I’ve had quite a few people ask for my recipe for sauerkraut. It tastes very different from the canned version and it is full of healthy probiotics. It’s fairly easy to make and you can improvise with additions to your liking.
Sauerkraut is a food rich in probiotics, if you make it yourself. It has been made by civilizations for centuries as a way to preserve food. It can be eaten on its own or added to salads and other dishes to add a perky sour flavor to the dish.
There is a basic recipe that includes just cabbage and salt. I make another version with red cabbage, beets, and ginger (pictured above), and another version with green cabbage, onions, and carrots (pictured below). Both are delicious.
Ingredients for basic sauerkraut:
- 1/2 large head of green cabbage, shredded
- 1 Tbsp Himalayan pink salt
Before your start, take off the outer most leaves off of the cabbage and set them aside. You’ll need them later.
I usually add my shredded cabbage to my food processor and pulse it a few times to cut the cabbage into smaller pieces.
Ingredients for sauerkraut with carrots and onions
- 1/2 large head of green cabbage, shredded
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 medium carrots, shredded or finely diced
- 1 Tbsp Himalayan pink salt
Ingredients for sauerkraut with beets and ginger
- 1 small head of purple cabbage, shredded
- 2 small or 1 medium beet, shredded
- 1-2″ of ginger, minced
- 1 Tbsp Himalayan pink salt
Directions:
Make sure you want your hand thoroughly. You will be using them a lot.
Add all the ingredients into a large bowl.
Here’s where you use your hands: you start squishing and squeezing all the ingredients together. The salt will start to draw out the liquid from the cabbage and other vegetables. You want to see that liquid. That means you’re doing it right.
When you get a good amount of liquid at the bottom, it’s time to get a couple of wide-mouth pint or quart jars. I can usually get 1 1/2 quarts with one batch.
Go ahead and place the jars in the bowl and start packing in the sauerkraut. Really push it down and pack it in tight–until you can see liquid sitting on top.
Now it’s time to grab those outer leaves from the cabbage. Take one and fold it up and place it on top of the sauerkraut. It’s purpose is to keep all the sauerkraut submerged in the brine so it doesn’t get moldy. Once you have the folded leaf in place, put the lid on and twist it closed, but not all the way. You want your sauerkraut to be able to breathe. It feeds the probiotics and assists the fermentation process.
I then place my jars in a pie tin on the counter for the next part of the fermentation. Over the next few days you’ll notice some bubbling and the brine will overflow out of the jar and into the pie tin. That is normal! That’s what you want to happen. Over the course of a week it will gradually stop and you can take out the cabbage leaf, close the lid tightly, and leave it in your fridge. At this point it is preserved and can last several years without going bad.
