How to Eat Sauerkraut for Gut Health
There are plenty of benefits of eating sauerkraut daily. Eating sauerkraut every day can help maintain regular and healthy digestion for two main reasons. First, sauerkraut provides natural probiotic bacteria to balance the gut microbiome. Second, sauerkraut contains a lot of enzymes, bioavailable nutrients, essential vitamins, and minerals. This is why I eat sauerkraut or kimchi every morning with breakfast. These foods help me maintain a healthy gut, but there’s more to it.
The microorganisms in your gut are essential for healthy digestion, but they are not the only factor. There are other aspects to proper digestion. Parts of your nervous and circulatory systems also help work with nerves, hormones, blood, and the other organs of your digestive system to efficiently digest the foods and liquids you eat and drink.
For all of these systems to work correctly in tandem with your gut microbiome, you have to supply your body with the right vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. A great way to give your body these necessary nutrients is to eat naturally fermented sauerkraut.
It’s easy to staring eating sauerkraut daily for gut health; incorporate it into recipes like these:
- Nutritious Chicken Caesar Salad with Brussels Sprouts
- Vegan German Sauerkraut Soup with Chickpeas and Mushrooms (Sauerkrautsuppe)
- Oven-Baked Kimchi and Miso Marinated Chicken Wings
You can even use the sauerkraut brine in delicious recipes like this one: Summer Lemon Kale Salad with Brined Salmon
What Vitamins are good for digestion?
The most important vitamins for gut health are B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin A, and vitamin D; but we also have to think about minerals for healthy digestion. I’m not particularly eager to take supplements, and I enjoy giving my body everything it needs through real food. Thus, the top four minerals I always make sure I get enough of with every meal are magnesium, potassium, sodium, and calcium. Also, I am making sure I get enough iodine and vitamin C. Holistic nutrition encompasses more than just these vitamins and minerals. Still, I want to focus on these top four critical minerals for this blog recipe.
What Minerals are in Sauerkraut?
Sauerkraut is rich in vitamins and minerals when you make it with cabbage, salt, and water. Sauerkraut vitamins and minerals include:
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin K1
- Iron
- Folate
- Manganese
- Copper
- Potassium
Is sauerkraut high in magnesium?
The bacteria that ferment the cabbage into sauerkraut simply make vitamins and minerals already present in the ingredients more bioavailable. Therefore, if you want sauerkraut to be high in magnesium, the ingredients included in the sauerkraut need to be high in magnesium.
I decided a great way to boost essential minerals, like magnesium, would be to make a Mineral-Rich Fermented Sauerkraut. Here’s the breakdown of the ingredients I added to this recipe and why I added them:
- Fresh leafy beet greens = calcium and magnesium
- Sea salt = sodium
- Coconut water = potassium and magnesium
- Kale = vitamin C and calcium
- Shredded Cabbage = magnesium, potassium, and calcium
- Seaweed = iodine (necessary for thyroid function); the best seaweed to use would be kombu, but I used a nori sheet.
With all of these ingredients, this recipe is the most mineral-rich sauerkraut and great for your immune system. However, I want to note that this sauerkraut does not provide the total daily recommended value of essential minerals all by itself. Still, it is an excellent addition to breakfast for a boost of minerals to start the day.
How long should you ferment cabbage?
To learn all about the optimal fermentation time for sauerkraut, click here. You can taste test this sauerkraut at 14 days, but you should continue to ferment for 21 to 28 days. A three to four-week fermentation time will yield kraut with the most beneficial bacteria for digestive health.
If you follow all the directions and this timeline, you don’t need to worry about harmful bacteria. The ratios in my recipe ensure you can cover the cabbage with enough brine to keep everything submerged throughout fermentation.
Here are the fermentation conditions for this recipe:
- 4 weeks of fermentation
- Approximate 2.5% total salt concentration
- Room temperature (60-78° F)
- Final pH around 3.7
- Store in refrigerator after fermentation for up to 2 years
Supplies You’ll Need to Ferment Sauerkraut
Here are all the supplies you need to make this recipe:
- 32 ounce Wide Mouth Mason Jar
- Fermentation Weight
- Standard Metal Mason Jar Lid (this can rust in the presence of salt)
- OR Rust Free Plastic Lid
- or you can use a Weck Jar (without the gasket; only use the clips to secure the lid)
- Sea Salt
- Scale
- Mixing Bowl
More Recipe to Reap the Benefits of Eating Sauerkraut Daily
- How to Ferment Sauerkraut with Blueberries and Açaí
- How to Ferment Sauerkraut with Orange, Sesame, and Ginger
- Roasted Garlic Sauerkraut with Black Pepper
How to Make Mineral Rich Sauerkraut
There are many benefits of eating sauerkraut daily because fermented cabbage contains probiotics, prebiotics, bioavailable vitamins, and bioavailable minerals. Enjoy my unique sauerkraut recipe that incorporates coconut water, kale, beet greens, seaweed, cabbage, and sea salt. Beneficial bacteria in sauerkraut transform these ingredients into bioavailable vitamins and minerals for optimal gut health. This recipe comes together in just 15 minutes and takes four weeks of fermentation at room temperature.
