Earthy, Nourishing Root Vegetable Sauerkraut
If you are a beginner to fermentation, I suggest starting with a more straightforward 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.
I usually try to limit the amount of fruits and roots I use in sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables. Limiting the amount of fruit and root in a sauerkraut recipe to 20% of the total helps control the amount of FODMAPs (fermentable sugars) in the recipe. However, for this one, I decided to up the ratio of roots a good bit. This one is predominantly roots, with a higher salt concentration and a bit of cabbage to balance out the microbes and the fermentation.
Can you make this sauerkraut with red cabbage?
Yes! Absolutely. You can also use red beets instead of golden beets to make beautiful purple-and-red-hued sauerkraut, as I did here. The only thing to note is that red cabbage has a tad more sugar than green cabbage, so your sauerkraut may be even more sour in the end.
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.
Things You May Need:
Root Vegetable Sauerkraut Fermentation Timeline
Note that temperature will influence how quickly sauerkraut ferments. This timeline is applicable between 70-80°F. If you keep your home colder, the process will be 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, Gram-negative bacteria and possible pathogens remain 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.
Root Vegetable 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.
Root Vegetable Sauerkraut with Radish, Beets, and Celeriac
This fermented root vegetable sauerkraut is a delicious, tart and umami sauerkraut made with cabbage, radish, beets, and celeriac. It’s ready to eat after 21 days of fermentation
- Prep: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 504 hours 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 200 grams cabbage
- 150 grams gold beets
- 150 grams carrots
- 100 grams radishes
- 100 grams celeriac
- 24 grams unrefined sea salt
- 150 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, carrots, radishes, and celeriac with cool water.
- Chop the cabbage and roots. You can slice, grate, or chop the roots however you’d 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 out all of your ingredients using your kitchen scale.
- Mix all the ingredients, including the water and salt, in a large bowl. Lightly massage the cabbage and roots and break up any large or stuck-together 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 mixture 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 (beets, radishes, and celery root). 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.
- Red cabbage and red beets work great in this recipe too!
- 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.
Do you have a recipe for fermented carrots? Simple with salt?
I don’t like to wild ferment just carrots. So I only have this Easy Fermented Quick Pickled Carrots
Ahh ok. I think I do remember reading that. Thank you. I made sauerkraut about 2 months ago, and it is in the fridge. I didn’t measure or anything. I just roughly chopped the cabbage, massaged it with salt, and then packed it and let it sit in the jar for 7 days, I think. Should I just make a new sauerkraut?
It’s likely fine. There’s no one right way to ferment! My recipes are just written in my own unique way that gives more consistency and success.
I have not done a deep dive to find this yet, but do you have any tips on washing veggies before fermenting? I am preparing this today. I do not have celeriac. Can I just add more cabbage? I appreciate your help!
Just rinse well with cool water and scrub any dirt off! You can sub more cabbage for the celery root 🙂