Easy Salt-Free Sauerkraut

Image Gallery Kraut has long been a harvest favorite, and now you can make it even more healthful!

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by Mike Benton

Most every summer, when canning season rolled around, my grandfather could be heard to comment, "Pickles ain't my favorite food, but what else can you do with cucumbers?"

Those words of his came vividly to mind last summer when, as a result of overenthusiastic planting, my wife and I were faced, not with an abundance of cukes, but with a hundred heads of cabbage!

"Coleslaw?" I mused, as we contemplated the small mountain of red and green leafy heads.

"No, sauerkraut!" she replied.

Well, I thought we'd bettered Granddad's solution to the cucumber problem nicely. Though coleslaw certainly "ain't my favorite food," kraut is, to my mind, a preeminent edible. Furthermore, it's not only tasty but also very nutritious. In fact, sauerkraut actually contains more vitamin C than the cabbage it's made from.

Many folks claim kraut serves as a blood cleanser and a bowel regulator. In addition, it's a predigested food: The starches in the cabbage are converted, during the krautmaking process, into simple sugars that are easily assimilated by the body. The bacteria (lactobacillus) that are responsible for the transformation will, like those in yogurt or other cultured foods, take up residence in your intestinal tract and help your body manufacture its own B vitamins.

Yep, nutritionally speaking, sauerkraut has a lot going for it . . . and only one real drawback—salt.

More and more health-conscious people are reducing the amount of salt in their diets, and I was hesitant to prepare a big batch of normal, salty sauerkraut, since I knew excess sodium can aggravate such conditions as high blood pressure and kidney problems.

"So, let's make saltless kraut," said my wife.

Saltless sauerkraut? Well, we certainly had enough cabbage to experiment with, so we took a stab at it. And we were pleasantly surprised; we made delicious, salt-free sauerkraut . . . and it was so good that I'd like to share the recipe with you here.

INGREDIENTS AND UTENSILS

You'll need the following:

1 bushel of red, green, or mixed cabbages (this will make a big batch of kraut . . . you might want to try making a few two- or three-head batches, perhaps with different herb and spice mixtures, before you go whole hog)

any spices, herbs, or vegetables you wish to add (peppers, cukes, beets, carrots, and cauliflower are popular choices)

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