Two Ways to Make Sauerkraut for an Extra Digestive Boost

In the 10th anniversary edition of Fermented Vegetables, fermentation experts Kirsten K. Shockey and Christopher Shockey share their passion for fermentation as a traditional preservation method that lends itself beautifully to vegetables. Familiar vegetable ferments like sauerkraut, kimchi, and pickles are tried and true stalwarts of traditional healthy diets, but are just the tip of the fermentation iceberg. They can be creatively enhanced with the addition of herbal ingredients from tulsi and thyme to chile and coriander, or taken in an entirely new direction with vegetables like asparagus, fennel, and mushrooms to create a wide range of delightful, creative, and nutritious condiments. 

In the mini-excerpt below, you’ll get an overview of lacto-fermentation for vegetables as well as a blend of herbs you can use to embellish a batch of sauerkraut for an extra digestive boost. Find the full book excerpt and a hands-on video tutorial demonstrating this recipe in The Herbarium!

The following is excerpted from Fermented Vegetables, 10th Anniversary Edition (c) by Kirsten K. Shockey and Christopher Shockey, used with permission from Storey Publishing.

When we bring veggies in from the garden or home from the market, it is our responsibility to preserve their nutrients until we eat them. Lactic acid fermentation is a noble way to approach nutrient and flavor preservation. Once vegetables are preserved this way, we can eat them as slowly as we like, and here’s why: All those microorganisms clinging to the plant, good and bad, are just waiting for their turn to alter the vegetables. When we ferment vegetables, we are choosing sides; we are electing the “good guys.” Through a simple process that hasn’t changed in thousands of years, we allow the lactic acid–forming bacteria to take over, permanently outcompeting the pathogens and creating healthy preserved food for us. They aren’t outcompeting because we favor them; they’re outcompeting for their own survival, but this still works out well for us.

Fermentation does amazing things to raw vegetables. The list of health benefits is truly incredible. To begin, natural sugars in the vegetables are greatly reduced as the microbes convert them to tangy lactic acid, contributing to the amazing flavors we love. In this process, the vegetables are also broken down at the cell and nutrient level, making more available to our bodies vitamins such as B9 (folate), B12 (cobalamin), and C, and minerals such as iron.³ Vitamin B12 is especially important because it doesn’t exist in plants but is produced by the bacterium Limosilactobacillus reuteri, both in our colons and in fermented vegetables. Fermentation of vegetables also boosts the amount of antioxidants (molecules that inhibit the oxidation of our cells) they contain.⁴ In all these cases and more, we get more from the same vegetable if it is fermented.

Speaking of those microbes, you have by now undoubtedly heard of probiotics—microorganisms that, when consumed, maintain or restore beneficial bacteria in our digestive tracts. Well, fermented foods are their poster child. The microbes that do this fermentation work of consuming sugar, producing lactic acid, and releasing nutrients are the same beneficial microbes that live in our GI tract, doing good work for us from within. So when we eat fermented foods, we eat the good microbes, thereby refreshing their numbers in us, which is crucial for our gut microbiome and therefore our health and well-being.

SEE THE VIDEO IN THE HERBARIUM!

Interested in learning more about the fascinating science behind the fermentation process and seeing a hands-on demo of making this herbal version of sauerkraut? Members of The Herbarium can join Kirsten in a video as she shows us how to make sauerkraut enhanced with these bitter herbs for an extra digestive boost! You’ll find the her helpful Making Digestive Bitters Sauerkraut demo video in The Herbarium, along with a bonus lemon-dill sauerkraut recipe.

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Get a copy of Kirsten and Christopher’s book, Fermented Vegetables, via Storey Publishing at Hachette Book Group or via Amazon.  

REFERENCES

Hunaefi, D., Akumo, D. N., & Smetanska, I. (2013). Effect of fermentation on antioxidant properties of red cabbages. Food Biotechnology, 27(1), 66–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/08905436.2012.755694

Scheers, N., Rossander-Hulthen, L., Torsdottir, I., & Sandberg, A.S. (2016). Increased iron bioavailability from lactic-fermented vegetables is likely an effect of promoting the formation of ferric iron (Fe(3+)). European Journal of Nutrition, 55(1), 373-82. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-015-0857-6

Kirsten K. Shockey is the author of award-winning Homebrewed Vinegar, coauthor, with her husband, Christopher Shockey, of award-winning The Big Book of Cidermaking; award-winning Miso, Tempeh. She can be found writing about life and fermentation at fermentingchange.substack from their mountain home. The Shockeys got their start fermenting foods over twenty years ago on 40 acres of wooded hillside which grew into their organic food company. Kirsten realized that her passion lay in her desire to teach people how to ferment and push this culinary art to new flavors. She leads experiential workshops worldwide and online helping people to make, enjoy and connect with their food through fermentation.  She is a co-founder of The Fermentation School a women-owned and women-led benefits corporation supporting the voices of independent educators to empower learning and build culture.