Well, I don't know if anyone else did, but I sure had a lot of fun this week doing all these kombucha posts. Honestly if a single person tried kombucha for the first time because of me then it was all worth it! Thanks for baring with me if you hate kombucha. The thing is, when I get really excited about a food that is new to me, I just need to start exploring it as much as I can, and that's why I did a whole week of these posts.

If you drink kombucha strictly for the medicinal benefits, you might be confused by using it in recipes. Especially in a cocktail! I drink and love kombucha though for its super tasty and refreshing qualities, and I thought it would go great in some boozy mixtures. What's interesting is that kombucha itself usually carries around 0.5% ABV. The line between kombucha and alcoholic beverages is already blurred as a couple breweries are even using kombucha in beer making!

When I was brainstorming ideas for what to cook with kombucha, I did a quick google search for recipes with champagne in them. To my palate, champagne, sour beers, and kombucha all have a similar thing going on and if one works in a recipe, the others should too. I saw a lot of champagne risottos which struck me as a little odd because with a small amount of champagne in a risotto you really aren't going to taste it. Sounds like a waste of champagne! I decided to adapt the champagne risotto idea for kombucha, but use some ingredients that would enhance the tea flavor profile, and use a nice amount of it so that you could really taste it in the final dish.

I've seen orange soda in ceviche before, so I thought that the sour effervescence of kombucha would be a welcome addition to a fresh fish ceviche on a hot night last week. I used GT's "trilogy" kombucha for this recipe which is lemon, raspberry, and ginger, and pretty much one of the best things I have ever tasted. Some fresh peaches and a little bit of habanero helped bring everything together and make this a meal to remember.

I have been completely obsessed with kombucha for the past 6 months or so. I had never even had it before then! I just absolutely love the fizzy fresh sour flavor. It's like a healthy soda! The first few months of my obsession I wasted so much money buying kombucha at the store, but then I found out it was super easy to make at home. There is a lot of info on kombucha brewing out there, and I'm no expert, but here is what I did and some links to sites I used as a guide. Hopefully I can convince some people to start brewing their own kombucha too! Or at least just try some if you haven't had it before.

Oh yea btw, I love kombucha so much that I'm gonna post about it all week. Kombucha week begins now!

After a long weekend full of beer and bbq's, I had to pull it together on monday night with a healthy meal that would help me get my act together for the rest of the week. I pretty much grabbed whatever vegetables were in the fridge and mixed them in with some lentils to serve over quinoa. It came out really great and I have been eating healthy ever since! We'll see how this weekend goes though...

These chicken skewers are far from authentic but they are delicious and unbelievably easy to make. I like to think of it as a satay "hack" honestly. Toss a handful of ingredients together that you probably already have laying around, and you get an app that most party guests would be beyond impressed by!  The key to the recipe is the tasty Sabra hummus that is nice and nutty, salty and garlicky and adds so much dimension to the satay dip.

You may think that Korean flavors clash with cheese and pasta, but if you choose the right cheeses they go really well together. For this mac and cheese I used a creamy mild mix of colby and muenster cheeses to create a perfect backdrop for the bold, savory and stringent flavors of bulgogi and kimchi. Go ahead and bake this in a casserole, but if you have the korean stone pots known as Dolsot it makes for a dramatic presentation sure to make your guests mouths water.

I had some leftover pesto but it was only basil hazelnut and garlic, there was no cheese in it. I was brainstorming on how to repurpose the pesto, and because of the lack of cheese I was thinking of going Asian with it. Basil with a nut made me think that a vaguely Thai dish would work. I was thinking of mixing the pesto with some rice noodles at first and maybe popping some pork I had in the freezer on top, but when I was at the store, I was persuaded by the fresh summer corn and zucchini, and some really tasty looking potatoes. I ended up mixing the pesto in with mashed potato, and topping it with a mixture of the pork, corn, and zucchini dressed with some sriracha and fish sauce. It all came out fantastic, summery, and bright, and somehow light yet hearty and filling.