Red Cabbage Sauerkraut with Fermented Beet
Homemade sauerkraut is the best fermented food to make if you’re new to fermenting vegetables at home. This red cabbage sauerkraut is particularly easy for a first fermentation project since cabbage ferments exceptionally well. Cabbage’s water content and microbial species richness make it optimal for wild fermentation! This recipe teaches you how to make probiotic red cabbage and beet sauerkraut with ginger in a mason jar.
Can you make sauerkraut with red cabbage?
I love ginger beet sauerkraut with red cabbage. Some people call it purple cabbage, but it’s the same thing. It’s especially great for fall and winter, aka cold and flu season, since it’s so packed with antioxidants. With just a few simple ingredients and a few weeks of fermentation, you can craft a nutrient-dense, probiotic, flavorful sauerkraut.
The key point is that red cabbage and beets are higher-FODMAP ingredients. This means there’s more sugar in the mix than with 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 issues.
Supplies
Red Cabbage Sauerkraut Fermentation Timeline
Note that temperature will influence how fast or slow sauerkraut ferments. This timeline is applicable between 70-80° F. If you keep your home colder, the process is slower. If your home is warmer, it will be faster.
- 24 – 48 hours: All contents in the jar should be submerged beneath the brine. At this time, there are still Gram-negative bacteria and possible pathogens present. (not to worry, any unfriendly microbes die off quickly!)
- 48 hours – 5 days: After 48 hours, you should start to see lots of bubbles being produced, and the color will change from deep purple to a lighter reddish magenta. This is when the ferment enters stage two of vegetable fermentation. Leuconostoc bacteria begin to thrive, and Gram-negative organisms die off.
- 5 – 10 days: The bubbles in the brine will decrease as the ferment leaves stage two and enters stage three. The ferment will become cloudy, the color will change, and a pleasant sour smell will develop. You should also recognize some earthy beet smells. Lactobacillus species begin to thrive at this time.
- 10 – 21 days: Next, Lactobacillus makes up most or all of the microbial population. They produce copious amounts of lactic acid, making the fermented cabbage smell even more pleasantly sour. This is when the cabbage mixture becomes sauerkraut and is preserved.
- 21 – 28 days: This is when you want to smell and taste test. Wait for the kraut to smell and taste as you like, and refrigerate when you find the smell and taste most pleasant! We like ours best when we refrigerate at about 25 days.
What Temperature Should I Keep My Red Cabbage Sauerkraut At?
Keep your fermenting cabbage at a temperature between 70-80 degrees F. Keep out of direct sunlight. If it’s winter and your kitchen get’s below 70, don’t fret! It’s fine to ferment in colder conditions; it will just take longer to finish fermenting.
How Long Should I Ferment Beet Sauerkraut?
After 3-4 weeks, remove the fermentation weight, smell, and taste test. Your fermented cabbage should smell pleasantly sour and taste tart, lightly salty, and beety + cabbagey.
Do I Need to Refrigerate Beet Kraut?
After fermenting for 3-4 weeks, remove the weight and place a regular mason jar lid on the jar and refrigerate. Consume within six months for full probiotic benefits.
Homemade Beet and Red Cabbage Sauerkraut Tips
- During the first few days of fermentation: carbon dioxide and bubbles will be produced. Sometimes jars will become full of liquid, which can seep out. Keep the jar in a bowl of dish to catch spills. Remove the lid and tamper everything back down using a gloved hand, tamper, or spoon. You can rinse the lid with hot, soapy water to keep it clean. Ensure everything, including the weight, is submerged below 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 repulsive or yeasty.
- Never eat anything with mold growing on it: You should not encounter this problem if you follow directions. Ensure you use high-quality, organic beets and ginger root. Roots grow under the soil, and it’s best to use ingredients from healthy soil.
- Taste test at three weeks: If you prefer the sauerkraut to be more tart and sour, let it ferment at room temperature longer.
Fermented Beet and Red Cabbage Sauerkraut with Ginger
This fermented beet and red cabbage sauerkraut recipe is the best way to make fermented beets and cabbage. This beet sauerkraut is great for beginners and is ready to eat in three weeks.
- Prep: 15 Minutes
- Ferment: 21 days
Ingredients
- 500 grams red cabbage
- 100 grams shredded beets (organic)
- 1 Tablespoon fresh grated ginger (organic)
- 20 grams sea salt
- 200 grams filtered water
Instructions
- Wash your fermentation equipment (jar, weight, and lid)
- Remove the outer leaves of your cabbage and lightly rinse the cabbage, beets, and ginger with cool water.
- Chop the cabbage and beets and grate the ginger.
- Place your kitchen scale on the counter. Turn it on and set it to weigh in grams.
- Measure out all of your ingredients using your kitchen scale.
- Mix all the ingredients, including the water, in a large bowl. Lightly massage the cabbage and break up any large pieces.
- Pack it all, including the water, into a clean jar with a rust-proof lid. (a 32-ounce jar works best)
- Place a fermentation weight in the jar, making sure to submerge the cabbage pieces and weight fully into the liquid. If you don’t have quite enough liquid, place your glass fermentation weight in the jar and submerge as much as possible. Over the next 12 hours, the cabbage should release more liquid and you can press the fermentation weight down below the brine.
- Secure the lid (You do not need to tighten it all the way. Just secure the lid but leave it ever so slightly loose, so the gas doesn’t build up too much). You can keep the jar in a glass dish to catch any spills.
- Burping the jar: It should get bubbly in the first few days, and the color will change. If you have a tightly secured lid, you will need to burp the jar. You should also wash off the lid to keep it clean and re-adjust the fermentation weight whenever needed. Anytime the weight comes up out of the brine, with clean hands press hard on the weight to tamper everything back down into the liquid.
- Ferment at room temperature for 21-28 days, then remove the fermentation weight and refrigerate.
- If you try this recipe and love it, please leave a five-star review below!
Notes
- This recipe contains roots/rhizomes (beets and ginger). It’s essential to try to use organic roots from high-quality soil in fermentation. Conventionally grown roots from poor-quality soil can lead to mold.
- When things are bubbly: If it looks like you’ve lost brine and cannot re-submerge the contents by pressing down on the weight, top it off with raw apple cider vinegar. It slightly changes the flavor, but it doesn’t harm the sauerkraut’s microbes and prevents mold. You need to give it a good stir when it’s done fermenting to mix up the flavors.
- See fermentation tips and timeline above this recipe.
- Taring/zeroing the scale with a container on it subtracts the weight of the container, allowing you to weigh only what is added to the container. After taring/zeroing the scale, the scale should read 0.0 with the container on it.
I have been following you for awhile. New to fermentation, I had red cabbage & Beets and googled a recipe for kraut and yours was the first to come up. It is made and now I wait.
Thanks
Callie
Thanks for leaving a review! I hope you love this sauerkraut! 🙂
Hi
Doing this. After first few days no longer bubbly…is that okay or not?
that’s great. The bubbles are supposed to stop 🙂
This is very frustrating… I try to print out the recipes and get START HERE covering the recipes! How can I try it if you won’t let me print it out?
Happy to help! Just click the print recipe button, and that brings you to this print page 🙂