You might have heard about pickling vegetables with salt brine before, but have you tried pickling vegetables with salt and koji?
Shio koji doesn’t only pickle vegetables well, it also adds more flavor rather than just adding saltiness to an ingredient. This is because the flavor of shio koji is not just salty but also slightly sweet with a fruity fermented scent of koji.
Feel free to use other vegetables that you like.
If you’re pickling multiple types of vegetables at once, it helps if you cut the vegetables thinly. Since each vegetable has different absorption power, some vegetables may take less time to pickle. For example, compared to cucumber, carrots and radish may take a little bit longer to pickle with shio koji. Therefore, make sure to cut them thin and small so the vegetables will absorb shio koji better.
Shio Koji Pickles
Ingredients
- 1 Cucumber
- 1 Carrots
- 100 g Asparagus (3.5oz)
- ½ Red Paprika
- ½ Yellow Paprika
- 2 tbsp Shio Koji Powder (Adjust the amount to determine the paste thickness)
- 3 tbsp Water (Adjust the amount to determine the paste thickness)
Instructions
- Cut the cucumber, carrot, and eggplant into an easy-to-eat size. Put each veggie into separated ziplock bags.
- Mix Shio Koji Powder with water to make a paste form. Divide for each vegetable bag.
- Add the Shio Koji Paste into each vegetable ziplock and mix well.
- Pickle it for 1 hour to overnight and serve.
Find How to Make Shio Koji Pickles In Our Recipe Collection
A Little Bit About Shio Koji
Shio Koji, also known as salt koji, is a seasoning made by fermenting a mixture of water, salt, and koji. The taste is salty and sweet with a distinct fruity fermented scent of koji. Shio koji truly is a useful all-purpose seasoning.
Here are some ideas on how to use shio koji:
- Pour and mix as a condiment
Utilize the thick creamy texture and umami of shio koji and use shio koji as an addition to dressings and sauces. Just mix it with your sauce and pour over your preferred ingredients like veggies, meat, or fish.
2. Add To enrich various dishes
Shio koji is a flavor bomb so you can add a little bit of it to a broth, curry, stew, or even mix it in a hamburg steak. Adding shio koji will make your cooking tastes richer and more complex.
3. Use to pickle and marinate
When protein ingredients like meat and fish are soaked in shio koji, the enzyme will work to create a soft, rich-tasting finish.
