Sauerkraut with Cabbage, Carrots, Ginger, Turmeric, and Beets
This sauerkraut is the next step after making basic, all cabbage sauerkraut. It is as spicy as you make it, and has strong anti-inflammatory properties. You can play with the ingredient list and fermentation time. Make it yours!
INGREDIENTS
Sauerkraut
one small head of cabbage
3 — 5 carrots
1 — 2 knobs of ginger
2 — 5 pieces of turmeric
1 — 2 beets (see NOTE *)
salt
INSTRUCTIONS
Set aside 2 — 3 outer leaves of the cabbage.
Clean and shred all the vegetables in a food processor. You can also cut them with a knife. (see NOTE **)
Put the vegetables in a large bowl and weight all the shredded vegetables on a food scale and calculate 2% of that number. (see NOTE ***)
Add the salt to the vegetables and mix with hands, squeezing the vegetables as you go.
Set aside for 30 — 60 minutes.
Mix again. You will find that they are very wet and watery. The salt is leeching the liquid from the cabbage. This is why you don't need to make a brine.
Squish the vegetables into a clean vessel. I use a 2L glass jar, but you can use anything as long as it's glass or ceramic so you don't trigger a reaction.
Push all the vegetables down with a fist, forcing the air our and encouraging the liquid to pool at the top.
Devein and fold the reserved outer cabbage leaves into the jar and push below the liquid. Add a weight (glass fermenting weight, clean rock in baggie, or other).
Put the lid and ring on the jar, but don't seal completely so that it can "self burb." As gas forms, the ring will allow the lid to lift enough for the gas to escape, but not so much that you lose the lid.
Start testing at one week for doneness, which will be your desired level of sourness. I typically leave my for two weeks.
When finished remove the weight and outer cabbage leaves, close ring completely, and store it in the fridge.
NOTES
* In the picture, the 'kraut in the jar does not have ginger, but has beets. In the finished 'kraut in the dish, it has ginger, but not beet. You can choose how much of each ingredient to add. The finished 'kraut was also shredded too finely for my tastes, while the fresh 'kraut was shredded using a coarser blade, resulting in some of the carrots and beets being sliced instead of shredded. It all works!
** I like them to be about medium coarseness — not super fine, but also not really chunky. You can peel the carrots and beets if you want. I do, if they aren't organic.
*** For example, if the vegetables weigh 1,425 grams, you would need 28.5 grams of salt. I always round up, so in this example I would use 29 — 30 grams of salt.
Troubleshooting
If something goes wrong, it's probably because the jar or utensils weren't clean, or the cabbage wasn't under the surface of the brine.
It is normal to have something called Kahm yeast grow on the top of ferments. It is white and thin, floating on the top of the brine. It often shows up in small spots, but can take over the top of the brine. This is fine. It's safe. You can skim it off the top.
Throw away the sauerkraut if it smells bad or has any other kind of mold on it. Sauerkraut should have a sour, tangy smell, that is unusual, but not offensive.
