Sauerkraut is such a healthy, probiotic addition to a meal and it need not be complicated or time-consuming! This simple sauerkraut recipe is hands off – the cabbage is chopped in seconds in your food processor and the salt does it work whilst the mix is sitting in the fridge overnight. Next morning, you’re ready to put it in jars!

Super-Simple Sauerkraut Recipe

Ingredients/Equipment:

Cabbage (a dense light green or red variety works best)

Salt (unrefined sea or rock salt)

Unchlorinated water

Large bowl

Lidded glass jar big enough to hold the cabbage

Optional: Food processor and glass pickle weights

Method:

1. Put the bowl on your scales and put the cabbage into it, weighing it.
2. Remove a large outside leaf from your cabbage and set aside, then chop the rest of it into small pieces. You can do this by hand but I prefer to use the grating or chopping blade of my food processor.
3. Weigh out 1.375g of salt for every 100g of cabbage you have. Put the salt onto the cabbage and stir it around well.
4. Leave the cabbage to sit for up to 24 hours in the fridge. This way, time does the work for you, softening the produce.
5. After 24 hours in the fridge, remove the bowl from the fridge. The mixture should be squishy with liquid having been released from the cabbage.
6. Pack the cabbage into the glass jar and press it down well. Leave at least 1 inch at the top of the jar.
7. If the liquid generated does not cover the chopped vegetables entirely, make a mix of 1 cup of non-chlorinated water/5g of salt and top the jar up until you have covered the cabbage easily.
8. Cut the reserved outside cabbage leaf to the shape of the top of the mix. Place it in the jar to cover the surface, push it down and try to make sure there is no cabbage above the water line.
9. Put the lid on the jar. Cover it with a tea-towel and put it somewhere out of the way (that’s not too cold).
10. At the beginning of the ferment, check the jar every day to see if there is gas that needs releasing. After that, check it every few days to make sure the liquid is still covering the cabbage, if not top it up.
11. You can eat the sauerkraut after just 3/4 days. It’s better after several weeks and could even be kept fermenting for months.

Watch a video of me opening a jar of my sauerkraut here:

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