Rice 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 salt into fresh green cabbage draws out its natural juices to create the brine — no vinegar shortcuts, no added fillers, just pure lacto-fermentation doing its thing. Sliced garlic, fresh orange zest, grated ginger, and a touch of turmeric transform the whole jar into something genuinely exciting, with a citrusy warmth that makes it hard to stop eating straight from the spoon. Grain-free and completely free of rice or rice-derived ingredients, this is a condiment you can pile onto anything without a second thought. The process takes a few days of patient waiting, but the hands-on time is minimal — just daily pressing to keep everything submerged while the bubbles do the work. By day three you can start tasting, and the payoff is a crunchy, golden-tinted kraut that's tangy, garlicky, and just a little floral from the orange. Make a jar on Sunday and you'll be reaching for it all week.
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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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