Sweet Garlic Sauerkraut Recipe [Kid Friendly] (2024)

Fermentation Vessel

Fermentation Weight and Airlock Lid

White Plastic Storage Caps

A Scale: MyWeigh KD-8000 Digital Scale

Himalayan Pink Salt

Quart (Liter) Jar: Wide-Mouth

The Trellis + Co. Pickle Helix Kit is strong enough to hold your ferment below the brine throughout fermentation. Its design leaves plenty of room for brine.

Use for storing your ferments or as your lid during fermentation.

You won't regret owning the "Tesla" of scales. Makes weighing your ingredients and salt a breeze.

My favorite fermentation salt. Broad range of minerals. Adds subtle flavor.

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FERMENTATION LENGTH: 1-4 weeks

Why I love this recipe? When I was doing one of my first sauerkraut demonstrations at a lovely local farm all they had available, outside of cabbage, were carrots and garlic. That's exactly what I used to make my batch of sauerkraut and this flavor quickly became a favorite, especially among children, who love the sweetness that the carrots added.

For a PDF version of this recipe, including Gourmet Pairing Tips, scroll to the end of this post.

4 from 14 votes

Course: Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, Sauerkraut, Snack

Cuisine: Fermented, Paleo, Primal, Vegan

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 20 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 1 medium head fresh green cabbage, 2 ½–3 pounds (1 kg)
• 2-3 carrots
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) iodine-free salt (fine-grain)

Equipment

• Kitchen scale, ideally digital
• Cutting board and chef’s knife
• Large mixing bowl
• Vegetable peeler,, grater and measuring spoon
• 1 quart 1-quart (L) wide-mouth canning jar or similar sized jar
• 4 ounce 4-ounce(125 ml) canning jar (jelly jar), or other "weight"
• Wide-mouth plastic storage cap,, or use the lid and rim that comes with jar

1 SET UP: Gather Supplies and Set Up Scale

• Using a scale to make your sauerkraut will ensure that you add the correct amount of salt for a safe fermentation environment.

• 

• You don’t want to include the weight of your bowl in your measurements, so either zero out the scale (usually done with a button on a digital scale or a knob under the tray on a mechanical scale) or write down the weight of your bowl (tare).
  

2 CHOP: Prep Your Vegetables and Cabbage

• You will need 1¾ pounds (28 ounces, 800 grams) of vegetables and cabbage in your bowl.

  When making sauerkraut, you first prepare the flavoring ingredients – carrots, ginger, radish, caraway seeds or whatnot – then add sliced cabbage. This allows you to add only as much sliced cabbage as necessary to hit 1¾ pounds on the scale.

• 

• Peel and grate carrots, mince garlic and place in your bowl.

  Discard the limp outer leaves of the cabbage, setting aside one of the cleaner ones for use during the SUBMERGE step.

  Quarter, then slice cabbage crosswise into thin ribbons. I leave the core in because I find it helps to hold the layers of cabbage together making the slicing job easier.

  Add sliced cabbage to your bowl until the weight of your vegetables and cabbage is 1¾ pounds (28 ounces, 800 grams).

3 SALT: Create Your Brine

• Salt pulls water out of the cabbage and vegetables to create an environment where the good bacteria (mainly lactobacillus) can grow and proliferate and the bad bacteria die off.

• 

• Sprinkle vegetables and cabbage with 1 tablespoon of salt and mix well.

  If you want the salt to do some of the work for you, you can leave your salted and well-mixed bowl of cabbage sit for 20-60 minutes.

  Then, massage the vegetables with strong hands until moist, creating the brine. You should be able to tilt the bowl to the side and see a good-sized puddle of brine, about 2–3 inches in diameter. This process can take anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes.

4 PACK: Pack Mixture into Jar

• Now that you have a puddle of brine, it’s time to pack the cabbage mixture into your jar.

• 

• Grab handfuls of the salty, juicy cabbage mixture and pack them into your quart-sized wide-mouth canning jar, periodically pressing the mixture down tightly with your fist or a large spoon so that the brine rises above the top of the mixture and no air pockets remain.

  Be sure to leave at least1 inch of space between the top of the cabbage and the top of the jar. Because we weighed out just the right amount of cabbage to fit in your jar, this should happen automatically.

  Pour any brine left in your mixing bowl into the jar.

  Lastly, wipe down the outside of your jar and posh down any loose bits stuck to the sides of the bowl or the side of your jar.

5 SUBMERGE: Hold Ferment Below Brine

• Now make sure your fermenting mixture is in a safe anaerobic (no air) environment. This means that you need to keep the cabbage mixture submerged in the brine while it ferments.

• 

• Floaties Trap. Take that cabbage leaf you saved during the SETUP step. tear it down to just fit in the jar, and place it over the surface of the packed cabbage. Forgot to save a cabbage leaf? No problem. You can fold a narrow piece of parchment paper to size or even cut an old plastic lid to size.
  

  To hold the mixture below the brine, place the 4-ounce jelly jar on top of the cabbage leaf, right side up with its lidremoved.

  Lightly (to allow for escape of CO2 gases), screw on the white plastic storage lid.

  I like to label my jars using green or blue painter’s tape and a permanent marker. I note the flavor of sauerkraut I made and the date I started fermenting.

6 FERMENT: Ferment for 1 to 4 Weeks

• Time now for the friendly bacteria to do their work while you watch and wait. Can you wait 7 days to taste the tangy crunch?

• 

• Place your jar of fermenting sauerkraut in a shallow bowl (to catch the brine that may leak out during the first week of fermentation), out of direct sunlight.

  Should the brine level fall (very unlikely) and remain below the level of the sauerkraut during the first week.

  For what to expect as your sauerkraut ferments, see SALTY Cabbage to SOUR Sauerkraut: Fermentation Signs to Monitor
  

  dilute 1 Tbsp of salt in 2 cups of water

  and pour some of this brine over the sauerkraut (removing the little jar first) until it just covers the mixture. Put the little jar back in, screw the lid on lightly and let the fermentation continue.

  Don’t worry if the brine disappears after the 7- to 10-day mark. By this time, you’ve created a safe environment in which the bacteria that would cause mold or slime has been chased away by the beneficial bacteria produced during the fermentation process.

  You can ferment your sauerkraut for up to 4 weeks. The longer you ferment it, the greater the number and variety of beneficial bacteria that can be produced.

7 STORE: Store in Refrigerator for Up to 1 Year

• After fermenting your sauerkraut, it’s ready to go into the refrigerator and ready to be eaten.

• 

• Rinse off the outside of the jar. You can take the little jar out. Clean the rim if necessary (sometimes it can get sticky from the brine that overflows), and screw the lid back on tightly.

  Add to your label how long you fermented the contents.

  Enjoy a forkful or two of your sauerkraut with your meals. It will continue to ferment – aging like a fine wine – but at a much slower rate than before. If the flavors are too intense, leave it the jar for a month or two and then eat it. You will be amazed at how the flavors have changed.

  If successfully fermented (tastes and smells good), your sauerkraut can be kept preserved in your refrigerator for up to a year.

1. Too much garlic can turn your sauerkraut bitter. Start with 2-3 small cloves and gradually increase in subsequent batches until you hit upon the desired flavor.
2. Many swear by the stainless steel trick. Rub soapy hands on the faucet (and then dry it with a towel). Clean hands, shiny faucet.
3. Don't go overboard with the carrots. If you add too many carrots, the sugar content of your ferment is such that you turn it into a sweet slime. Like with the garlic, start with 2-3 carrots and gradually increase in subsequent batches until you achieve the balance you want.
4. A good rule of thumb to follow for any batch of sauerkraut: 75% cabbage, 25% other ingredients. That would mean no more than 7 ounces (200 grams) of carrots.