Easy and Delicious Homemade Sauerkraut!

If you have never made sauerkraut, then you are in for a treat! It has to be one of the simplest cultured foods to make. If you can chop cabbage, or shred it in your food processor, then you can make this easy and delicious homemade sauerkraut!

Why Should I Eat Sauerkraut?

Aside from it being a tasty condiment, sauerkraut is a cultured food, and cultured foods promote healthy gut flora. Why is this important? Simply because good health begins in the gut, or as Hippocrates stated another way, “All disease begins in the gut”.

You see, in our gastrointestinal tracts live trillions of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. This might sound a bit icky, but they actually help us digest our food, and even produce nutrients such as vitamin K and B-vitamins. When an imbalance of healthy and unhealthy gut flora occurs, it is called dysbiosis, and this condition can lead to a host of diseases including allergies and asthma, digestive disorders, mental health issues¹, and even cancer².

So how do we optimize our gut health? One way is by incorporating more cultured foods, like sauerkraut, into our diets. In fact, one of the best ways to ensure healthy gut flora is to consume cultured foods because they restore the good flora in our guts. This is because cultured foods contain probiotics, such as lactobacillus bacteria and bifidobacterium, which enhance gut health and improve digestion and boost the immune system.

The process of culturing foods not only produces beneficial bacteria, it also increases the bioavailability of its nutrients. How so? Plant foods contain something called anti-nutrients which include phytates, tannins, oxalates, and lectins. These compounds interfere with the body’s ability to absorb key nutrients such as iron, zinc, calcium, and iodine, and in some instances, may cause inflammation³ However, cultured foods minimize or destroy these compounds, leaving more vital minerals for our bodies to use.⁴

Why Make My Own Sauerkraut?

It’s true, you could just buy sauerkraut from the store, but then you would need to be reading ingredient labels to ensure you’re not getting less desirable ingredients in your sauerkraut such as wine and sodium bisulphite. When you make your own sauerkraut, you know exactly what’s in it, and you can use organic cabbage which has superior bacteria. Also, store-bought sauerkraut goes through heat processing to can it, which can kill off some of the beneficial bacteria.

Tools You May Need

• 2 large jars
• A cutting board
• A chef’s knife (or any sharp knife)
• OR a food processor

Ingredients

• A head of cabbage – organic is best as it provides superior bacteria to cabbage grown through nonorganic methods. You can also experiment with different kinds of cabbage! Red cabbage gives a beautiful colour to the sauerkraut and is richer in Vitamin C and anthocyanins which help prevent age-related neural declines and diabetes⁵
• Salt – I prefer Himalayan or Celtic sea salt as these are minimally processed and higher in minerals and trace elements than other salts.

Making Sauerkraut

Remove and wash the outer leaves of the cabbage and set them aside as you will use them at the last step.

Chop the cabbage until shredded or shred it using a food processor.

Transfer the shredded cabbage to a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Massage the salt into the cabbage for about 5 minutes. This will cause juice to be released from the cabbage that will serve as the brine.

Spoon the cabbage into 1 or 2 large jars (it will depend on how much cabbage you have). Push the cabbage down in the jar so it is completely submerged in the brine. As a rule of thumb, you will want about 1 inch of brine covering your cabbage. If you do not have enough brine, you can make more by first boiling some water and then adding salt (1 tsp salt per cup of water). You also want to make sure that the cabbage is packed tightly to remove as much air as possible as the fermentation must take place in an anaerobic environment (free of oxygen) to ensure unwanted bacteria do not proliferate and mould does not grow.

Next, fold the cabbage leaves you reserved earlier and put them on top of the shredded cabbage in the jar. This will keep it submerged in the brine and prevent mould from growing. Using a fermentation weight to keep the shredded cabbage submerged is also a good idea.

Cover tightly with the lid (using a lid with a rubber seal here is helpful) and leave it out on the counter for at least 5 days or up to 3 weeks. A warmer kitchen will speed up the fermentation process. The longer it is left out on the counter, the more sour it will be, but it will also be higher in beneficial bioactive compounds.

While fermenting, place your jar in a shallow bowl or dish to catch brine that will inevitably leak out.

Store your sauerkraut in the fridge where it will keep for up to 6 months.

1. Clapp, M., Aurora, N., Herrera, L., Bhatia, M., Wilen, E., & Wakefield, S. (2017, September 15). Gut microbiota’s effect on mental health: The gut-brain axis. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved June 10, 2024, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5641835/ ↩︎
2. Ağagündüz D, Cocozza E, Cemali Ö, Bayazıt AD, Nanì MF, Cerqua I, Morgillo F, Saygılı SK, Berni Canani R, Amero P, Capasso R. Understanding the role of the gut microbiome in gastrointestinal cancer: A review. Front Pharmacol. 2023 Jan 24;14:1130562. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1130562. PMID: 36762108; PMCID: PMC9903080. ↩︎
3. Petroski W, Minich DM. Is There Such a Thing as “Anti-Nutrients”? A Narrative Review of Perceived Problematic Plant Compounds. Nutrients. 2020 Sep 24;12(10):2929. doi: 10.3390/nu12102929. PMID: 32987890; PMCID: PMC7600777.; ↩︎
4. Petroski W, Minich DM. Is There Such a Thing as “Anti-Nutrients”? A Narrative Review of Perceived Problematic Plant Compounds. Nutrients. 2020 Sep 24;12(10):2929. doi: 10.3390/nu12102929. PMID: 32987890; PMCID: PMC7600777. ↩︎
5. Lila MA. Anthocyanins and Human Health: An In Vitro Investigative Approach. J Biomed Biotechnol. 2004;2004(5):306-313. doi: 10.1155/S111072430440401X. PMID: 15577194; PMCID: PMC1082894. ↩︎