September Recipe – Infused Apple Cider Vinegar

Fall is fast approaching but summer is still here.  Gardens are exploding with delicious fruits and veggies to harvest and enjoy, and this includes herbs.  Herbs are full of micronutrients, aromas, and flavors to spice up your favorite dishes and your health.

One easy way to get these micronutrients into your daily life is by infusing them into Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV).  If you don’t know what it is, ACV is made from crushed-up fermented apples and can be used in cooking, baking, and for aiding health.  You may have heard about the health benefits of ACV.  Some of them include:

• Lowering blood sugar.
• Can lower total cholesterol and triglycerides and help with weight loss.
• Raw ACV has natural probiotics – frequently you will see the “mother” inside the bottle.
• Anti-fungal properties, especially against candida.
• Antibacterial properties against bacteria such as E. coli and S. Aureus.
• May help with digestion after meals – but this is more anecdotal.
• So many more.

If you grow your own herbs, grab a few handfuls of whatever sounds good to mix.  There are really no wrong answers.  You can always use store-bought herbs but fresh is best.  For this, I used sage, chives, rosemary, cilantro, garlic, green and red chilies, blackberries, and lemon.

Chop everything up – you want to open all the “doors and windows” of the plant cells.

Toss in a Mason jar.

Pour ACV over it up to the neck of the jar – leaving a little space at the top.

Put the lid on tight and shake it up.

Keep in a dark/cool cabinet for at least two weeks.  Shake daily.

After two or more weeks, strain out the herbs and put them into a bottle or back into the jar.  Keeps in the cabinet next to your other vinegars.

This is delicious added to salads, soups, or a teaspoon in water for a daily dose.

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Mitrou, P., Petsiou, E., Papakonstantinou, E. et al. The role of acetic acid on glucose uptake and blood flow rates in the skeletal muscle in humans with impaired glucose tolerance. Eur J Clin Nutr 69, 734–739 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2014.289

Solaleh Sadat Khezri, Atoosa Saidpour, Nima Hosseinzadeh, Zohreh Amiri, Beneficial effects of Apple Cider Vinegar on weight management, Visceral Adiposity Index and lipid profile in overweight or obese subjects receiving restricted calorie diet: A randomized clinical trial, Journal of Functional Foods, Volume 43, 2018, Pages 95-102, ISSN 1756-4646

Mota, A. C., de Castro, R. D., de Araújo Oliveira, J., & de Oliveira Lima, E. (2014). Antifungal activity of apple cider vinegar on candida species involved in denture stomatitis. Journal of Prosthodontics, 24(4), 296–302. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopr.12207

Yagnik D, Serafin V, J Shah A. Antimicrobial activity of apple cider vinegar against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans; downregulating cytokine and microbial protein expression. Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 29;8(1):1732. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18618-x. PMID: 29379012; PMCID: PMC5788933.