5 Recipes To Add More Probiotics To Your Diet

Want to improve your gut health? Then adding more probiotics to your diet is an easy fix. Fermented foods are full of good microbes that will improve your gut health. If you don’t know where to start, here are 5 easy and delicious recipes to add more probiotics to your diet.

How to cook with probiotics?

Before diving into our favorite probiotic recipes, it’s important to go over how to cook with probiotics. While probiotics are a healthy addition to your nutritional regime, they can be difficult to integrate into your diet. Here are some basic tips:

• Make sure they stay alive: As you already know, probiotics are living microbes. Microbes will die in temperatures over 115ºF. While this is great to sterilize utensils and clean surfaces, you need to ingest probiotics as active cultures (AKA while they’re still alive) in order for your gut microbiome to use them. Because of that, try to eat fermented foods either cold or at room temperature, keeping heat to a minimum.
• Start slow: If you don’t usually eat fermented foods, ease yourself into it. Like any diet change, if you eat a lot without being used to it your body will react. This can cause mild discomfort like gas, bloating, or even diarrhea, so make it easier for you and start little by little. Once you’re comfortable, you can slowly up your daily intake.
• Be creative: Some probiotic dishes are pretty straightforward to eat (like kimchi). However, you can always come up with novel ways of incorporating them into your meals. Smoothies, sandwiches, and salads make great vessels to eat more probiotics

5 easy recipes to add more probiotics to your diet

1.      Mak Kimchi (AKA Easy kimchi recipe)

This classic Korean dish became popular in the US in recent years. If you have never tasted it, it’s a fermented cabbage dish seasoned with different spices. There are over a hundred different kinds of kimchi, but today we’ll share one that you can easily prepare at home.

This is a simple kimchi recipe, but of course, you can customize it to fit your taste. Depending on who you ask, they’ll tell you to add carrots, sugar, or seafood. It all depends on you! Our kimchi uses napa cabbage, salt, garlic, ginger, sugar, fish sauce, scallions, and daikon radish.

To make, just cover the cabbage in salt and let it rest in water. Then, drain it out, mix with the spices, pack in a jar, and let it ferment! Get the full recipe here.

How to use: As a side dish or a condiment to eat with sandwiches, sausage, or meats.

2.      Dill pickles

Did you know this American classic was also full of probiotics? Their deliciously tangy flavor comes from the fermentation they go through.

Luckily, making these is ridiculously easy! The recipe we’re sharing today involves almost zero prep work and you can start eating them 24 hours after you’ve made them. Of course, they’ll taste better once they really have had time to ferment.

To prepare your very own homemade pickles, you’ll need pickling cucumber, salt, sugar, and water. Add some spices and you’re done! Access the full recipe here.

How to use: As a side when eating sandwiches or burgers.

3.      Kefir parfait

Milk kefir is similar to yogurt and can be an easy way to incorporate active cultures into your diet. While kefir has a more acidic taste and it’s runnier, in general, you can substitute it for yogurt 1 to 1.

Of course, you can make delicious kefir smoothies, but we love making parfaits with it. It feels a bit more luxurious and it’s super easy to make. To enjoy yours, just layer milk kefir, granola, and fresh fruit. Keep adding layers until your jar or glass is almost full, then garnish with some dried nuts. Check the full recipe here.

4.      Pumpkin Spice Kombucha Smoothie

Kombucha tea, usually known as kombucha, is a fermented tea that has tea, sugar, bacteria, and yeast. When you grow your own at home, you’ll only be drinking the water and not the “mushroom” (AKA the main colony of yeast and bacteria). While people have been drinking it on its own for centuries, others have a hard time getting used to the taste.

Get your daily probiotic dose by sneaking kombucha into your smoothie. Just swap it out whenever you would use water, milk, or yogurt. If you still want the creaminess of the latter, try only substituting half the liquid for kombucha. You can also infuse kombucha with other ingredients to make it taste different. This will make for a fizzier and stronger drink than if you were to drink it as soon as you added the extra flavors.

Here’s an easy and delicious pumpkin spice kombucha recipe that goes really well with the flavor of kombucha: just blend together plain boiled or roasted pumpkin, pumpkin spice, ginger, and sugar. Add kombucha and let it ferment a bit more for a couple days. Then, it’s ready to enjoy! Here is the full recipe with exact measurements.

5.      Apple Cider Vinegar salad dressing

Apple Cider Vinegar is delicious and many people already have it in their pantry. However, you need to make sure to choose the right kind: only organic, raw apple cider vinegar has all the live cultures that make it a probiotic food.

This simple salad dressing goes with any flavor and you can easily make it ahead of time to store it in the fridge. To make this dressing, just mix olive oil, apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, salt and pepper. Get the full recipe here.

Our final thoughts

Adding probiotics to your diet is easier than you’d think. Want to boost your intake even more? You can also try a probiotic supplement to make sure you’re hitting your daily goals regardless of what you’re eating. Do you include probiotics in your dishes? Let us know your favorite way to prepare probiotic foods!

Of course, you can always get a bottle of our Doctor formulated probiotics right HERE.