to keep it away from the fruit bowl to discourage the growth of mold.

  3. Drink as desired and refrigerate once the fermentation period is complete. A 4 ounce glass morning and evening is recommended.

  4. When an inch or so of beet kvass liquid is left in the jar, refill with more filtered water, stir, and close the lid again and leave on the counter for 2 days more. Refrigerate fresh batch of beet kvass and drink as desired.

  5. When all the liquid is used up from the second batch, discard or compost the beets and start the process again.

Recipe Video

Recipe Notes

If the beet kvass is too salty for you, feel free to reduce the salt to 1/4 tablespoon for your next batch.ย 

White fuzzy bubbles forming on the top of the liquid is normal and fine as the fermentation progresses.

ย 

Nutrition Facts
Beet Kvass Recipe
Amount Per Serving (2 ounces)
Calories 10
% Daily Value*
Sodium 300mg13%
Potassium 60mg2%
Carbohydrates 2g1%
Sugar 1g1%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

More Fermented Drink Recipes to Enjoy

How to Make Fermented Lemonade
Orangina Recipe (Fermented Orange Juice)
How to Make Kombucha

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Category: Fermented Beverages, Fermented Beverages Videos, Immune support, Videos
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: Amazon #1 bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (196)

  1. Anonymous

    Jun 18, 2010 at 6:23 am

    Same recommended dose for kids? Thanks!

    Reply
  2. Alina

    Jun 18, 2010 at 6:08 am

    It is me again. Thank you for your responses to my previous questions.
    With all these wonderful fermented drinks and tonics from Nourishing Traditions: kombucha, beet kvass etc. is there such a thing as an optimal or minimal time for them to ferment in order to achieve the most health benefits from them?

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    Jun 18, 2010 at 2:31 am

    Couple of questions:

    My house is closer to 80's and 90's in temp (no air cond) so that may be why my kvass molded, even though my chunks were more like 2" pieces (NT doesn't specify size, just not to grate them. It's helpful to know what size works here. So … if I'm watching closely so it "doesn't go a moment too long", what should I look for to be sure it doesn't mold again? Maybe mine shouldn't go even a full 24 hours.

    I use Redmond RealSalt for all my ferments. I keep reading that the salt should be fully dissolved, but my salt NEVER fully dissolves! I noticed you stirred your mixture just a very short time, but one time I determined I was going to wait until my salt dissolved, so I stirred and stirred and stirred, even eventually heated the water a little, it still didn't dissolve. I assumed it was some of the minerals in there that were never going to … you know, the d word. Since this is the recommended salt, do you ever hear of anyone else experiencing this?

    Oh, and another thing: do your beets turn whitish after fermenting? If they're that color, the second ferment wouldn't be red like the first. Is that an issue of concern?

    Thank you! I've really been looking forward to your beet kvass video.

    Naomi

    Reply
  4. Sarah, the Healthy Home Economist

    Jun 18, 2010 at 1:21 am

    This is one lactofermented drink that you really need to watch closely so it doesn't go a moment too long. The beet kvass I made in the video was ready and tasted perfect in only 24 hours on the counter .. but then my house is a warm 77F during the day right now so it didn't take long at all. Make sure to adjust fermentation time for the temperature/time of year/humidity levels.

    Reply
  5. Melissa

    Jun 18, 2010 at 12:43 am

    Thank you!! I've been waiting for this post so I could watch you make kvass. I think I may have left it too long on the counter last time. I can't wait to try again…

    Reply
  6. Sarah, the Healthy Home Economist

    Jun 17, 2010 at 9:33 pm

    What a creative idea – using a non dairy probiotic capsule as a starter! That would probably work nicely here too. You could also just use 1 TBL sea salt (celtic gives the best flavor, I think) instead of 1/2 TBL. It may turn out a bit too salty, so perhaps you want to try the probiotic capsule first.

    Reply
  7. Anonymous

    Jun 17, 2010 at 9:24 pm

    Sarah,

    We have severe dairy allergies in our family. How would you make this without using whey? I have made saurkraut without whey and it turned out ok, using a non-diary probiotic capsule as a starter… think that would work?

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Marie

      Aug 4, 2012 at 12:31 am

      In place of the whey you can use lacto fermented vegetable juice. It’s a good “starter”. I do it all the time because I do not use dairy at all.

  8. Sarah, the Healthy Home Economist

    Jun 17, 2010 at 9:08 pm

    Hi Alina,

    Yes, beet kvass would be a very nutritious drink during pregnancy. It is more of a nutritious tonic than a detoxifier. I drank it myself while pregnant and found it to be helpful to digestion which can get a bit uncomfortable in those later months. There was nothing in NT that I really shied away from when I was pregnant. There are no contraindications for pregnancy for any recipes in that book, unless otherwise noted by Sally Fallon Morell.

    I would pitch the beets after the second ferment. They are pretty tasteless by that point anyway.

    Reply
  9. Alina

    Jun 17, 2010 at 8:49 pm

    Would it be Ok to eat the beets after the second ferment instead of discarding them?
    Thank you.

    Reply
  10. Alina

    Jun 17, 2010 at 8:38 pm

    Hi Sarah,

    I was wondering if beet kvass would be OK for women who try to conceive or who are pregnant or breastfeeding. I know that you are not supposed to detoxify while participating in the above mentioned three activities but beet kvass is maybe more of a tonic which maybe is OK? Would you mind Sarah to elaborate a little about which of the Nourishing Traditions โ€œconcoctionsโ€ are OK and which ones are not for women in one of the above three situations?
    I am looking forward to your new blog posting every day. Thank you for sharing all this wonderful info with us!

    Reply
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