A “light” version of Sauerkraut
Sauerkraut, fermented cabbage, is part of the Germanic diet and eaten from the Netherlands to Poland, with Germany and the Alsace region in France being the standard bearers.
In the times before refrigeration, the fermentation process allowed people to have access to vitamins and nutrients in winter when other vegetables were scarce. Sauerkraut still has many vitamins, such as vitamin C, lactibacili and other nutrients that are good for your intestines.
However, most traditional recipes call for several kinds of meat, often pork-based and also duck, goose, feathered game. They also add bacon strips and are cooked in fat, also from pork, duck or goose. Plus potatoes.
The digestive boost from the sauerkraut may make it easier to cope with the robust collection of meats, and when the meal is for a family of eight it may be easier to justify a wide variety of meats, but it is not very healthy any more. Especially when the sauerkraut has been cooked for long in wine as most of the benefits are in the raw sour cabbage.
I tried a light version, taking advantage of the abundance of sauerkraut in the supermarkets here in France at the moment.
Ingredients for four
- One kg of raw sauerkraut
- Two glasses of white wine
- Two glasses of water
- crushed peppercorns
- juniper berries
- One cooked sausage (saucisson cuit)
- Eight Frankfurter sausages
- Piccalilli, mustard
Steps
- Cook the kraut in the water and wine for 15 minutes, add some juniper berries and peppercorns.
- Warm the sausages in water, just below boiling point.
- Slice the large sausage.
- Take the cabbage out of the pan with a slotted spoon, dispose on plates, add the sausage slices and Frankfurters.
- Serve with piccalilli and mustard.