Koji: The delicious fermented Japanese food that will revolutionise your health
Why should you include Koji in your diet?
Apart from its great taste, there are a number of reasons Koji is an essential part of a healthy diet in Japan. Koji is filled with healthy enzymes and strong probiotics, which means you will not lose as many nutrients by cooking it. These enzymes and probiotics are amazing for replenishing the good bacteria in your stomach and helping you have a happier, healthier gut.
A healthy gut will not only help with digestion and make you feel better, but it is also fantastic for building a healthy immune system which I am sure is at the forefront of everyone’s minds with the current pandemic situation.
Dried koji is now available outside of Japan!
What is Koji?
Now that you know the incredible health benefits of Koji, I am sure a lot of you are wondering what it actually is. Koji is the name of a fungus called Aspergillus Oryzae. It is a staple part of many different ingredients frequently used in Japanese cuisine such as soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, sake, miso and amazake. Koji is often fermented with grains or legumes and mixing koji with rice is also a very popular way to consume it. Combining rice and koji and letting it ferment produces approximately 400 compounds including glucose, B vitamins, minerals and more.
Food and drinks that use koji to ferment
Don’t worry! It is SUPER EASY to add to your diet
It is essential to know how you can include koji in your meals so that you can also reap these amazing health benefits, especially since it can be difficult to consume food like soy sauce or miso regularly if you are not Japanese.Luckily, there is a solution. I’m sure most of you use salt and sugar regularly in your cooking. Fortunately, you can use salt koji, which is fermented rice salt, as a substitute for salt and amazake, which is a naturally sweet, fermented rice, as a substitute for sugar. And the best part is that you can easily make or buy salt koji and amazake. Personally, I actually prefer salt koji to regular salt because it has a nice umami flavour to it as well.
Now that you know all the wonderful things koji can do for your health and how to add it to your diet, be sure to try it out and see for yourself!
Salt koji is a natural umami enhancer – healthier and tastier substitute for salt
Hope you understand this yummy fungus and get to use koji fermented foods and drinks including salt koji or amazake in your diet!
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