Dinner Ladies: Sauerkraut Recipe

City Harvest x Dinner Ladies

The Dinner Ladies first sprang into food redistribution action in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they created cater-grade meals for City Harvest to deliver to Londoners facing food poverty.

The all-female London caterers have recently started a 1-for-1 scheme, providing an option for corporate clients to carry a meal forward. This means a meal that’s donated to City Harvest to be distributed to London communities in need. Thank you, Dinner Ladies, for your support.

Lockdown Love: City Harvest driver Alwyn collects food from the Dinner Ladies to distribute to our network of London charities.

Conscious of food waste as well as providing social impact, the Dinner Ladies’ created this sauerkraut recipe to promote gut-health, and zero waste. It’s a great use of cabbage, or other vegetables, that you might have lurking in your fridge.

Sauerkraut 

Equipment you’ll need:

• Clean tea towels
• Chopping board
• Sharp knife
• Large mason jars
• Mandolin
• Large mixing bowl
• Ziplock bag

Ingredients:

• 1kg green or red cabbage
• 28g sea salt
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp hot paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• ½ tsp ground coriander

Method:

1. After removing the outer leaves of the cabbage, thoroughly wash the head of the cabbage and dry it with a clean tea towel. (*save the outer leaves to roast or add to a soup)
2. Place cabbage on a chopping board and cut into quarters, then finely grate using a mandolin.
3. Transfer the shredded cabbage to a large mixing bowl. Add the sea salt and using your hands start massaging the cabbage so that it releases as much water as possible.
4. Continue this for around 10 mins until the cabbage has shrunk in size and released a lot of water. Add the spices and massage for a further 3-4 mins.
5. Transfer the cabbage mixture to your clean, dry mason jars, making sure to leave around 6cm of space at the top.
6. Add the brine so that the cabbage is completely covered. Take the zip-lock bag and fill it with water to use as a weight. Place it on top of the cabbage in the jar and make sure all the cabbage is immersed in the brine.
7. Cover the top of the jar with a tea towel.
8. Add a date sticker to the side of the jar.

Interested in this sauerkraut recipe? Why not try our apple and ginger kimchi recipe out.