4 best recipes for making sauerkraut without salt
Canned sauerkraut without salt is a tasty and healthy product that is easy to cook on your own. It is a source of vitamin C, micro- and macroelements, enzymes and lactobacilli necessary for the normal functioning of the body. In the presence of salt, nutrients and bacteria are destroyed and killed, therefore, to maintain health, it is more useful to eat vegetables fermented without adding this component.
The subtleties of cooking sauerkraut without salt
To get a healthy and high-quality product that can be stored for a long time, you need to properly prepare the ingredients and containers.
How to choose and prepare foods
When choosing cabbage, preference should be given to winter varieties with thick white leaves. These vegetables are high in sugar. In this case, the finished product will be crispy and dense, and the sugar will help to ferment better.
Vegetables should be ripe, clean, strong, juicy, free from signs of disease and rot, not affected by pests. Before cooking, they must be washed and all tainted areas must be cut off. Peel the carrots, remove the upper leaves from the heads. Vegetables dry well after washing.
Container preparation rules
Glass jars with tight-fitting lids are used as storage containers. You can cook the product in an enamel or earthenware.
Do not use aluminum containers - this material quickly oxidizes, and the product acquires a metallic taste, its shelf life is reduced.
Glass jars must be thoroughly washed with soda, scalded with boiling water and dried. Do the same with knives, enameled buckets, bowls and other utensils that are used in the cooking process.
How to cook sauerkraut without salt at home
There are several recipes for making sauerkraut. All of them are quite simple and can be used at home.
Simple recipe
To prepare a dish according to the simplest recipe, you will need to take:
- white cabbage - 0.5 heads of cabbage;
- carrots - 1 pc.;
- boiled water.
Cooking steps:
- The cabbage is chopped, the carrots are rubbed on a coarse grater, placed in a large bowl and mixed, pressing with your hands so that the juice is released from the cabbage.
- Vegetables are transferred to a jar and filled with cool water. The water should completely cover the contents, but you should not pour it to the top - during the fermentation, the volume of the liquid will double.
- Vegetables are covered with a couple of whole cabbage leaves, tamped and put under pressure.
- The whole structure is covered with gauze or a lid so that air flows in. The jar is left for several days at room temperature (about 20 ° C) in a well-ventilated dark place.
1-2 times a day, stir vegetables and determine readiness to taste. When the product becomes crispy and sweet and sour in taste, the brine is poured into a separate jar, and the vegetables are transferred to the refrigerator. The brine can be eaten, as well as used to ferment the following batches of vegetables.
No salt and sugar
To prepare a dish according to this recipe, you will need to take:
- white cabbage - 1 head of cabbage;
- water - 1 glass.
Cooking steps:
- The cabbage is chopped and placed in a jar, tamping well.
- From above it is poured with water.
- The jar is covered and left at room temperature for 3 days.
- The finished product is placed in the refrigerator.
Salt and water free
For this recipe you will need:
- white cabbage - 3 kg;
- carrots - 0.5 kg.
Cooking steps:
- The cabbage is chopped, the carrots are rubbed on a coarse grater, mixed, placed in a bucket or basin, tamped tightly and oppression is placed on top.
- The oppression should be heavy so that as much juice as possible is released from the cabbage.
- When all the vegetables are covered with juice, the oppression is replaced with a lighter one.
After 1-2 days, the oppression is removed and the workpiece is moved to jars, which are put into the refrigerator for storage.
No salt with spices
To prepare this dish, you must take:
- white cabbage - 4.5 kg;
- dill seeds - 2 tbsp. l .;
- cumin seeds - 2 tbsp. l .;
- celery seeds - 2 tbsp. l .;
- crushed peppercorns - 2 tbsp. l.
Cooking steps:
- Cabbage is chopped and mixed with spices.
- 1/6 of the product is set aside and ground until the juice is released, and then transferred back to the bulk.
- Vegetables are transferred to glass jars, tamped and oppressed. The juice should completely cover the contents. If not, add water.
After 4-5 days, the product is refrigerated for further storage.
How to store the finished product correctly
The finished product is easily spoiled, therefore, it should be stored only in a refrigerator, basement or cellar at a temperature of 0 ... + 6 ° C without access to sunlight. Humidity should be around 70%.
The food may remain at room temperature for a short time immediately after cooking. In this case, it becomes more acidic over time.
In the refrigerator, sauerkraut, cooked without adding water, is stored for no more than a week, and cooked with brine - no more than 5 days. To increase the shelf life, the product can be frozen in plastic bags.
