Making Kefir Cheese

The health of our microbiome affects our overall health and well-being. I am spending some time learning about cultured foods and how the presecnce of certain bacteria found in fermented food such as fermented vegetables, kefir, kombucha, and yogurt help to decrease the "bad" bacteria and increase and help to strengthen the the bacteria and microorganisms that live in our digestive tracts. I have been making fermented vegetables for a while and I know that it is really good for you to eat a bit a day. However, the different types of fermented or cultured foods all provide different types of beneficial bacteria. I have made yogurt a couple of times and will continue to make more. I wanted to get a better understanding of the whole process and what foods are available for me to learn to make to improve our health.

I started listening to A Cultured Food Life Podcast with Donna Schwenk (https://www.culturedfoodlife.com/cultured-food-life-podcast/) I am very inspired by Donna and I have learned so much.

I started with kefir. I purchased some kefir from the supermarket, I was so unsure about what I was buying that I forgot to check for organic kefir. I will make sure next time. Upon tasting it, I found it was pretty tangy. I am not a milk drinker, not because I do not like the taste but I do not like drinking it. I liked the flavor of the kefir but did not like drinking it.

Next, I made kefir cheese from the same kefir. I placed the kefir into a mesh strainer lined coffee filters inside of a bowl, covered it, and placed it in the fridge for a couple days . It is delicious...like a cross between sour cream, cream cheese, and yogurt, all wrapped up together. I am going to use it to make a dip. It is like cream cheese and super Greek yogurt all wrapped up together. The whey is the liquid that is strained out of the kefir. It is filled with loads of probiotic goodness and lasts for a long time. There are so many uses for whey. You can add it to bread recipes, soak grains, legumes, and nuts with it, use it as the liquid to ferment vegetables, and make a salad dressing with it. The list goes on and on.