Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe

Today I’m going to show you an easy Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe!!!

Its homemade from scratch with very simple ingredients, actually just two! And it helps promoting a healthy gut. And we all know that our health begins in our gut! So incorporating to your daily routine is a great way to promote healthy gut flora and stay healthy!

Plus is delicious, it goes well with everything and it’s also loaded with vitamin C!

WHAT IS SAUERKRAUT

Sauerkraut is a way of fermenting and an old way of preserving food! The fermentation proces produces beneficial probiotics that are known to improve the immune, digestive and endocrine systems.

Sauerkraut is made in a process called lactic acid fermentation.

This homemade Sauerkraut will last a long time, so its a great way of preserving food without the need of refrigerating, freezing or canning. This will also help you store your garden veggies!

PROBIOTICS AND CHINESE MEDICINE

Did you know that sauerkraut originated in China? The Chinese where the first ones to ferment cabbage with rice wine over 2000 years ago!

Probiotics are know to be beneficial bacteria that we already have in our bodies. The lack of this bacterias in our bodies can cause disease.

Antibiotics can kill bacterias in our bodies, they are aimed to kill the bad bacterias but they also kill the good ones. That’s why many people experience digestive issues after taking antibiotics.

Probiotics are used to replenish this bacteria in our bodies. But we can also get depleted from this good bacterias from stress, excessive work and a poor diet. All of this can have a negative effect on our digestive system.

Now lets see at Traditional Chinese medicine point of view on this. The digestion is paired with the Spleen. When the spleen is functioning properly it transforms food into Qi and blood.

But when the spleen is weak or burdened by eating too many refined foods, sugar, raw or cold foods then you can experience symptoms such as bloating, fatigue, loose stools, constipation and lots of phlegm.

The spleen can also become weak by the emotions, over-thinking and too much mental and physical work. Being stuck in your head can deplete your spleen and cause chronic conditions, like irritable bowel syndrome and colitis.

This is where we see the benefits both in the west and east of probiotics.

Both the west and the east agree that the Immune system originates in the digestive system or the spleen(Wei Qi), and it plays a huge roll in your health. That’s why regular intake of probiotics will be of great benefit for your overall health. Probiotics are usually found in foods like Sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha, miso,

So to keep your spleen and your immune system happy making sure to eat warm, cooked, easily digestible foods and probiotics!!!

BEFORE WE START!

Making sauerkraut is really fun for the whole family, and your kids will love eating it because it has a neutral flavor, meaning is not spicy. And it’s a great way to get your probiotic intake daily since it goes well with everything.
Make sure to find some good weights, I have some rocks that i boil to sterilize. You want to avoid mold forming on the surface.
Everything needs to be under the water at all times! This will help you succeed.
try to avoid using plastic containers to ferment, the process of fermentation can cause plastic to leak into your food and you dont want to eat those plastic particles.
You can get fancy with this recipe and experiment on your own, but today we will make a basic recipe.
You might need to burp your sauerkraut if you close the lid. Make sure to do this every day to make sure you let all that carbon dioxide come out. Or put the lid on loosely! thats what I do.

Ingredients:

1 large head of cabbage
1-3 tablespoon of salt depending on the size of your cabbage
Usually you will need 1-2 tablespoons of salt per pound of cabbage.

Tools:

Chopping board
large glass container
knife

THE PROCESS:

Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage and set them aside
Chop your cabbage finely, some people do it in a food processor but I prefer doing it by hand with a knife
Place all your cabbage on a large bowl add the salt and mix. Here is my special secret, I cover it and then let it sit for an hour. This will let the cabbage sweat and the rest of the process will be a lot easier.

Sweating the cabbage

Now let’s make the brine! You can just massage the cabbage with your hands, here is where your kids can help you! You need to let a decent amount of liquid form in the bowl. This liquid is the brine. You will need a lot of this to cover the cabbage when you transfer it to your mason jar.

making sauerkraut

Time to move it to the mason jar. Slowly transfer all your cabbage to your jar pressing it gently down to make sure you have no air pockets inside. You will get the brine come over the top of the cabbage, this is exactly what we want

sauerkraut recipe

pressing sauerkraut into jar

Fill up your mason jar, leave some space on the top to let the veggies expand, remember as it ferments you will have brine overflow so you can place a plate underneath to catch the overflow juices.

homemade sauerkraut recipe

And now we will use the big leaves of the cabbage, you need them to weigh down all the little bits. On top of this I like to set my weights, you can buy some or make your own with some rocks. I boil my rocks in water for 20 mins, wait for them to cool down and they are ready to use. You can also use a ziplock bag full with water this will keep all the cabbage under the brine.

pressing down the sauerkraut with the weights

Place the lid on your mason jar, and you can now let it sit on a cool dry place to ferment from 1-3 weeks. The longer it sits the more sour it gets. You can try it after 5 days and check how you like it.
Once is done fermenting you can remove the weight, and now you can store it in the fridge to stop the fermentation process.

HOW TO EAT IT:

Well if you are new to ferments and probiotics you might want to start small. Eat a couple of tablespoons a day, and grow from there.

HOW LONG DOES IT LAST?

I have had sauerkraut last me up to 1 year. Always make sure there is no mold on your ferments before eating them.

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Did you know making sauerkraut could be this simple? With this homemade sauerkraut recipe you can start fermenting anything you like! Let us know about your experience!

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Homemade Sauerkraut Recipe