Spring is here in California!   Golden yellow poppies, the gorgeous state flower, are blooming everywhere and wildflowers are having a wild season this year due to the heavy winter rains after years of drought.   Meanwhile my leg is still healing and I have barely ventured for a walk in to my neighborhood to enjoy the burst of color in everyone’s gardens.  V has promised to take me on a drive this coming weekend.  Keeping fingers crossed for a sunny weekend, as it has started raining again.

On the kitchen front, this year has been about keeping recipes simple, and ingredient lists minimal – a direct influence of our awesome trip to Italy over the holidays.  V and I learnt to appreciate and relish each ingredient for its quality and freshness.  Keeping this in mind, we continue on with Veggie Sutra’s series on brassicas.   This time, the series features the humble cabbage, the most iconic of all cruciferous vegetables.

 

 

Sauerkraut, or sour cabbage or fermented cabbage is itself very simple to make, and a fermented staple in many parts of the world. Cabbage.  Salt.  Time.  That’s all it takes.  In our earlier series on Fermentation, we posted a foolproof recipe for making sauerkraut.   The recipe was inspired by the basic technique for fermenting any vegetable from Sandor Katz’s “The Art of Fermentation“.

Sauerkraut has become a staple in our kitchen, just like lemon pickle is a staple in any South Indian kitchen.  Aside from eating it as a side at any meal, you can stuff a sandwich with sauerkraut or even make a warm steamed broccoli salad which will totally hit the spot in this gloomy, rainy weather.   And so will the warm chunky sauerkraut soup we made last weekend.

 

 

Sauerkraut soup is popular in eastern European cuisine.  Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia and even Germany, each have their versions of sauerkraut or cabbage soup. All of them, as far as I have seen, call for adding some meat to the soup, and some heavy cream at the end (presumably to dull the sourness).  I have left the meat and the cream out to create a totally vegan version of the recipe, but feel free to add cream or coconut cream at the end.

Recipe for Vegan Sauerkraut Soup

[Printable Recipe]

Inspired by the traditional Polish recipe for “Kapusniak” gleaned from various websites

Serves 5 generously

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 medium potatoes cut in to large cubes
• 4 medium carrots cut in to large pieces
• 2 cups tightly packed sauerkraut (home-made or store-bought), juice reserved

Method:

• Heat the oil in a pot and add the cumin seeds
• When the cumin seeds are fragrant, add the onion and saute until translucent on medium heat
• Add the minced garlic and sauce for a minute
• Add the potatoes, and carrots and 2 cups of water and bring to a boil
• Lower the heat, close with a lid and simmer for around 7 to 10 minutes until the potatoes and carrots are cooked
• Add the sauerkraut and some of the reserved juice (depending on how salty/sour you want it to be)
• Add some more water if the soup is too thick
• Close with a lid and again simmer for around 5 minutes and turn off the heat
• (Optionally add heavy cream or coconut cream to the soup at the end if you do not like it too sour).

 

 

 

Sauerkraut soup with some crusty bread is all you need for a hearty, healthy meal.   Heating the sauerkraut will destroy some of its probiotic benefits, but all the other wonderful nutritional benefits remain. So, ladle in to a bowl and slurp it up!