Make your own Sauerkraut

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Take care of your gut health and make your own probiotic foods at home!

But first, let’s take a moment to acknowledge the cabbage. What an underrated vegetable! In Eastern Europe and Asia they long ago harnessed the power of the cabbage, using fermented cabbage leaves for stuffed cabbage rolls (my fav!), cabbage salads, coleslaw, cabbage soup, kimchi and of course sauerkraut.

It’s quite impressive the wondrous health properties possessed by this humble (and lets be honest - smelly) vegetable. Once it is fermented, cabbage boasts a host of vitamins and minerals. Fermentation starts when yeast and bacteria that are naturally present on the cabbage and your hands, as well as in the air, come into contact with the sugars in the cabbage. Sauerkraut fermentation creates conditions that promote the growth of beneficial probiotics, that are great for our gut health. A healthy diet requires food and drinks with probiotics.

Sauerkraut is a delicious and versatile fermented condiment that can be added to salads, eaten by the spoonful or added to any meal. It also has amazing health benefits for your micro biome. Sauerkraut is rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Its probiotics also help your body absorb these nutrients more easily, which is what makes sauerkraut more nutritious than raw cabbage.

You can use any combination of vegetables to achieve the flavours you desire, such as beetroot, purple cabbage, ginger, garlic, fennel or dill. But for our recipe today we used cabbage, carrot and horseradish. It’s such a simple recipe and nice to be able to make for yourself and friends or family.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 Cabbage (approx. 2kg of thinly sliced cabbage).

  • 2-3 grated carrots

  • 3/4 a stick of grated horseradish

  • 2 - 2.5 Tbsp of salt (1 Tbsp per 1kg of vegetable)

METHOD

  • In a large bowl combine the grated vegetables, the thinly sliced cabbage and the salt.

  • Make sure your hands are clean as you need to use them for about 15 minutes to massage, squash and man handle the cabbage - the aim is to squeeze all of the liquid out of the vegetable so that liquid is covering the limp cabbage. Once this is achieved…

  • …Then spoon the mixture into jars and pour the juices evenly amongst them.

  • After squishing the mixture down with a spoon to make them as compact as you can - if there isn’t enough liquid then add 1/2 a Tbsp of water or so if required.

  • Seal the jars and keep in a cool place.

  • Check the mixture everyday - pressing it down with a spoon. If there is any scum that appears on top then scrape it off and press the mixture under the liquid.

  • The whole process generally take about 2 weeks. You can taste it along the way.

  • After 5-7 days you might prefer to relocate it to the fridge. The ferment will take a bit longer in the fridge, but will continue to ferment slowly in there.

  • Keep for up to 6 months.