Earthy, nourishing root vegetable sauerkraut
If you’re a fermentation novice, I recommend starting with a simpler sauerkraut recipe, like our Roasted Garlic Sauerkraut with Black Pepper. This root vegetable sauerkraut is a little more advanced and best for people who have made a few successful batches of sauerkraut before.
I usually try to limit the amount of fruits and carrots I use in sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables. By limiting the amount of fruit and carrot in a sauerkraut recipe to 20% of the total, you can control the amount of FODMAPs (fermentable sugars) in the recipe. For this one, however, I decided to increase the ratio of the carrots quite a bit. This consists mainly of carrots, with a higher salt concentration and a little char to balance the microbes and fermentation.
Can you also make this sauerkraut with red cabbage?
Yes! Absolute. You can also use red beets instead of golden beets to make a beautiful sauerkraut with purple and red hues instead of golden, as I did here. The only thing you have to pay attention to is that red cabbage contains slightly more sugar than green cabbage, which can ultimately make your sauerkraut even more sour.
The key point is that red cabbage and beets are higher FODMAP ingredients. This means there is more sugar in the mix than something like Jalapeno Sauerkraut. As long as you use the recommended amount of salt, keep everything submerged, and keep the lid clean, you shouldn’t have any problems.
Things you may need:
Root Vegetable Sauerkraut Fermentation Timeline
Keep in mind that temperature affects how quickly sauerkraut ferments. This timeline applies between 70-80°F. Keeping your home colder will make the process slower. If your house is warmer, it will go faster.
- 24 – 48 hours: The entire contents of the jar should be submerged under the brine. At this time, Gram-negative bacteria and possible pathogens remain. (don’t worry, any unfriendly microbes will die off quickly!)
- 48 hours – 5 days: After 48 hours you should see many bubbles appear, and the color will change from deep purple to a lighter reddish magenta. This is the moment when the ferment enters the second phase of vegetable fermentation. Leukonostoc bacteria begin to thrive and Gram-negative organisms die.
- 5 – 10 days: The bubbles in the brine will decrease as the ferment leaves phase two and enters phase three. The fermentation becomes cloudy, the color changes and a pleasant sour smell is created. You should also recognize some earthy beet smells. Lactobacillus species begin to bloom at this time.
- 10 – 21 days: Next, Lactobacillus constitutes most or all of the microbial population. They produce large amounts of lactic acid, which makes the fermented cabbage smell even more pleasantly sour. This is when the cabbage mixture becomes and is stored as sauerkraut.
- 21 – 28 days: This is the time when you want to smell and taste. Wait until the cabbage smells and tastes the way you want it, then store it in the refrigerator when you like the smell and taste best! We like ours best when we keep them in the refrigerator after about 25 days.
Root Vegetables Sauerkraut Tips
- During the first few days of fermentation: carbon dioxide and bubbles are produced. Sometimes jars become full of liquid, which can seep out. Store the jar in a bowl to catch any spills. Remove the lid and tamp everything back down with a gloved hand, pestle or spoon. You can rinse the lid with warm soapy water to keep it clean. Make sure everything, including the weight, is submerged under the brine and replace the lid to continue fermenting.
- Always trust your sense of smell: Fermented cabbage should smell pleasantly sour and like strong cabbage. Never eat anything that smells disgusting or yeasty.
- Never eat anything that has mold growing on it: You should not encounter this problem if you follow the directions. Make sure you use high quality organic beets and ginger root. Roots grow underground and it is best to use ingredients from healthy soil.
- Taste test after three weeks: If you prefer the sauerkraut to be more sour, let it ferment longer at room temperature.
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Preparation:
15 minutes -
Total time:
504 hours 15 minutes
- Wash your fermentation equipment (pot, weight and lid)
- Remove the outer leaves from your cabbage and lightly rinse the cabbage, beets, carrots, radishes and celeriac with cold water.
- Cut the cabbage and carrots. You can slice, grate, or chop the carrots as you like (I like to cut them into thin strips).
- Place your kitchen scale on the counter. Turn it on and set it to weigh in grams.
- Measure all your ingredients with your kitchen scale.
- Mix all ingredients, including the water and salt, in a large bowl. Light massage the cabbage and carrots, breaking up any large or stuck together pieces.
- Pack everything, including the water, in a clean jar with a stainless lid. (a 32 ounce jar works best)
- Place a fermentation weight in the pot, making sure the cabbage pieces are submerged and fully weighed in the liquid. If you don’t have enough liquid, place the glass fermentation weight in the jar and submerge it as much as possible. Over the next 12 hours the mixture should release more liquid and you can press the fermentation weight under the brine.
- Tighten the lid (you don’t need to tighten it all the way. Just tighten the lid, but leave it slightly loose so that the gas doesn’t build up too much). You can store the jar in a glass container to catch any spills.
- Burping the pot: It should start to fizz and change color over the first few days. Once you have a tightly sealed lid, you should burp the jar. You should also wash the lid to keep it clean and readjust the fermentation weight if necessary. Each time the weight rises from the brine, with clean hands, press down hard on the weight to lower everything back into the liquid.
- Ferment at room temperature for 21-28 days, then remove the fermentation weight and refrigerate.
- If you try this recipe and like it, please leave a five-star review below!
Comments
- This recipe contains carrots (beets, radishes and celeriac). It is essential to try to use organic roots from high-quality soil in fermentation. Conventionally grown roots from poor quality soil can lead to mold.
- Red cabbage and red beets also work well in this recipe!
- See fermentation tips and timeline above this recipe.
- Taring/zeroing the scale with a container on it subtracts the weight of the container so you can only weigh what has been added to the container. After taring/zeroing the scale, the scale should read 0.0 with the container on it.
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