kraut Archives - Loula Natural

This spicy, tart and juicy Christmas Kraut is a match made in heaven for your plate, throughout the holiday season.

Traditional Christmas foods are naturally rich in fats, nutrients and, of course, sugar! Many of us will also be enjoying a tipple or two at parties over the coming weeks. Adding a fermented aspect to these meals, this Christmas Kraut may help the body to deal with and digest all these excess foods and drinks. Hopefully lessening the fatigue, bloating, hangovers, sugar highs (and lows) and of course the noxious fumes that generally comes with turkey, sprouts et al.

Perfect on the plate at the main event or served with cheese, this Christmas Kraut will totally change some of your Christmas traditions!! It will certainly be on the menu for me for years to come.

So simple, if you are in a warmish climate you could ferment this in a week and have it ready for your Christmas table this year.

To find out how to make a basic sauerkraut see here and for my beetroot and ginger flavour see here.

Christmas Kraut

2015-12-13 12:00:28

Write a review

Save Recipe

Ingredients

Ingredients
1 whole green cabbage thinly sliced
1 whole red cabbage thinly sliced
1.5% Salt
250g of fresh cranberries cut in half
1 orange (zest and segments cut in 3)
2tsp Pumpkin pie spice (or use a mix of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger and star anise)

Instructions

Retain 1/2 of the outside cabbage leaves for later.
Make sauerkraut by mixing the cabbage with the salt. Massage the cabbage until it starts to wilt and release water.
Add and combine the cranberries, orange and spices.
Press the mixture into a fido (airtight sealable jar) jar and keep pressing down to release liquid.
When the mixture is all in the jar and there is liquid covering the top, press down the outside cabbage leaves to keep any stray bits of cabbage from floating to the surface of the liquid.
Seal and leave to ferment on the counter for a week-28 days. Keep tasting the kraut every few days.
Put in the fridge for an additional week.
Enjoy, Merry Christmas

Notes

This recipe is especially nice with cheese or an alternative to cranberry sauce.

By Louise Buckley

Adapted from How to Ferment: Sauerkraut

Loula Natural https://loulanatural.com/

Basic Sauerkraut is so delicious (see my how to here). I have it with eggs, add it so my coleslaw (kraut slaw here) and try to have it with any meat dish as a side. The sour flavour works well to stimulate gastric acids too so it a great primer for any fat, protein rich foods.

Since cabbage has so many health giving properties (read here), combining it with beetroot and ginger makes so much sense. The rich, sweetness and earthiness of the beetroot goes so well with the heat of the ginger and the sourness of the kraut. It hits all of the senses on the palate and really satisfy the taste buds.

Of course the rich myriad of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and blood boosting qualities of the beetroot with the anti-inflammatory, warming and nourishing properties of ginger are made even more available to the body with the fermentation process. The presence of a well balanced symbiosis of bacteria allows the body access to these nutrients, to absorb and use them to help promote wellbeing and healing.

Start in the same way as you would with the basic sauerkraut. When the cabbage and salt have been massaged together, combine the beetroot and ginger (I have used raw and powdered ginger and both work well) before packing it all into your jar.

Beetroot and Ginger Sauerkraut

2015-11-17 15:06:31

A rich nutritious flavouring of sauerkraut. Great to assist in the body's wellbeing and healing process. Really good to help digestion of fat or protein rich foods in a meal.