It’s time to share a recipe I have been preparing for myself and family for years now…getting on close to 20 years, actually! I’ve written it down and handed it around to many friends and family members over the years but this week, after harvesting a beautiful red cabbage from my garden, I decided it was time to share a little wider….
We all hear of the multiple benefits consuming probiotics can have on our health (and, if you haven’t heard – where have you been?!)
BUT – I’m willing to bet that few of us look beyond the obvious option of how to get these little gems into our bellies. (Expensive advertising campaigns conducted by large nutraceutical companies certainly add to our one tracked mind here, folks!)
Probiotic capsules are easy to access, quick to take and allow us to tick off that dietary bonus in the shortest possible time, for sure. However, they can also be expensive, they come with plenty of packaging, they may have questionable ingredients….. and we also have no real way of knowing, day to day, whether or not our well-earned dollar is being spent on something that is alive and well and doing us good, or if it may have passed its best and is really just a capsule of very little other than dead bacterial cells.
Worth a thought….
On the other hand, if we begin to source our dietary probiotics from naturally fermented, real foods, free from unnecessary additives, preservatives, fillers and other questionables, then we are not only ensuring that we are eating real, live probiotics (often times containing a greater variety of species of gut friendly probiotics than a pill will provide), we are also gaining the nutrients of the food itself – the vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants which our bodies require to perform optimally.
So, for me, it’s an easy choice – it’s real food over a bottle of capsules every time, wherever possible. I choose sauerkraut because I love the tang of the flavour, the crunch of the cabbage and the easy availability of the ingredients to make it.
And yes, I DO MAKE IT!
Many sauerkrauts available for purchase have been pasteurised to allow for bulk production, bottling/canning, storage and safe shelf life but this process results (as it is supposed to!) in the loss of the probiotics I want to consume. After all, it is the little colonies of bacteria we are trying to get into our bellies – we don’t want them killed off before they get there!!
The good thing is, it is the easiest thing in the world to whip up a batch of sauerkraut and, although I may be a little biased, my home made red cabbage sauerkraut is the best I’ve ever tried. It’s uncomplicated, full of fresh and tangy flavour and the colour is superb. A startling, vibrant, pinkish-purpley-red colour that just screams fresh!
I know there are many variations I could be making to this simple recipe but I just haven’t yet brought myself to try them – I really do love it just the way it is.
Give it a go for yourself – it really is good. Amazing on a salad, served with roast pork or chicken, added to an antipasto platter with cheeses and meats, tossed through balsamic glazed steamed beans with garlic and pine nuts….the options are actually endless.
ENJOY!
You will need:
Sterilised glass jar (or jars, depending on how much you are making at a time). The jars must be VERY clean, so sterilising clean jars in boiling water is an easy option.... and definitely make sure that there is no residue of dishwashing soap. I prefer to use the jars which have the lid that closes down with the little wire lock and the rubber ring for a really good seal. The ones I use are from a brand of coconut oil I like to buy ( 1 litre jars with wide openings and the lock down lids)
Large clean bowl or saucepan for the finely sliced cabbage. Again, ensure cleanliness and that it is free from dish soap residue
Optional – a small shot glass or other clean item to weigh down the sauerkraut (see step 7)
Ingredients:
1 good sized, heavy red cabbage, washed all over the outside
1 tablespoon fine salt (not table salt, not iodised. I use NutriSalt from Nutritech Solutions, but any good sea salt or Himalayan or Celtic salt is good) ***if your cabbage is particularly small, you might like to slightly reduce the quantity of salt to prevent it from being over-salty***
1 tablespoon caraway seeds, whole
Maybe, just a little water (wait till the end, though)
Method:
1. Have your glass jar/s ready – clean, dry
2. Peel off a leaf or two from the cabbage and set aside for later.
3. Cut your cabbage in half, remove the core from the bottom of the cabbage and then slice it all up finely. I always cut the cabbage into quarters or smaller before I start slicing it up finely, as it makes for shorter pieces of finished sauerkraut which I find more manageable.
4. Place the sliced cabbage into the large bowl and sprinkle with the salt and the caraway seeds.
5. Firmly massage and squeeze the salt through the cabbage for about 10-15 minutes, using your CLEAN hands. You will find that the cabbage quickly releases quite a lot of liquid and starts to soften and shrink. Keep going until it’s all macerated quite well and you end up with a fair amount of purple liquid in with the now softened cabbage.
6. Spoon the cabbage into your jars. Press it down firmly in the jars so it is closely packed with no air bubbles throughout.
You want to end up with the solids being covered by liquid, and a small space at the top of the jar, but not a lot of air left in the jar
7. Take a cabbage leaf and cut/fold it to fit into the top of the jar to sit on top of the cabbage, also under the liquid. ***If there is not enough liquid to cover the sauerkraut, you will need to top up the jar with a small amount of water just to cover it***
OPTIONAL – if you have a small shot glass to sit on top of the cabbage leaf and weigh it down, you can sit it (upright) on top now, just making sure that when you close the lid and push it down firmly the glass fits in well and the lid is properly sealed shut.
8. Once the cabbage is all submerged you are ready to seal it up – close the lid, wipe down any mess from the outside of the jar and place the jar into a shallow bowl (there will often be overflow during the fermentation process, so this just stops mess through your pantry!)
9. Place into a dark, cool cupboard for at least 10 days to ferment. Don’t open the jar for this time, just be patient. At about 5-7 days into the fermentation you will likely smell a sort of “off” smell emanating from the pantry – don’t worry, this is normal. It will pass after a day or two.
10. Depending on the time of year (summer is faster fermentation than winter) you can begin to use your sauerkraut after 10 days (min). The longer you leave it, the stronger the flavours will develop, but I usually put mine in the fridge after about 14 days.
11. To finish, once it’s ready, I open the lid (it may have gotten messy during the fermentation process – don’t be concerned) and remove the weight and the cabbage leaf on top and discard this. With a clean cotton cloth I wipe away any browned foam residue from the inside (and outside) of the jar and lid and then pop it in the fridge for use. It lasts ages in the fridge.
Now you just need to enjoy however you’d like!!
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