Is there anything quite as satisfying as mashed potatoes with dinner? I just love all forms of potatoes – baked, fried, mashed, even boiled! This article gives you a delicious recipe plus video demo for making fermented potatoes to add to your potato making repertoire.
Hands down, this is the favorite fermented foods recipe on this blog that folks email me to rave about!
Why would you want to make cultured potatoes in the first place? Because, unfortunately, the starch in potatoes is really not all that easy to digest for many folks. Especially these days with so many people suffering from digestive complaints of all kinds, starch can be a real pain – literally! Potatoes are also nightshade vegetables, and fermenting them can help ease the issue of eating them for people who are sensitive.
The problem is with the starch molecule itself. Each starch molecule is comprised of hundreds of mono sugars connected in long, branch-like strands.
It takes much digestive work to break down the starch molecule and, as a result, much of it goes undigested in most cases. For those with an imbalanced gut, the undigested starch is the perfect food for pathogens and they grow and produce toxins that cause a variety of unpleasant symptoms in susceptible individuals.
Easy to Digest Fermented Potatoes
If you enjoy potatoes but find that they trigger digestive or autoimmune symptoms, it might be worth it for you to try your hand at fermented potatoes.
In addition, if you are coming off the GAPS, AIP or SCD diets and reintroducing resistant starch to your diet after a period of gut healing, fermented potatoes would be a great first step.
While resistant starch is reduced during cooking, the bonds reform when the potatoes are cooled and these “new resistant starches” remain even if the dish is reheated before eating! (1)
We like fermented potatoes in our home to simply add that probiotic element to a meal of primarily cooked foods. Adding enzyme-rich, live food to your meals is nothing short of miraculous for boosting immunity and improving nutrient absorption.
If you’ve been wanting to make a fermented dish at home for the first time, this would be an easy and delicious one to start with!
The video demonstration included with the recipe below shows how to make probiotic potatoes using the Nourishing Traditions method. If you are not eating white potatoes, feel free to substitute sweet potatoes instead.
Fermented Potatoes Recipe
This recipe for fermented potatoes made with white or sweet potatoes is an enzyme and probiotic-rich side dish that adds resistant starch that is more easily digested and shown to reduce belly fat.
Ingredients
- 4 cups white potatoes preferably organic
- 2 cups whole milk yogurt plain, preferably organic
- 1 Tbl sea salt
Instructions
Peel the potatoes. This greatly reduces the chances of fermentation mold. Bake or boil potatoes and then mash them in a large glass bowl. Do not microwave.
With a handheld mixer or food processor, blend well with yogurt and sea salt.
Cover with a clean, cotton cloth and secure with a rubber band. Leave the covered bowl on the counter for 2 days and then refrigerate.
Fermented potatoes will last about a month in the refrigerator.
Serve fermented potatoes with steak as an enzyme-rich side dish or with any meal where potatoes work well.
Fermented potatoes may be slightly warmed on the stove before serving, but take care not to warm them too much or enzymes and probiotics will be lost.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Yukon Gold or red potatoes make for the tastiest dish! Sweet potatoes may be substituted for the white potatoes if desired.
Store-bought or homemade kefir may be substituted for the yogurt. Coconut kefir may also be used for a dairy-free version.
Sarah Pope has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. Her work 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.
Her work has been covered by major media including USA Today, ABC, NBC, and many others.
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THANK YOU! This is amazingly helpful. I love your videos.
Sarah, is it necessary to peel the potatoes? I usually make my mashed potatoes with the skin on as well as adding an onion…. can I do the same with the fermented potatoes?
I'm definitely going to be serving these at Thanksgiving instead of traditional potatoes!
Hi Barbara, I don't see why not. I've always peeled them first, but give it a go. It would probably be fine.
Wow, I never ever thought that potatoes could be fermented. Of course I'm still new to most of this but wow, learn something new everyday! I will have to give this a whirl when I have more yogurt.
Just wondering…could/should this be done with winter squash? They have a similar profile, don't they?
Hi Nance, squash is not as starchy as potatoes or even sweet potatoes, but it should work fine.
I'm having a hard time understanding how cooked foods ferment. I read Wild Fermentation and all, but it just seems like the natural enzymes, etc. in raw food are lost when it is cooked. Is that the reason for the yogurt?
Hi newhomeeconomics, yes – the yogurt is live and full of probiotics/enzymes and these beneficial bacteria feed on the starch in the potatoes and the food is fermented in this manner.
I would also add that pasteurized milk can still be cultured back to life with a yogurt or kefir culture. The process is similar – the yogurt/kefir culture feeds on the lactose in the milk and the milk ferments into yogurt or kefir depending on what starter culture you used.
Yup! I haven't gotten to the "switching to raw milk" thing yet, so I make stuff with pasteurized milk all the time. Fortunately I have access to what I consider to be the second-best thing to raw milk: Cedar Summit Farms near the Twin Cities has non-homogenized whole milk from grass-fed cows which they pasteurize (NOT ultra-pasteurize) right on the farm. It works great in every NT-related thing I make.
I made fermented beets this summer, and it seemed odd to cook them first, and since they were tiny I just fermented them raw. As it turns out, they are quite tasty thinly sliced on top of a salad. I love that there are multiple right answers to this stuff.
I wonder if sauerkraut juice would ferment the potatoes as well since we don't do dairy.
Is starch the reason sweet potatoes, white potatoes, yams and parsnips aren't allowed on GAPS and SCD?
Tina
Great recipe! Can't wait to try this. Can I do it without peeling the potatoes? Or is there a reason for the peeling?
Would it be okay to add something like garlic and chives to the potatoes or would that affect the fermentation? Maybe adding them in at serving time would be better. What does the flavor on this dish end up like?
Along with hobby baker, I too wonder what fermented potatoes taste like? My fist thought was that they don't sound appetizing at all. I love sauerkraut, beets, etc. but fermented potatoes is new to me. Thanks!
Hi Tina, yes – it's the starch that is a no no on GAPS and SCD. Starch is extremely difficult for a compromised gut to digest.
Hi Anonymous, try 2 cups water plus 2 TBL raw apple cider vinegar to ferment the potatoes instead. It wouldn't hurt to add the contents of a probiotic capsule to the liquid before mixing in as well.
Hi Sally, I've never done it without peeling the potatoes, but if you wash them really well and mash it up really well it should be fine. My only concern is that the skin would add a mold risk to the recipe that is not there otherwise.
Hi Corrine, the fermented potatoes taste like mashed potatoes with a bit of zing from the enzyme/fermentation.
Hi Hobby, garlic and chives would be absolutely fine to add! Creativity is so awesome once you get comfortable with the basic tenets of fermentation.