Ever heard of natto? A traditional Japanese food made from soya beans (soybeans) fermented with Bacillus subtilis. I’ve been reading more and more over the last couple of years about the health benefits of natto and in particular the vitamin K2 it contains and I’ve been yearning to include it as part of our diet. That said soya beans are not legal on the GAPS diet and I’ve steered well clear of them since reading about the dangers of soya on websites such as The Weston A Price Foundation and Mercola.com. Fermented soya however I’m assured can be healthy and I find it increasingly fascinating.
However, natto proved incredibly elusive in the UK and I had put all hope of locating it here on a back burner until just before Christmas. My excitement returned when I was able to discuss natto with the mother of a child that attends our local Steiner Waldorf Kindergarten with my son. She is Japanese and has a real passion for natto. I was delighted and extremely grateful when shortly after our conversation she handed me 3 small polystyrene containers each containing a portion of natto which she had purchased for me at a local Japanese Food Shop. I couldn’t believe I was finally going to be able to sample this amazing food.
I determined to push all negative thoughts of soya from my mind and take full advantage of this opportunity, if I could physically stomach it! I’d read that natto was an acquired taste because of its powerful smell, strong flavour, and slippery texture which are usually not acceptable to westerners but from the first mouthful I absolutely loved it! It has a wonderful savoury nuttiness and I found the texture interesting rather than unpleasant.
I was further delighted when both my DH and my 5 year old son liked it! Our supply was quickly exhausted and we sought out the Japanese Food Shop recommended by my new Japanese friend. We bought another 3 containers. The horrible polystyrene containers were used by all the brands the shop stocked so there seemed no way to avoid them …. at least with shop bought natto. I went home and searched the internet for more information …. next stop homemade natto!
From my research I was able to establish that natto was best made at home using starter culture but that this starter wasn’t available in the UK or as far as I could tell in Europe! From further research however I discovered that you could make homemade natto using a readymade shop bought packet of natto in a similar way to using a shop bought live yogurt to culture more yogurt.
Then by chance I read something that suggested that natto could be made with beans other than soya!!!! Wouldn’t it be fantastic, I thought, if I could make natto at home using the readymade shop bought natto and a GAPS legal bean instead of soya beans. I searched for any more information but apart from one short mention on a forum from a lady who had apparently successfully made natto with haricot (navy) beans I found nothing. This was enough encouragement for me to give it a go and with some pride I can now say that it does work! Above is the photographic evidence of my recently cultured homemade haricot bean natto. I have no way of knowing if it contains the same levels of vitamin K2 but it smells, tastes and looks like the shop bought natto, if anything it has more strings (which are apparently the healthiest bit). My first attempt is a little dry and crusty across the top so I need to work on the humidity next time but at least now I know this is possible and I’m spurred on in my quest.
More details to follow ….
Filed under: fermenting, Healthy Foods Tagged: | bacillus subtilis, GAPS, GAPS friendly, haricot beans, homemade, natto, navy beans, soya, soybeans
