Keeping a healthy digestive tract depends in part on how diligent you are at putting healthy bacteria back into your gut on a regular basis. Our ancestors fermented many of their foods to preserve them, when refrigeration was nonexistent. Foods that were commonly preserved in this manner included vegetables like pickled beets and cucumbers. In the Middle East and parts of Asia it was very common to ferment dairy. Yogurt and kefir was, and still is, part of the diet in these regions. In Scandinavia, fermented fish was consumed daily as a staple. There are many examples of fermented foods being consumed all over the world today. We evolved eating foods that are laden with healthy bacteria and we still need these foods today. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize how healthy and delicious traditionally fermented foods are, and how fermented foods heal the body. Here is a recipe for an easy, and really delicious, fermented sauerkraut.

Easy Purple Cabbage Sauerkraut

Ingredients:

1 head organic purple cabbage
2 tbsp sea salt (I like Real Salt^®)

Directions:

Using a food processor, or a mandolin-style slicer, shred the cabbage, saving a couple of the outside leaves for later.

Put the shredded cabbage into a large bowl and add 2 tablespoons of sea salt and start the pounding process. You can use your fists or a kraut pounder, or a mallet used to tenderize meat. The object is to break the cabbage down until it is soft and to create lots of cabbage water (juice) in the bottom of the bowl.

Take the shredded cabbage from the bowl and put it into a clean mason jar, or jars, depending on the size of the cabbage.

Push the cabbage down into the jar, packing it tightly with your fist, and pour the cabbage water from the bowl into the jar to completely cover the top of the cabbage. You want all the cabbage under the water.

Take one of the leaves from the outside of the cabbage and put it on top of the kraut, tucking it in all around so the shredded cabbage isn’t above the water line.

If there isn’t enough juice to cover the cabbage, take a ½ cup of filtered water and add ½ teaspoon sea salt, stir to dissolve, and pour it into the jar to bring the water level up high enough to cover the cabbage.

Be sure to leave about 1” of head room for the expansion of the kraut. Open the jar daily to release the gas that is generated as the cabbage ferments.

Place jar with cabbage on your counter top at room temperature for about 3 days.

After day three, taste to see if it has fermented enough. It should be tangy and smell fermented, not rotten.

Once the cabbage is fermented enough it can go into the refrigerator. This slows the fermentation process down to a very slow pace and your fermented sauerkraut is good for about a year. Ours never lasts that long!

Eat with meals to help with digestion and to treat your taste buds to a not often tasted tangy flavor.

Fermented cabbage is packed full of healthy probiotics!