Red Cabbage Is Your Secret For A More Vibrant Sauerkraut

For those of us who are fans, sauerkraut is a juicy, tangy, crunchy topping to load onto our foot-longs, slurp up alongside kielbasa and mashed potatoes, or munch by the forkful straight from the jar. But if we're being perfectly honest, it's not very photogenic, and in today's world of Instagram-worthy food photography, it can be hard to get people to sit up and take notice of yellow-tinged sauerkraut.

If you want to brighten your sauerkraut, for photos and your mouth, the simplest answer is to use red cabbage. Regardless of its name, red cabbage is actually quite purple, a strikingly beautiful hue that'll perk up your sauerkraut visually, as well as providing a slightly earthier flavor. Not only that, red cabbage has been shown to offer a wealth of needed vitamins and minerals, and its healthful properties only increase after lactobacillus is formed during the fermentation process — plus it maintains its vivid color.

Though it may seem daunting at first, fermenting fresh vegetables like red cabbage is a lot easier than you might imagine. It's a simple matter of throwing all the ingredients together and letting it sit. Basic sauerkraut recipes require nothing more than fresh cabbage and kosher salt, but you'll want to add a few juniper berries and caraway seeds for that familiar sauerkraut flavor (unlike its close relative kimchi, which often includes chili pepper flakes, garlic, ginger, and fish sauce).

Replacing green cabbage with red cabbage in any sauerkraut recipe is an easy swap with no additional preparation or additions needed. Once you have several jars of red cabbage sauerkraut fermenting in your fridge, expect them to keep for the next four to six months, if they even last that long! Or seal your jars in a water bath to help them last even longer. You can use the red cabbage version in all of your favorite sauerkraut applications, from wrapping it in leavened dough for Polish-style pierogi to piling it on rye bread with corned beef and Russian dressing for a remarkable Reuben.