The Sauerkraut Health Benefits, and How To make It – Your body condition is a reflection of what you consume.
If you want a fresh, youthful, and healthy look, then the key is in the food consumed.
You should also always try to meet the nutritional intake in the body of various types of cuisine.
Proteins, vitamins, calcium, to fiber, are some of the many substances required by the body.
Don’t ignore the food that you consume.
Well, one type of food that must be consumed is vegetable.
A lot of nutritional content that you can get from vegetables, one of them is cabbage.
There is one type of processed cabbage named sauerkraut which turns out to have many benefits for health.
It is estimated that it originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. At that time, fermentation was one of the methods used to keep food is not quickly damaged and one of the fermented foods in addition to yogurt along with the health benefits of drinking yogurt was the sauerkraut.
Sauerkraut is then deeply rooted in European and German cuisine, as well as several other countries, including the Netherlands, known as Zuurkool, and France, known as choucroute, which means “sour cabbage”.
Before the technique of freezing the food, refrigerators were found, and cheap transportation became available easily from the warm area to the north, Central and Eastern Europe, then sauerkraut as well as another preserved food source of nutrition during winter.
James Cook always equips his voyage with sauerkraut, because based on his experience, this food can prevent illness due to vitamin C deficiency.
Because of the fermentation, sauerkraut offers nutritional and health benefits that far exceed fresh cabbage, here are the Sauerkraut Health Benefits, let’s look at one by one:
Sauerkraut Health Benefits
Highly nutritious
The first Sauerkraut Health Benefits is highly nutritious.
Sauerkraut contains many essential nutrients for optimal health. Fermented Sauerkraut is a process of microorganisms on the cabbage to digest the natural sugar and convert it into carbon dioxide and organic acids.
Fermentation starts when the yeast and bacteria that are naturally present in cabbage, your hands and air are in contact with the sugar in the cabbage. Fermented Sauerkraut creates a condition that encourages beneficial probiotic growth, which is also found in products such as yogurt and kefir.
Probiotics are bacteria that provide strong health benefits. They also help make food more digestible, which enhances intestinal ability to absorb the vitamins and minerals it contains.
Reduce a person’s risk of getting some serious diseases
The next Sauerkraut Health Benefits is reduce the risk of getting some serious diseases.
This fermented food contains probiotics that are able to lower one’s risk to get some serious illnesses. Among other diseases of the brain and mental, chronic digestive problems, depression and anxiety, hormonal imbalance, to obesity.
Brain health
The next Sauerkraut Health Benefits is brain health.
Not just fish are good for brain health and also one’s cognition. Its biological content can also improve brain work. Even sharpen one’s cognition.
For a healthy diet and weight loss
For a healthy diet and weight loss, the food is also very good. Because existing probiotics in Sauerkraut help regulate various hormonal functions. In addition, if you eat Sauerkraut, you will not be easily hungry and want to get snacking.
6 Other Sauerkraut Health Benefits:
- Improve Your Digestion.
- Boosts Your Immune System.
- Helps Lose Weight.
- Helps Reduce Stress And Maintain Brain Health.
- Reducing Specific Cancer Risk.
- Good for heart health.
Read also:
How To Make Homemade Basic Sauerkraut
The recipe was adapted from-Making Sauerkraut 2
For 2 kilos cabbage
Ingredients:
- 2 cauliflower, weighing about 2 kg
- 2-3 tablespoons of salt
- Boiled water if needed
Other vegetables that can be added:
Radish, carrot, chicory, red beet-root, red cabbage, grape leaf
Read also: 16 Health Benefits of Radishes, No. 6 is the most sought after
Other spices that can be added:
Onions, garlic, shallots, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, celery seeds, dill leaves.
Read also: 8 Cumin Health Benefits, and Nutritional Contents
Tools used:
- A slow-cooker pot of ceramic with glass coverings (can use other containers the best is made of ceramic or glass and has a cover).
- Cutting boards and knives for chopping
- A large basin / container for storing chopped cabbage.
