Cashew Free Orange-Garlic Sauerkraut
Tangy, bright, and alive with flavor, this fermented cabbage is a far cry from the plain jarred stuff sitting on grocery store shelves. Massaging the cabbage with sea salt draws out its natural juices to create a brine from scratch, no vinegar shortcuts needed. Sliced garlic, fresh orange zest, grated ginger, and ground turmeric fold into that brine and slowly transform over three to five days into something genuinely complex — earthy, citrusy, and just a little spicy. The turmeric tints everything a gorgeous golden yellow, making it as pretty as it is delicious piled onto grain bowls, sandwiches, or eaten straight from the jar. Because every ingredient here is a whole, single-item food, there's zero guesswork about hidden nuts or shared-facility contamination — just cabbage, salt, and aromatics doing their thing. The fermentation process is low-effort once the prep is done; a daily press to keep the cabbage submerged is all the attention it needs. Once it hits the fridge, the flavor keeps deepening, so it genuinely gets better the longer it lasts.
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Learn more →Ingredients
8 servings
- 1 small head green cabbage (about 2 lb), outer leaves removed
- 1 tbsp fine sea salt (non-iodized)
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp fresh orange zest (from about 1 large orange)
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
Instructions
- 1
Quarter the cabbage through the core, then cut out and discard the core. Slice each quarter crosswise into thin shreds about 1/8-inch thick. Reserve one of the large outer leaves before discarding the rest.
- 2
Transfer the shredded cabbage to a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle the sea salt evenly over the cabbage, then massage and squeeze firmly with both hands for 8–10 minutes, until the cabbage has released a significant amount of liquid and feels limp and wet — the brine should pool visibly at the bottom of the bowl.
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