There’s the obvious ways to eat sauerkraut like with hot dogs or reuben sandwiches, but there’s many more ways to eat sauerkraut to flavor your daily meals.
We’re talking about lacto-fermented sauerkraut here. Not the vinegar and salt preserved sauerkraut found in most grocery stores. Lacto-fermented sauerkraut is cabbage fermented with salt and its alive, teeming with probiotic, lactic-acid bacteria.
It’s an easy and cheap fermented food to make, has a rich umami flavor and makes a fantastic addition to salads, dips, sandwiches or as a side to any meal.
20 ways to eat sauerkraut
1. Plain as a side to your meal
I know, not super exciting, but it’s the most common and simplest way to eat it. Take it out of the fridge with each meal like a condiment. Simply putting it out on the dinner table each night will remind you to eat some.
2. Eat it like salsa
Replace salsa with sauerkraut made with peppers like my jalapeño cilantro kraut. It works! You can put it on anything to liven or spice up the flavor.
3. Put it on top of eggs
My favorite way to get more probiotic food into my diet is starting the morning with kraut on my eggs. Plain kraut, ginger kraut or just about any flavor goes really well with fried, scrambled, or poached eggs.
4. Add it to a burrito
Liven up your burritos or breakfast burrito with tangy kraut.
5. It’s great with avocado
I like to mash up avocado and kraut together. The tanginess of the kraut brings out the flavor of the avocado. It works in place of lime. It’s like a krauty guacamole and great with chips, crackers or used as a topping in bowls. Or take out the pit and stuff it with sauerkraut.
6. Avocado toast
Add a few forkfuls to your avocado toast or just toast or someone suggested toast with tahini and another eats their morning toast with PB and sauerkraut.
7. Use it in a dip
Blend sauerkraut or kimchi with cream cheese to make a probiotic dip or blend it with hummus instead of using lemon.
8. Salad dressing
Blend sauerkraut into a salad dressing or add kraut brine to salad dressing instead of salt.
9. Salsa
Cut kraut up into small bits and add it to salsa. It will add a depth of flavor to your salsa along with nutrition.
10. Smoothies
This is a great way to boost the nutritional value of your smoothie without changing the flavor. Adding up to ¼ cup of sauerkraut to a smoothie will hide the flavor but add the beneficial probiotics. It’s probably best to avoid kraut with heavy flavors like garlic for smoothies. Stick to plain kraut or kraut with fruit in it.
11. Sandwiches or wraps
People have been putting sauerkraut in sandwiches for forever. We already know how good it can be. Many peeps recommended kimchi or sauerkraut in a grilled cheese sandwich. Sounds amazing to me.
12. Salads
Sprinkle it on top of salads. This is super easy, adds flavor and a nutrient boost.
13. Pair different kraut flavors with entrees
My apple spice kraut is great with chicken or pair pineapple turmeric kraut with pulled pork.
14. Sitr-fry
Kimchi, plain kraut, or ginger kraut add tons of flavor to stir-fry.
15. Rice
Add kimchi to your rice for kimchi fried rice. I simply fry rice in a pan and then mix in the kimchi when it cools a bit. It’s so good as a side to grilled salmon.
16. Burgers
Put a big helping on top of a burger.
17. Potatoes
Stuff a potato or sweet potato with kraut along with your favorite condiments.
18. Mashed Potatoes
Add it to mashed potatoes. I heard this one again and again. Wait until it’s cooled a bit before adding the kraut to keep the probiotics alive.
19. Tacos
I do this on Taco Tuesday night. Kraut is delicious in tacos. Fish, beef, chicken or veggie tacos. It’s good in all of them.
20. Soup
Once your soup has cooled a bit, add a few forkfuls to your chicken soup, potato soup, beef stew or any soup you want to add a kick of flavor to.
See, there’s so many ways to eat sauerkraut. It’s a versatile condiment that can be used to add flavor, more nutrients and probiotics to just about any meal.
What are ways you like to eat sauerkraut? Leave me a comment below.
Happy Fermenting!
Danielle