Turmeric Napa Cabbage Sauerkraut

Napa Cabbage Sauerkraut

If you’ve never made sauerkraut with napa cabbage, I highly recommend giving this turmeric napa cabbage sauerkraut a try! It’s quite different from green cabbage sauerkraut but just as delicious.

Napa cabbage sauerkraut will be naturally a bit softer but should still have some crunch after fermentation. If you want to make this recipe with green cabbage instead, you can! Just use the exact same amounts and sub for green cabbage.

Turmeric Sauerkraut

Turmeric is one of the best ingredients you can add to sauerkraut! Curcumin is one of the healthiest compounds in turmeric; it’s a yellow pigment and well-known polyphenol that can help reduce inflammation.

When the Lactobacillus bacteria in sauerkraut produce enzymes and acids during fermentation, they enzymatically alter curcumin and convert it into tetrahydrocurcumin and tetrahydro-bisdemethoxycurcumin.

These forms of curcumin are more bioavailable and usable by our bodies. These more bioavailable forms of curcumin are also a different color.

Fresh turmeric root is a dark golden-orange color. After fermentation, the turmeric becomes lighter and a more vibrant yellow. This color change is a great sign and indicates that the curcumin has been changed into more bioavailable forms.

How to Make Sauerkraut with Napa Cabbage

You can make sauerkraut with Napa cabbage using the same method you would make sauerkraut with green cabbage. As with all of my sauerkraut recipes, we mix all of the ingredients together and add 2.5% salt to create the perfect sauerkraut.

If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you know that I add water to all of my sauerkraut recipes. Adding water helps keep the cabbage crisp and submerged during fermentation.

Adding water also gives you more brine to use in other fun recipes, like these fermented cherry tomatoes.

Napa Cabbage Sauerkraut with Turmeric Ingredients

You only need a few simple ingredients to make this flavorful superfood sauerkraut. The star ingredients are napa cabbage and fresh turmeric, but you have options! If you do not have fresh turmeric, use dry turmeric powder. It’s not an even substitution, though. If you need to use dry turmeric powder, use 1/2 teaspoon for the 32-ounce recipe below.

Napa Cabbage Sauerkraut Equipment

Things You May Need:

32 Oz Mason Jars

Regular Mouth Rust Proof Mason Jar Lids

Wide Mouth Fermentation Weights

Kitchenaid Dual Platform Scale

Unrefined Sea Salt

Weck Jars

More Sauerkraut Recipes to Try

• How to Make Old Fashioned Sauerkraut with Caraway Seeds
• Homemade Kimchi Inspired Spicy Sauerkraut Recipe
• Roasted Garlic Sauerkraut with Black Pepper

Sauerkraut & Kimchi

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Turmeric Napa Cabbage Sauerkraut

If you ever wondered if you can make sauerkraut with napa cabbage, the answer is yes! This delicious turmeric sauerkraut recipe is a simple napa cabbage sauerkraut, perfect for preserving in-season fall and winter cabbage.

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• Prep: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 504 hours 10 minutes

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Ingredients

• 500 grams napa cabbage
• 20 grams unrefined sea salt
• 200 grams filtered water
• 15 grams fresh turmeric root, grated
• 75 grams carrots, julienned
• 30 grams green onions, chopped
• Black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Wash your fermentation equipment (jar, weight, and lid)
2. Remove the outer leaves of your cabbage and lightly rinse with cool water. Using a knife, chop the cabbage to your desired thickness. Chop the carrots and onions. Grate the turmeric root using a cheese grater
3. Place your kitchen scale on the counter. Turn it on and set it to weigh in grams.
4. Measure out all of your ingredients using your kitchen scale.
5. Mix all the ingredients, including the water, in a large bowl. Lightly massage the cabbage and break up any large pieces. 
6. Pack it all, including the water, into a clean jar with a rust-proof lid. (a 32-ounce jar works best)
7. Place a fermentation weight in the jar, submerging the cabbage pieces and weight fully into the liquid. If you don’t have 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.
8. 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.
9. Burping the jar: It should get bubbly in the first few days. 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.
10. Ferment at room temperature for 21-28 days, then remove the fermentation weight and refrigerate.
11. If you try this recipe and love it, please leave a five-star review below!

Notes

• You need a 32 ounce jar for 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.
• If you are sensitive to pepper and don’t want your hands to turn yellow from the turmeric, wear gloves when mixing.
• For softer sauerkraut massage the cabbage vigorously when mixing in a bowl. For crunchier sauerkraut, gently mix the cabbage.

Kaitlynn Fenley Author, Educator, Food Microbiologist

Kaitlynn is a food microbiologist and fermentation expert teaching people how to ferment foods and drinks at home.

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fermentation food microbiology sourdough sauerkraut fermenting at home fermented foods fermented drinks