- Flat plates that are as wide as a slow cooker pot or the cabbage container for fermentation
- The groin tool
- Ballast
- Clean cloth to wrap the sauerkraut container cover (if needed)
How to make:
Prepare the containers and tools to be used, wash clean all the tools with soap and dry. Do not sterilize the appliance by boiling it.
Prepare the cabbage, choose the fresh leaf petals are still hard, crunchy, and white with fresh color without any brown patches or diseases. Wash the cabbage when it is still in large logs.
Split the cabbage into 2 parts, the core in the middle of the cabbage can be discarded or left. Chop 1/2 parts of thin cabbage, then put the cabbage in a large bowl, sprinkle with salt. Chop the next cabbage, overlapping on the surface of the cabbage in a bowl and sprinkle back with salt. Do it layered until the cabbage and salt is run out (remember the salt should be enough to cover the whole cabbage, too much salt will make sauerkraut become very salty).
Stir the cabbage in a bowl with hand fingers so that the salt can be mixed evenly throughout the cabbage surface.
Note: If you use vegetables and other spices, then mix together with the cabbage.
Enter 1/4 portion of the chopping cabbage of the container to be used for fermentation, You can use a slow-cooker pan. Sprinkle the cabbage by putting it down using a groin tool, You can use a wood dough roller. Mash until the cabbage is bruised (not crushed) and the cabbage water looks out.
Add 1/4 other cabbage parts and mash it back, do until all the sliced cabbage are running out and all get into the slow-cooker pot.
Press the cabbage with your back and palm until the sliced cabbage becomes dense and the water appears to be flooded with its surface. If the cabbage is not submerged in water then make a saline solution of 200 ml of boiled water + 1 teaspoon of salt, stir until dissolved and pour into the chopped cabbage.
In order to ensure the cabbage is completely submerged (because if there is a piece of cabbage exposed to air it will easily contaminate bad bacteria) then put a plate on it, press firmly-strong and give the weight (You can use two pieces of clean stone). Close the slow cooker pan and place the pot on the kitchen table or in a place where people rarely go (because the smell is quite annoying when the cover is opened).
On the first day, check occasionally the sauerkraut to ensure the cabbage is immersed. Press several times sauerkraut with the palm of the hand so that the cabbage is dense and unmerged. No problem opening the pot cover.
Fermentation begins to appear when foam bubbles appear on the surface of the liquid sauerkraut. Cabbage will reduce its volume, become shrinking and the liquid becomes more and more.
Generally on the third day, cabbage has been tasted and smelled sour.
In other kitchens (due to different temperatures) then it may take longer (the lower the temperature, then the fermentation is getting slower) so it may take longer. But generally about 1 week of sauerkraut can be harvested and transferred to the refrigerator to prevent the fermentation to take place faster and make the cabbage become more acidic.
Well, in some cases may bubble foam does not appear, but does not mean the fermentation process is not running, so after a few days check the taste of sauerkraut, if it is enough sour then sauerkraut can be moved to the refrigerator.
Or sometimes the mushroom grows on its surface, some books refer to it as “scum” or “bloom”, no need to panic, it does not mean that your sauerkraut is damaged, it is only a natural occurrence due to a passage in contact with the air, simply remove the Overgrown mushrooms to clean and continue the process of fermentation. It is actually protected under liquids in an air-free environment (anaerobe).
If it is enough time, open the cover and remove the weight above it. Taste it, in a few days the actual sauerkraut has been acidic and will be more acidic day by day. In the country of four seasons, during winter, sauerkraut is kept at normal room temperature and can last for months, but in the warm country, it is better to store sauerkraut in the refrigerator chiller to slow down the process.
The faster the fermentation process, then the texture of sauerkraut will be softer and the taste is less delicious.
Every time we take sauerkraut from inside the container, then make sure by using a clean spoon and re-solidify it so that the cabbage is submerged in the water.
Thank you very much for reading The Sauerkraut Health Benefits, and How To make It, hopefully useful.
