Kombucha Tea As A Cooking Ingredient

Teriyaki-like marinade for chicken (Photo: Wikipedia)

I have been going on about the benefits of kombucha, the biscuits that go great with kombucha and a variety of (sometimes quite random) things that come to mind when I am drinking my kombucha tea.

This post, I want to talk about cooking with kombucha tea and using it as a marinade, or making your own salad dressing with kombucha.

The weather is getting colder. Today, I was just going through my tried and tested thermal underwear and making sure I have them ready for the next few months.

Then I thought 'wouldn't it be nice to make a nice hearty stew for dinner?', and that was when the cooking with kombucha thought came about.

Kombucha tea is acidic. It has a tangy vinegar like taste which is actually ideal for marinading meat.

• Kombucha Tea as a Marinade

Now there is no hard rules about the marinade but some soya sauce, ginger, garlic, five spice powder and a good bit of kombucha tea will really soften and flavor beef and pork. Just leave it to marinade for a few hours or over night before either braising it slowly in the oven (you will need a bit more tea), or if the meat is sliced, do a quick stir fry with some crispy vegetables like carrots, celery and bean sprouts, adding just a little cornstarch mixed with water at the end to thicken the sauce. It's really good.

• Kombucha Tea as a Stock Base

Or use it to mix it with stock cubes to make stock. You will have to be a bit inventive with the taste as it will be slightly acidic but just view it as adding a bit of vinegar or lemon to the dish. I tried once adding a bit of kombucha tea to a Moroccan dish with cous cous, and it tasted really quite good (ok - I may be bias).

• Kombucha Tea as a Dressing

As for salad dressing you can take some kombucha tea (especially when it is a bit too acidic), add some olive oil, salt, pepper and a touch of French mustard and you will have a quite special dressing. Not the weather really now for that but it is an idea worth exploring.

• Kombucha Tea Egg

One easy to do thing is to boil eggs with kombucha tea. The Chinese boil their eggs in tea (called very imaginatively 'tea egg') and sell them as a snack often in herbal tea shops. Sounds weird? Not really, it just gives it a nice subtle fragrance and aroma, and if you leave it in the tea for longer, the taste will seep in even more. That's a new and healthy way to eat eggs!

So have you cooked with kombucha tea before? And if you have, what was your best recipe? Would really love to know.