Jalapeno Kefir Anyone?

DIY Kefir in every flavor imaginable

Jalapeno Pepper Kefir - cja

I watch a lot of YouTube videos. Probably too many. About a month ago, I ran across a DIY Greek yogurt video which taught me how to make Greek yogurt using store bought organic whole milk Greek yogurt. I gave it a shot and was successful. I even took it a step further and flavored some of it with blueberries, whipped it up and froze it, expecting to enjoy a creamy bowl of frozen yogurt later on. That did not turn out as planned. Instead of creamy, it was a solid ball of blueberry flavored ice. It took ages to defrost as I could not use heat to help it along least I kill the probiotics. Once defrosted, it was liquid rather than creamy. Lesson learned.

It wasn’t long before YouTube started recommending related videos, including DIY kefir. I watched but could not find a local source of kefir grains. YouTube kept recommending DIY yogurt and kefir videos regardless and eventually set me up with one about making kefir using store bought Kefir. It looked too easy not to try. In the video, a woman calls her son into the kitchen. She opens a gallon of organic milk and pours him a cup. She replaces that cupful of milk with a cup of store-bought kefir, shakes it and leaves it on the counter for twenty-four hours. That’s it! An entire gallon of kefir just from replacing a cup of milk with a cup of kefir. My kind of magic!

I made four gallons of kefir using the quart of kefir I found at my local food store. That is a lot of kefir and I have to tell you, I drank it all. I bought another quart yesterday, along with a gallon of milk. Here we go again.

So how do you drink four gallons of kefir in a month without getting tired of it? Easy. You flavor it on a serving by serving basis. At first I used fruit: blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, bananas, kiwi, guava, and pindo palm fruit. I used each alone as well in combination with other fruit. I mixed some of these combos up with chocolate. I tried chai, matcha, peanut butter and banana, orange juice and banana and just about every combination of ingredients I could think of. Last night I tried it with jalapeno pepper. That was surprisingly good. It seems you are only limited by your imagination when it comes to creating healthy kefir “smoothies.”

Jalapeno pepper kefir attracts cat - cja

And why would you want to drink this much kefir, anyway??? It is healthy and loaded with probiotics. I do not want to get into details as that is another topic altogether, but here are a few links for the curious:

Healthline - 9 Health Benefits of Kefir

Dr Axe - 7 Kefir Benefits, Including Boosting Immunity and Helping to Heal the Gut

National Library of Medicine - The Microbiota and Health Promoting Characteristics of the Fermented Beverage Kefir