What to Do with Sauerkraut to Make You Fall in Love with Fermented Cabbage
If you think you don't like sauerkraut, hear me out
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Hands up who hates Sauerkraut?
I’m imagining a few of you waving at me right now…
I get it. If the only way you’ve ever eaten sauerkraut is straight from the jar alongside a hunk of meat, then yeah, you might hate it. If you’re of Central European descent, you’ll know what sort of dish I mean.
But there is so, so much more to it than a love-it-or-hate-it side dish.
I freaking love sauerkraut but I admit, I love funky flavors. I also love how awesome sauerkraut is for your belly - its probiotics are off the charts.
I want you to love sauerkraut too and I have just the recipes to help you on your way. In almost all of them, the sauerkraut is cooked which takes some of those funky flavors out.
In fact, I love sauerkraut so much - and the flexibility of it - I’ve just added it to the Capsule Pantry ingredient list.
Let’s go to funky town.
Should you make your own sauerkraut?
Although my homemade kimchi - sauerkraut’s spicy Korean cousin - has always turned out great, I’ve never had such luck with making sauerkraut from scratch so I buy it ready-made. If you can, buy a whole head. You can shred it when you need to but also keep it whole for recipes like Sarma cabbage rolls - see below.
If you want to try your hand at making sauerkraut, let me know how you get on and which recipe you used!
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Recipe no. 1 - Sarma rolls
For the last 2 months, I’ve been in the Balkans - mostly Romania and Croatia - where Sarma rolls reign supreme. People say they’re super complicated to make, but in reality, they take about 15 minutes of prep followed by an hour and a half on the stovetop, left largely alone.
Everyone has a different way of making Sarma. I found this recipe to be one of the easier, less ingredient-heavy (thus Simple and Straightforward friendly) ones I found.
I’ve made these at least once a week during my time here and I’ve grown to adore them. They’ve earned their place in my mental recipe rolodex.
Ingredients (makes approx 10 rolls or enough for two people)
250g / 1/2 lb ground pork
Half a medium-sized white onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons white rice
Small handful chopped parsley
5 large / 10 small sauerkraut leaves
Passata - around 200g / 8oz
Salt and pepper
Make the filling by mixing the ground pork, onion, garlic, rice, parsley, and salt and pepper in a mixing bowl.
Take a sauerkraut leaf on a chopping board. If it’s large, cut it in half. Place a small sausage-shaped handful of the filling in the middle and roll like a mini burrito: Start rolling it lengthways, tuck in the sides then roll all the way until you have a stumpy sausage-like thing in your hand around 5-7cm / 2-3 inches long. It might take a little bit of practice to get right the first time.
Set aside then make the rest of the rolls.
Place the rolls in a pot large enough to snugly fit all the rolls in one layer. If you’re making double or triple quantities, you can layer up the rolls on top of each other.
Pour in the passata. You want to aim for a thin layer of it across all the rolls. Season with a little bit of salt and pepper.
Pour in hot water until the rolls are just about covered.
Set on a simmer, lid on, for around an hour and a half to two hours.
The tomato liquid will reduce - keep an eye on it because you don’t want the bottom rolls to stick. Pour in more water if required. At the end of cooking you might want to lift the lid to let the sauce reduce so it just coats the rolls.
Lift out and serve with polenta (recipe here) - the traditional accompaniment in Romania.
Dietary restrictions
This dish is naturally gluten and nut free
Make sarma vegetarian / vegan by using veggie mince instead of ground pork.
Make it dairy free by omitting the cheese from the polenta.
Sauerkraut
If you can only get hold of shredded sauerkraut, you can make these rolls with fresh cabbage leaves (you’ll need to steam or boil them first to make them pliable) then pile in the shredded sauerkraut around the rolls in the pan. You ideally do want sauerkraut in one form or another in this recipe, it gives it a nice tang.
The meat
Mix up the ground pork with beef - or a mix - if you like.
The tomatoes
Use canned chopped tomatoes if you can’t find passata. Or blitz whole canned tomatoes in a food processor.
Recipe no. 2 - Beetroot and sauerkraut fritters
Ingredients
2 raw beetroot, peeled and coarsely grated
One small white onion finely chopped
50g / 1/3 cup shredded sauerkraut
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ras-al-hanout / curry powder / ground coriander (your choice)
100g / 0.75 cups plain flour (or gram flour if you have it)
Salt and pepper to season
Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add 4-5 tablespoons of water and mix until the mixture comes together.
Heat around half an inch of oil in a frying pan.
Carefully drop in dessert spoonfuls of the mixture and flatten them a little. Turn once they become brown on the bottom (should take a couple of minutes).
Drain onto kitchen roll.
Serve on top of a smear of natural yogurt spiked with chili flakes or spiced with more cumin and ras-al-hanout.
The best kimchi hack
However much I love making kimchi, it’s not exactly travel-friendly. So when I’m on the road, I make a kimchi hack using sauerkraut:
Shred sauerkraut and place in a bowl.
Add a splash of soy sauce, a minced garlic clove, a small piece of finely chopped ginger, and some sort of chili sauce. I’ll buy doubanjiang whenever I’m near an Asian store (there are plenty around where I hang in Europe) but I’ve also used garlic and chili cooking sauce and fermented bean paste.
I even have friends who make “Croatian kimchi” which is simply sauerkraut and hot paprika. Hey, it works!
What to do with your kimchi / kimchi hack
I wrote about Kimchi a few months ago here. Follow the link for recipes for:
Kimchi and cheese toasties
Kimchi rice bowl (aka my lunch most days)
Kimchi baked egg
Kimchi dumplings
If you want more inspiration,caroline chambersof What to Cook when you Don't Feel like Cooking has some brilliant ideas for kimchi here.