Red cabbage sauerkraut (fermented red cabbage)

Red cabbage sauerkraut is a fermented food with a crunchy texture and tangy flavour made using only cabbage and salt. You can serve it as a vegetable side dish or condiment.

Sauerkraut is considered a gut healthy food and there are many claims about its health benefits. If you are looking to eat more fermented foods for gut health then homemade sauerkraut is a cheap and easy way to do this. You can read about some of the potential benefits of eating sauerkraut here.

But there are other good things about sauerkraut too. It is a tasty and versatile food which can be enjoyed in many ways such as with salads, as a sandwich filling or served alongside hot dishes such as cottage pie, nut roast or veggie sausages. It can also be used as a topping for bean burgers or falafel.

And it has a long shelf life too. Once prepared, you can store it in the fridge for many months enabling you to keep a stock of this fermented vegetable to enjoy whenever you like.

The quantities in this easy sauerkraut recipe are sufficient to fill two medium sized jars.

Ingredients

• 500 grams red cabbage - select a crunchy type of cabbage.
• 10 grams salt - use finely ground salt.

How to prepare

Discard any cabbage leaves which are old or damaged.

Set aside enough whole cabbage leaves to cover the sauerkraut in the jars.

Thinly slice the raw cabbage and place in a large bowl. Ideally slice the cabbage an even thickness. Thinner slices will soften more quickly during fermentation.

Add the salt to the shredded cabbage and toss so that the salt is mixed evenly with the cabbage.

Leave for 15 minutes to allow the salt to draw water out of the cabbage.

Massage the cabbage using your hands for 10 to 15 minutes. The cabbage will release more water, reduce in volume and will produce brine when mixed with the salt.

Pack into clean sterilised jars making sure that the brine completely covers the cabbage. If you need to add more brine you can make this by adding 1 teaspoon salt to one cup of bottled water.

Place the reserved whole cabbage leaves on top of the shredded cabbage and press down below the level of the brine.

Fit the lids onto the jars.

Leave to ferment at room temperature for between 1 and 4 weeks. You will see bubbles in the brine as it ferments. Unscrew the lids to release some of the gases. You can eat the fermented cabbage at any time but check regularly until the flavour is as you like it. The flavour will develop with time. When it is ready, transfer to the fridge to stop any further fermentation.

Variations

• You can add spices to the brine such as peppercorns, star anise, chopped chilli or finely chopped fresh ginger.
• You can follow the same recipe using white cabbage or a mixture of red and white cabbage.

To store

Store the sauerkraut in the fridge where it will keep well for several months so long as the jars are clean.

To serve

• Red cabbage sauerkraut makes a tasty side dish to many main meals including lentil nut roast, veggie sausages or lentil cottage pie.
• Use as a sandwich filling alongside your favourite filling.
• You could make some spicy veggie burgers or sweet potato burgers and add sauerkraut as a topping.
• Add to other salad ingredients such as this recipe for winter salad.
• Mix with grated carrots and finely chopped onions to make a variation on traditional coleslaw.

Tip

• While it is easy to scale up the quantities in this recipe, I find that using 500 grams of cabbage is a managable amount to prepare using a typical sized kitchen bowl. If you are making a significantly larger amount you may need to use more than one bowl.

Other homemade condiments