One of my first baby foods was homemade sauerkraut. I ate it while sitting on my Grandpa’s knee. Great memories of eating it with him always draw me to eat more. Plus, this stuff is really good for you! Packed full of healthy probiotics and fiber. It’s also very inexpensive and easy to make. A staple food that we always have in our kitchen. I have made so many variations that I just had to share, but I will start with my basic easy sauerkraut recipe first…
Five Easy Sauerkraut Recipes
Basic Sauerkraut Recipe
This sauerkraut recipe is really good for you! It's packed full of healthy probiotics and fiber. It's also very inexpensive and easy to make.
Ingredients
- 1 large head of cabbage (or about 4 cups shredded cabbage)
- 1 tbsp sea salt
Instructions
- Cut cabbage into shreds and place into a large bowl.
- Add sea salt.
- Massage together with your hands until the cabbage starts to weep (it becomes wet).
- Add to your fermenting vessel (I use these) and push it down with your fist.
- Place a plate on top of the cabbage, and a weight of some sort if you are making it in a bowl or a larger fermenting vessel.
- I use a plastic (food grade) bag filled with water as a weight on the cabbage because a plate won't fit into my jar.
- Liquid should come off the cabbage and completely submerge the cabbage (this is important as exposed cabbage will mold).
- But make sure the cabbage is completely under the liquid.
- Alternately, you can use this slick little device.
- Let sit on your counter, covered with a towel for as long as you desire.
- After a week if it tastes sour and you want to eat it, then eat it! It's ready.
- I've let batches go for 6 months.....yep, 6 months. It was delicious! Someone once told me that in Germany if the kraut is less than 2 years old, they call it coleslaw. It gets better with age, like wine and cheese!
(pictured below is my dill pickle sauerkraut)
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
I was invited onto our local news show to demo my sauerkraut making skillz. You can tune in to the replay below
Some more recipe variations:
Liver Detox Sauerkraut Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 head cabbage
- 2 beets — beets help the liver detox
- 1 apple
- 2 Tbsp sea salt
Directions:
- Shred cabbage, put into large bowl
- Shred beet and apple in a food processor until its shredded
- Add to cabbage
- Add salt
- Massage until weeping
- Put into fermentation vessel and ferment the same way as in the Basic Kraut recipe above
Spicy Sauerkraut Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 4 jalapeños, thinly sliced
- 1 head cabbage
- 1 tbsp sea salt
Directions:
- Follow same directions as above, although you might want to wear gloves when massaging it. Or, just avoid touching your eyes for about 24 hours….ouch!
Heavy Metal Detox Sauerkraut Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 head cabbage
- 1 bunch cilantro finely chopped — cilantro binds to heavy metals
- 2 tbsp Hawaiian sea salt (with the charcoal in it) — charcoal binds to toxins and pulls them out of your body — where to find this
Directions:
- Follow same directions as above
Dill Pickle Sauerkraut Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 head cabbage
- 1 Tbsp dried (or fresh) dill
Directions:
- Follow the same directions as above
Watch my video below, where I show exactly how I make my sauerkraut in my kitchen
What is your favorite variation of homemade sauerkraut? Do you do it differently than I do? I would love to hear about it in the comments below!
CLICK HERE to Pin this Recipe
27 Replies to “Easy Sauerkraut Recipes (that save you money!)”
Do you think adding activated charcoal to the salt would be an acceptable replacement for the hawaiian salt in the heavy metal detox sauerkraut?
Sure, that would work too!
What about combining the ingredients of the heavy metal and the liver detox? that way you’ll get both at the same time.
I made the sauerkraut today and it is on the kitchen counter. Hope it works. I really need these probiotics. Thanks for sharing and wish me luck with this process. It’s my first time making sauerkraut.
Great, let me know how it turns out!
These look like great recipes Kate! Thank you for sharing. I really want to try a spicy sauerkraut recipe, so i’m glad that one was included. Do you have any other spicy recipes that don’t use jalapenos? Maybe some other form of pepper or cayenne or something of the sort? Thanks!
Hi Billy, You could try adding a less spicy pepper. 🙂
Hi Kate,
Thanks for the tip on using the plastic bag with water! Duh…don’t know why I didn’t think of it!
I am a retired Home Ec teacher and have been working with food for about 60 years,
I have a suggestion though that caught my attention the minute you did it.
Do you realize you brushed your neck and your hair back with your hands a couple of times before you then plunged them into your cabbage bowl?
If you are going teach, you need to be exemplary about hygiene!
Just redo your great video keeping your hands clean and check your other videos.
When I taught long hair had to be tied back.
In any commercial or test kitchen, it not only must be tied back but netted!
And for goodness sake don’t publish the second part of this comment!
Keep doing healthy things for your family,
Judy
Hi Judy, Wow, so cool that I was able to teach a veteran Home Ec teacher something!! Thanks for the hair tip 🙂 Sometimes I have had to quick film a video when the kids gave me a minute, so the hair tie didnt come into play. I will remember it for next time 🙂
This may be a silly question, but does the cabbage need to be organic?
No you can use conventional cabbage
Can I use mason jars with the lids and just not seal it and if I do that do. I just leave the door cracked
I think that will work, but the lids might rust so keep an eye on that