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Root Vegetable Sauerkraut, with Wild Caraway

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Fresh sauerkraut is a world of difference from the mostly overcooked, mushy versions sold in jars at the store. Besides having a mild flavor (if you choose) the cabbage is still crisp, which gives you more freedom for cooking with it in the kitchen and having it keep it’s integrity.

Cabbage is only one thing that you can make a la sauerkraut though. Root vegetables, in all the sizes, shapes and colors, make a great substitute for green cabbage, and can be a really colorful, impressive alternative if you’re in the mood for a delicious science project.

A while back I needed a component for a lamb sausage dish I was doing for a private dinner, and I wanted it to be colorful, so I developed this recipe. It’s a basic ferment, but, to further tip my hat to traditional kraut, it has precious, tiny, wild caraway seeds to boost the flavor and perfume the veggies as they bubble away in their own brine.

Lamb heart sausage with wild caraway, fermented root vegetables and wild horseradish cream

The finished dish: lamb heart sausage, horeradish cream, fermented root vegetables with wild caraway.

Root Vegetables for the Kraut 

Here’s a list of some of the veggies I used, or would use. Try to make a colorful blend, but stay away from blue roots as they bleed

  • Golden, scarlet, hakurei or purple top turnips
  • All species of winter radish, i.e. watermelon radish, black radish, lavender radish, daikon, etc
  • Rutabaga
  • Celery root
  • All species of carrots except purple
  • White or golden beets, in small amounts
  • Parsnips

Using a mandoline

Root vegetables are more firm than cabbage, so it’s really important to use a mandoline here for the perfect texture.

fermented root vegetables with wild caraway: parsnip, celery root, carrots, turnips, rutabaga

Sauerkraut with fermented root vegetables with wild caraway: parsnip, celery root, carrots, turnips, rutabaga
Print Recipe
5 from 3 votes

Root Vegetable Sauerkraut, with Wild Caraway 

Sauerkraut made from root vegetables, scented with wild caraway seed
Course: Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine: German
Keyword: Root Vegetables, Sauerkraut, wild caraway

Ingredients

  • The biggest mix of root vegetables you can find peeled and trimmed to yield 3.5 lbs
  • 1 oz kosher salt
  • 2 teaspoons lightly toasted wild or conventional caraway seeds

Instructions

  • Cut each type of vegetable into different shapes for slicing on the mandoline to show off the individuality, you don't have to do this, but it looks pretty to have a variety of shapes. If you don't want to do shave each veg into a different shape, you can just cut paper thin slices, rounds, or you could even just shred or grate it, which will make it's own brine much faster.
  • Combine the shaved vegetables, salt and caraway and pack into a plastic container or a fermenting vessel, then wait for 30 minutes so the vegetables can give off their liquid and start to make a brine.
  • When you can press down on the vegetables and have them just lightly covered with brine, put a weight on top of the vegetables, or cover with 2 thick garbage bags filled with very cold water to keep the mixturre underneath the brine.
  • Put the mixture in a cool dark place away from sunlight, and allow it to ferment for 9 days, checking on it and stirring every other day to help it along, and making sure the brine is always covering the vegetables. If you like the flavor after less or more time, go for it, sometimes I even go as long as 14 days.
  • When serving, you'll want to cook the root veg kraut to soften them up a bit and allow you to introduce other flavors, like meat stock, butter, a piece of ham, etc, as much to flavor them and soften the acetic acid from the fermentation, as to make the vegetables soft and tender for better eating.

Notes

Yields 3.5 lbs, enough for about 15 healthy portions 
Ingredients 

Related

Previous Post: « Cabbage with Venison Bacon and Wild Caraway
Next Post: Turkey Terrine with Venison Bacon, Lobster Mushrooms and Wild Caraway »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. David L Kramer

    January 30, 2021 at 11:51 am

    5 stars
    What / where is the recipe for the kraut? Do you use 3.5 lbs. of cabbage with 1 ounce of Kosher salt to make the sauerkraut too? Do you add any water or any other ingredients? We lived in Edina, MN for several years and now live in FL. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      January 30, 2021 at 11:54 am

      Hi David. Scroll down to see the recipe, it’s listed at the bottom of this post. You don’t have to add water since the vegetables water will be drawn out by the salt. You can also vacuum seal the vegetables with salt and ferment them that way–some people find that easier. Use 2% salt of the total weight of mass to be fermented for most vegetable ferments like kraut. Basic cabbage kraut is the same.

      Reply

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Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
Oh the things I get in the mail. This is my kind Oh the things I get in the mail. 

This is my kind of tip though: a handmade buckskin bag with a note and a handful of bleached snapping turtle claws. 😁😂 

Sent in by Leslie, a reader. 

Smells like woodsmoke and the cat quickly claimed it as her new bed. 

#buckskin #mailsurprise #turtleclaws #thisimylife #cathouse
Bluebell season. Destined for a Ligurian ravioli Bluebell season. 

Destined for a Ligurian ravioli as a replacement for the traditional borage greens. 

#mertensiavirginica #virginiabluebells #spring #foraging
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