Have you wondered ever wondered what rejuvelac is or how to make rejuvelac? Today I’ll walk you though what you need to know, some of the possible health benefits of rejuvelac, how to make rejuvelac and provide you with an easy rejuvelac recipe. There are also some great uses for rejuvelac that you might not have heard like making vegan cheese.
What is rejuvelac?
Rejuvelac is a probiotic beverage made from first sprouting grains and then fermenting those sprouted grains into a bubbly, fizzy fermented drink full of life. A grain all by itself is not very digestible and if you tried to chew it, some of them are so hard they can break teeth so usually grains are processed into a form that’s more digestible in one or several of the following ways:
- Cooked – cooking grains make them more digestible than their uncooked form, but doesn’t necessarily reduce the anti-nutrients in grains or unlock their full potential when it comes to improving their nutrient content
- Ground – grinding a grain does make it more digestible in the sense that the body doesn’t have to work to break it down into smaller components but has the same drawbacks as only cooking grains
- Fermented – fermenting grains begins the process of actually digesting the grains before your body has to work to digest them and also starts breaking down anti-nutrients like phytates and tannins
- Soaked – soaking grains can be considered as the initial stage of either fermentation or sprouting which floods the grain with moisture that soaks into the grain making it softer
- Sprouted – sprouting a grain makes the grain think it’s time to start growing so the grain then starts using up some of the carbohydrates that are harder for us to digest and germinates which increases some of the nutrient dramatically
What are some possible health benefits of rejuvelac?
Some people regularly drink rejuvelac for its health benefits. Whether these benefits will apply to you is up to you, but some of these things include:
- Rejuvelac contains a large amount of probiotics since this is a living drink
- Rejuvelac could improve your digestion since probiotics aid in the digestion process
- Use rejuvelac as a nutrient booster drink since it’s filled with several vitamins
What are some uses of rejuvelac?
You can obviously drink rejuvelac but there are other uses you might not be aware of.
- You can use rejuvelac to start some of your fermentations including nut & seed cheeses
- It can be s slight energy drink since the nutrients are readily available
- Soaking your grains or other foods in rejuvelac could start the digestion process early, saving your body some energy and work
How do you make rejuvelac?
Now that you know about some possible health benefits and uses for rejuvelac, let’s get to the main topic of how to make it. It does take a few days to make but if you’re making it for things like raw cheeses and you have too much, freeze some in smaller batches so you can thaw and use it later.
Rejuvelac Recipe
Rejuvelac is a great probiotic, fermented beverage that contains a good amount of nutrients and has many uses including getting the fermentation process going for vegan cheeses or just a natural fermented beverage full of life.
Equipment:
1 quart mason jar
Screen or cheesecloth with lid for rinsing and draining
Ingredients:
1/2 cup grains (wheat, rye, millet, quinoa, barley, etc.) *rye makes the best tasting
~ 1 liter unchlorinated water
Pour the grains in the mason jar and cover with water and leave soaking overnight. As a side note, rye is supposed to taste the best.
After soaking, pour off the soaking liquid and rinse with non-chlorinated water. Rinse 2-3 times a day until the grains sprout.
Once the grains have sprouted, refill with fresh water, cover with a towel or cheesecloth to keep dust & bugs out and let ferment from 1-2 days until you see lots of froth and bubbles on the top.
Once you get a lot of bubbles and it’s somewhat white colored, strain off the liquid into another mason jar or container.
You can then use the grains one more time for another batch of rejuvelac.
I hope you enjoyed this recipe! Let me know what some of your uses are for rejuvelac in the comments below.
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What about the grains, can they be puréed back into the drink like a smoothie, or used to make bread or crackers? Hmm, can the grains be puréed and then dehydrated into some kind of a snack? I’m not into raw foods, but would something like that still be probiotic? Or maybe the purée can be made into a spread or dip? It seems like the drink would have goodness, but the grains might too? Just starting this probiotic journey, pardon my newb.
Author
Hey Loreli,
Usually the grains are just tossed in the compost after using them a couple times to make the rejuvelac, but there could be other uses for the grains after they’re done. I wouldn’t puree them into a smoothie because I think they’d still be a little too hard and make the consistency a little gross and grainy.
Like you said though, you could make them into some kind of bread or crackers if you dry them a bit, grind them up and cook them like you would any other grains. It would then be a sprouted whole grain flour. Of course if you cook them, then the probiotics are gone, but you already have the rejuvelac so you already have a ton of probiotics from that!
I haven’t tried making a spread or dip out of the grains, but for some reason, the smell of them would stop me from making any kind of dip. Rejuvelac to me tastes slightly like lemonade but the smell always seems so tangy, which is probably why it’s great for cheeses.
Good thinking though! It’s nice to find other uses for spent ferments like when you blend soft pickles and dehydrate them into pickle salt. So many ideas!
Lol, thanks for solving my future mushy pickle problem. I haven’t gone there quite yet but started thinking of how that was going to go when I saw a pic of someone’s mushy pickle the other day.
Author
That’s great! I had a lot of feedback on the pickle salt. I still have some of the one I made but it’s starting to disappear. It’s a great flavor enhancer to dishes.
Finally somebody that may know when I’m trying to find out can you use the rejuvelac water to ferment coconut water or any other liquids as a starter?
thank you
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