How to use kombucha in cooking: dressings, marinades and glazes

Kombucha is a drink first, but it is also one of the most useful acids in the kitchen. It is tart, faintly sweet, and it carries the flavour of the tea it was brewed from, so it does much the same job in a recipe as wine, cider or vinegar. If you have ever added a splash of white wine vinegar to a dressing, kombucha can go in its place.

Here are the three ways we use it most at home: a dressing, a marinade and a glaze.

What does kombucha actually do in a recipe?

It brings acidity, and acidity is what makes food taste bright. It cuts through fat, lifts a dressing, and in a marinade it softens the surface of meat and fish and carries flavour into it.

The useful part is that kombucha is noticeably milder than vinegar. Vinegar is sharp enough that you measure it in teaspoons; kombucha you can pour. So you can use a lot of it without the dish tasting of nothing but sour, and you get the tea and the fruit underneath as well.

Does cooking with kombucha keep it alive?

No, and that is fine. Heat stops the living cultures, so anything you simmer, reduce or roast is about flavour and nothing else. If you want the kombucha raw in the dish, keep to the cold uses: dressings, dips, a quick pickle, a marinade you pour off before cooking.

One practical note. The fizz does nothing once kombucha is in a pan, so the end of a bottle that has gone flat is ideal for cooking rather than something to pour away. Ours is live and raw, and still shelf stable, so an unopened bottle will happily sit in the cupboard until you want it.

How do you make a kombucha salad dressing?

This is the easiest place to start, and the one we make most often. In a jar:

• 3 tbsp kombucha
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp honey or maple syrup, if you want it rounder
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and black pepper

Put the lid on and shake hard. The mustard holds it together, so it will not split on the way to the table. Note the ratio is closer to two parts oil to one part kombucha rather than the classic three to one, because kombucha is gentler than vinegar and a 3:1 dressing tastes flat.

Original, with its apple and pear, is the everyday one here, good over green leaves, a slaw or anything with cheese in it. Lemon Lavender makes a more elegant version for grilled fish. Lime Sea Salt is excellent whisked with a spoonful of tahini.

How long should you marinate with kombucha?

A good base is 150ml kombucha, 2 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce or a good pinch of salt, a crushed clove of garlic and whatever else you fancy. Then watch the clock, because acid keeps working:

• Prawns and white fish: 15 to 20 minutes, no longer, or the texture goes chalky
• Chicken thighs and drumsticks: 2 to 4 hours, or overnight at a push
• Pork and beef: overnight is fine
• Tofu, halloumi, mushrooms and aubergine: 30 minutes is plenty

Pat everything dry before it hits the pan. A wet surface steams instead of browning, and the browning is where the flavour is. Ginger is the obvious choice here, especially for chicken wings or salmon. Black Cherry is very good with pork.

How do you make a kombucha glaze?

A glaze is just kombucha reduced until it is syrupy. Put 300ml kombucha in a small pan with 2 tbsp honey or soft brown sugar, 1 tbsp soy sauce and a crushed clove of garlic. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until it has reduced by about two thirds and coats the back of a spoon.

Two things to get right. Use a stainless steel or enamel pan, because a long simmer with something acidic in bare cast iron or aluminium can pick up a metallic edge. And brush the glaze on in the last few minutes of cooking rather than at the start, because the sugar in it will catch and burn over a long roast.

Black Cherry reduced this way, with a little star anise, is superb on duck, pork belly or ribs. Ginger glaze belongs on salmon, chicken wings or roasted carrots.

Three more things worth trying

• A quick pickle. Equal parts kombucha and water, a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of sugar, poured over sliced cucumber or red onion. Half an hour in the fridge and you have something sharp to put on everything.
• Deglazing the pan. After frying chicken or pork, pour in a splash of kombucha and scrape up everything stuck to the bottom. Instant sauce.
• In a cake. Kombucha stands in for buttermilk where you need acid to react with bicarbonate of soda. Lemon Lavender in a loaf cake is a genuinely good idea.

Taste as you go. Reducing kombucha concentrates its sweetness as well as its sharpness, so salt at the end rather than the beginning.

If you would rather drink it alongside the meal than cook with it, we wrote a pairing guide for that. And if you want to experiment across all five flavours, you can build your own case of 12, or read more about each one on our kombucha flavours page.