This Bionsan fermented foods review almost didn't happen. I ferment chilli. That's it. That's been my entire fermentation repertoire for years – a couple of jars bubbling away on the counter, hot sauce at the end of it, job done. So when I picked up a single jar of Bionsan fermented fennel almost on a whim, I wasn't expecting it to derail anything. It did. One jar got me curious enough to order the rest of what you see on the tray.
How I came to have it
Bionsan is an organic producer based in Móra d'Ebre, in Tarragona. Nobody sent me this. There was no email, no PR list, no arrangement of any kind — I bought the lot myself, out of curiosity, and only decided afterwards that it was worth writing about. Same situation as the Shark fan: I paid for it, I'm using it, and I think it's worth knowing about. That's the short version of why this Bionsan fermented foods review exists at all.
What's actually in the haul
The range splits into two groups that matter for different reasons:
Properly fermented and probiotic:
- Vinegars — Antiox (apple vinegar with cherry), Depur (apple vinegar with rosemary and honey), Energy (apple vinegar with beetroot)
- Fermented vegetables — hinojo lactofermentado (lacto-fermented fennel, made with apple vinegar, kefir water and coriander seeds — this was the jar that started it all), fermented carrot, fermented red beetroot, a chucrut mix, and kimchi
- Agua de kefir — turns up as an ingredient in some of the ferments themselves, and is also sold as a standalone probiotic drink
Not fermented, just good:
- Two hummus varieties — interestingly, one jar is labelled Paté de Garbanzos (Hummus), so Bionsan's own naming treats "chickpea pâté" and "hummus" as essentially the same thing
- BioGoret chicken stock cubes (caldo de pollo) — I bought several boxes of these specifically for the campervan. Compact, shelf-stable, no fridge space needed — exactly what you want for cooking in Florie.
- Separately: a mushroom pâté and a truffled olive pâté, plus a range of gourmet salsas – both still waiting their turn
Worth being upfront about that distinction because "probiotic" gets used loosely in food marketing, and I'd rather you knew exactly what you were getting before you decide whether it matters to you.
Bionsan Fermented Foods Review: What I've Tried So Far
The fennel was the one that actually changed something for me. I'm used to my own chilli ferments having a fairly blunt, hot, vinegary character — it's what I built them for. The fennel was different: sharper, more floral, genuinely more interesting than I expected a jar of fermented vegetables to be. It's what sent me looking at the rest of the tray rather than just eating the one jar and moving on.
The Depur — rosemary and honey — has gone into a vinaigrette I've been using on fish; more on that below. It's not sharp in the way a standard ACV is. The honey rounds it out enough that it works somewhere a plain vinegar wouldn't.
A Scandinavian-Style Open Sandwich
I've always had a soft spot for the Scandinavian style of open sandwich, and this haul gave me a proper excuse to indulge it. A loaf of pan integral from the local panadería, split in two — one slice spread with the beetroot hummus and topped with the fermented carrot, the other spread with the chickpea hummus and topped with the fermented beetroot. Swapping the toppings across rather than pairing each hummus with its "matching" colour turned out to be the right call: the two ferments and the two hummus varieties complemented each other beautifully, each one picking up something the other was missing.
It's a small thing, but it's exactly the kind of fast, no-cooking-required plate this haul is suited to – and a good sign that the jarred ferments are going to earn their place well beyond just dressing seafood.
Between the open sandwiches and the chicken plate above, the fermented carrot and beetroot are already accounted for – both held up well and earned their place.
Chicken, Butter Beans and Fermented Carrot
Another quick plate that leaned on the fermented carrot straight from the jar — pan-seared chicken, butter beans warmed through in a paprika-tinted oil, and the carrot served as-is alongside, doing the same job it did in the open sandwich: cutting through the richness of everything else on the plate. I've got plenty of pan-fried chicken recipes already in the Chicken Hub, so this isn't a new method so much as a new way of finishing a familiar plate – the fermented carrot is doing more work here than any extra sauce would.
What I haven't fully explored yet
I've since worked through the kimchi and the chucrut mix too — both clean and fresh-tasting, no funky off-notes, and nothing that needed apologising for. The kimchi has real heat without losing the fermented sourness underneath it; the chucrut mix is sharper and more straightforwardly sour, less complex than the kimchi but doing exactly what a good sauerkraut should. Both ended up in the bed under a piece of pan-fried monkfish, alongside the fennel – a dish that's its own story, linked below.
The standalone agua de kefir, both gourmet pâtés, and the salsas are still ahead of me. I'll update this as I go.
Why This Matters for the Summer Trip
This haul has come at a useful moment. I'm planning a summer van trip through Extremadura, Almería and Cantabria, and I spend a good deal of that time off-grid. Florie's 85 L fridge is generous for a van, but keeping fresh produce in good condition over days without a reliable hookup is always a balancing act – heat, journey length, and how often I can realistically restock all play a part.
The fermented carrot and beetroot have already proved themselves in a sandwich, and travel just as well as the kimchi and chucrut mix — none of it needs refrigeration until opened. All of it adds genuine flavour rather than just bulking out a plate, and a jar takes up a fraction of the space fresh veg would for the same meal.
I bought this stash myself. No money changed hands. No one asked me to write this.
Recipes using Bionsan products (updated as new posts go live)
This Bionsan fermented foods review will keep growing as I work through the rest of the tray.
For more of my product reviews, visit my Reviews page.
Find more recipes and food adventures here.
Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef
