Probiotics are promoters of good health. They keep your gut bacteria in balance, your heart healthy, and the immune system boosted. You can spend money and buy probiotic supplements or you can just include some tasty fermented foods in your daily diet which will give you your daily dose of good bacteria. Sauerkraut is one of the fermented foods that contain lactobacillus bacteria and you can do some exciting stuff with Sauerkraut like making a soup?!
What is Sauerkraut Soup?
A Slovakian staple for Christmas Eve dinner, Sauerkraut Soup is easy to make and only needs a handful of easy to find ingredients. I learned about this recipe from a foodie friend from Slovakia Traditionally it is meat-based but I made a vegetarian version and added nut milk which makes the soup rich and creamy.
About the guest:
I reached out to Conor to cook his favorite Slovakian recipe with me and we cooked it for my project #acrosskitchenlines, where I am cooking local food with Chefs and Homecooks all over the world and posting my experience on my page. He shared his grandma’s recipe from the Liptov region in Slovakia and having this dish for Christmas Eve is sort of a family tradition at Conor’s.
Conor is 14 and kicking some serious ass with his food on his page. It makes me happy that he has found and realized his passion in food at this early age. Conor plans to continue growing his food page and become a foodpreneur one day.
Recipe
Sauercraut Soup
A Slovakian staple for Christmas Eve dinner, Sauerkraut Soup is easy to make and only needs a handful of easy to find ingredients. A healthy dose of immunity-boosting probiotics comes from the homemade Sauerkraut.
Ingredients
Soup
- 2 cups sauerkraut
- 2 T butter
- 2 celery sticks
- 1 carrot(large)
- 1 onion (medium)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 sweet potato
- 4-5 baby bella mushroom
- 4 cups almond milk(or any nut milk)
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup penne pasta
- 1 t thyme
- 1 t salt(adjust to taste, always!)
- 1 t ground black pepper
- 1 t smoked paprika
- 1 bay leaf
Sauerkraut (bonus)
- 2 lbs green cabbage
- 20 gm kosher salt
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1.5 t caraway seeds(or fennel seeds)
- 1.5 t mustard seeds
Instructions
- Prep: Dice onion, celery, and carrot into small pieces. Slice mushrooms. Dice potato into 1/2 inch pieces. Mince garlic cloves.
- In a pot, on a medium-high flame, add butter. Once hot, add bay leaf, onion, celery, and carrots and sauté for 5 minutes. We are making mirepoix, to create the base flavor of the soup.
- Add garlic and salt and cook till onion is translucent. Make sure, not to charr or crisp the onions.
- Add potato and spices(thyme, smoked paprika, and pepper) and cook for 7-10 minutes.
- In a separate pan, sauté sliced mushroom on medium flame till the water is cooked out of them.
- Add nut milk and bring the mix comes to a boil.
- Then add the sauerkraut and vegetable broth, wait till the mix comes to a boil. Then simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add cooked mushroom and uncooked pasta and let simmer for 10 minutes or until pasta is tender.
- Serve in a bowl and garnish with a couple of tablespoons of raw sauerkraut on top for the extra crunch and a healthy dose of probiotics.
- Cut thin slices of the green cabbage and put them in a large mixing bowl.
- Add salt evenly and mix the cabbage well so all of the cabbage gets coated with salt.
- Hand crush the cabbage for 5-10 mins as if you are kneading dough. Make sure you are crushing and not tearing the cabbage. The goal is to rupture the cell membranes of the cabbage so it becomes tender
- Let the mix rest for an hour, add the minced garlic, mustard and caraway(or fennel) seeds, and then repeat the crushing process again for 5 minutes.
- Repeat this once more with rest time in between. So in the end you would have crushed or kneaded it 3 times.
- By this point, your cabbage would be roughly half the volume you started with. Cabbage will release a lot of its water, make sure you are saving this liquid as this will be used as the pickling liquid for sauerkraut.
- Transfer the cabbage in a glass vessel, large enough to hold all the cabbage and the liquid.
- Make sure all the cabbage is submerged in the pickling liquid. If for some reason, the liquid seems low, make a saltwater solution(1 cup water and 1 tsp salt) and top up the mixture with it.
- Cover the jar with a cheesecloth and let it sit in a warm place.
- You will be able to get the sauerkraut flavor in 3 days of fermenting but it will take approximately 2.5 weeks to be ready.
- Keep turning the cabbage every 2 days or so.
- That's how easy it is. Let the bacteria do all the good work. Just two ingredients and you have yourself a flavorful, sour, and healthy condiment that will also store well for months.
Soup
Homemade Sauerkraut (bonus)
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 2 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 542Total Fat: 19gCarbohydrates: 87gFiber: 22gSugar: 41gProtein: 16g
Nutrition information isn’t always accurate. I would not make any major life decisions based on this.
Closing words
Eating healthy and maintaining a strong immune system is essential now more than ever. Make sure you get your vitamins and minerals that your body needs for healthy functioning. Treat supplements as supplements and not a replacement of the right foods. Fermented foods have long proven benefits and adding them in your diet can only benefit your body. I found this soup to be a good tasting medium for a good dose of awesome bacteria, I hope you do too.
If you are looking for any help in making this recipe or trying a vegetarian diet in general, feel free to reach out to me. You can comment here or DM me on Instagram. If you give this recipe a try, share your pictures with me on Instagram @t_as_in_tarun or use #acrosskitchenlines. If you have a recipe you want to cook with me, count me in! Please send me a message or leave a comment.
