Well starting the New Year as I mean to go forward learning to manage phytate-removal from foods.
Definitely not easy – takes long hours or days of soaking in warm water or fermenting. Sort of a slow food task!
I hunted round op shops for a while and found a large plastic food thermos that might be used for filling with cold lemonade and taking to kids sports. It has a little tap on the bottom. A wide cap on the top and easy to fill and clean. Holds about 3 litres.
So far have used it to soak rice lentils and lima beans each for longer than a day. Rinsed them before and after. The lentils especially started to ferment. I used hot water from the tap but not too hot. More a temperature that bread might rise at.
Anyway so far it has not been too hard to do. I am nervous about it. My whole understanding of fermentation is weak and I don’t want to get food poisoning. So this is a big experiment. My choice. Quite happy for others to watch!
Went to a workshop at Woodford Folk Festival on fermentation and got a very strong message that this is a critically important traditional way to prepare food that we have lost. Also the issue with phytates was treated as well known (not by me until recently). Someone called Weston Price. What I am definitely convinced of is the disturbances in our guts that ‘normal’ diets are causing us. That is why I am prepared to learn this stuff.
It tastes fine and cooks very quickly after long fermenting soaks.