- Prep: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 504 hours 10 minutes
Ingredients
- 500 grams green cabbage
- 50 grams beet greens or baby kale, washed
- 5 grams seaweed
- 200 grams coconut water
- 19 grams sea salt
Instructions
- Wash your fermentation equipment (jar, weight, and lid). For this recipe, I suggest sterilizing the jar, lid, and weight with a little bit of vodka)
- Remove the outer leaves of your cabbage and lightly rinse with cool water. Using a knife, chop the cabbage to your desired thickness.
- 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 everything, including the water, in a large bowl.
- 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.
- It should get bubbly in the first few days. If you have a tightly secured lid, you will need to burp the jar. You can rinse off the lid and re-adjust the fermentation weight whenever needed.
- 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!
Hi, I’m new here, but really interested in learning best fermenting techniques.
Before I dive in though, a question – the answer might be a deal breaker….:
I live in a tropical country, my room temperature is usually around 30⁰ C. Electricity is comparatively (as part of living expenses) expensive, and running an aircon all day long every day would easily double our electricity bill. So, I’m wondering about my options.
Looking forward to your reply.
That temperature is fine! Everything will just happen a little faster for you. So on our blog here, if I suggest 21-28 days, your fermented vegetables might be ready to eat after only 14 days.
This recipe is very effective in gut health, and it is vital also to take care of your immunity which this recipe can surely do.
Hi. I am enjoying your website. Can I use blanched, frozen beet greens for this recipe? Thanks!
Yes, you can use frozen beet greens!
Hello! I have enjoyed your recipes, and your knowledge! Thank you for sharing it.
I have a question- Since I have successfully made a batch of sauerkraut using your recipe( which has given me a great deal of confidence and opened me up to the idea of making my own fermented foods as part of our lifestyle!!!), can I use some of the brine from the original batch to jump start my next batch? Or do I need to wait another twenty one- twenty eight days from when I start the new batch?
You’re welcome! I’m happy to hear that you feel more confident after trying my recipe! You can use some of the brine to add to the next batch. It does help ensure good end results, but it doesn’t make things go much faster. I still recommend fermenting for 21 days even with some brine added. I usually make a quart every three weeks and that’s the perfect amount for two people.
Can’t wait for it to finish fermenting! This recipe caught my eye because of it’s use of coconut water. I’m trying really hard to ~enjoy~ sauerkraut beyond just its wonderful probiotic benefits— and your recipes definitely help!
Thank you so much for sharing!
This looks great, especially like the idea of using coconut water. What is the amount of kale to include? It’s not mentioned in the actual recipe. Thank you 🙂
you can use 50 grams of beet greens, kale, or combination of both.
Hi, Kaitlynn! Love your blog. Can’t wait to try this recipe. I want to clarify, though, do we not use a cloth to cover the jar and let the ferment “breathe?” I read somewhere else to do that. But you are saying to cover the jar completely, with the standard metal lid the jar comes with? I realize this might be a silly question, but I just wanted to make sure I’m reading the recipe right. Hope to hear from you!
No, you do not use a cloth lid for fermented vegetables. Lactic acid fermentation of vegetables is an anaerobic process (meaning no oxygen) and you need to use a solid mason jar lid (two piece metal lid, one piece plastic lid, or metal lid with a plastic screw band etc.) You also have to loosen the lid daily to let some gas out.
Other types of fermented foods and drinks require cloth lids, like sourdough, or kombucha primary fermentation, but these are completely different fermentation processes.
Hi there!! Extremely excited to try this recipe. I’ve been on some pretty awful medications for a year and looking to rebuild my gut microbiome. Quick question: with the Weck jars (sealing silicone part removed) is it still necessary to burp the jars, or is there enough gas release to not do this? Thanks so much for your time!
If you use a weck jar without the silicone, you do not need to burp it.
Do you use fresh or dried seaweed?
dried. I get various kinds from the Asian supermarket