How to Make Fermented Greens

This video will show you simple methods for making sauerkraut and kimchi. But first, some background.

Bacteria, molds, and fungi are microorganisms found everywhere around us. Most of them are harmless to us. Some are even essential to our digestive health, but a few can spoil our food and even cause food poisoning.

On the other hand, we can encourage the growth of particular microorganisms to create desirable changes in food. This process is called controlled fermentation and has been a vital process in preparing and preserving foods for many centuries. We still use fermentation to produce bread, beer, wine and cheese, yogurt, chocolate, pickles, olives, soy sauce, vinegar, and vanilla, and many other foods.

Fermenting leafy vegetables has been done for thousands of years in a wide variety of cultures. The fermentation process preserves vegetables, makes several nutrients more digestible, and adds complex flavors. The leafy vegetables most often fermented are members of the cabbage family. Kimchi and sauerkraut are the most popular fermented greens.

Kimchi is the national food of Korea, where it has been made for roughly 4,000 years. It usually is made from a variety of cabbage, flavored with garlic, chili, and ginger. Koreans eat an average of 18 kg (or 40 lbs.) of kimchi a year and it shows up at nearly every meal.

Sauerkraut, also made from cabbage, is one of the most common and oldest forms of preserving food and can be traced back to the 4th century BC when peasant farmers made it in large clay jars.

It was often the difference between life and death on long sea voyages, where it provided enough vitamin C to protect those on board from the dreaded disease scurvy. The slang term “kraut” was given to German sailors because of their custom of packing plenty of sauerkraut for ocean voyages.

Several fermented foods of regional importance combine both fermentation and dehydration for preserving leafy vegetables over long periods.

Gundruk is usually made from mustard and cauliflower leaves and sometimes radishes. It is a national dish of Nepal and commonly eaten throughout the Himalayan region. Nepali people make gundruk by fermenting the partially wilted vegetables in earthen pots for two weeks. They then sun dry it to serve as an essential source of vitamins and minerals over the long Himalayan winter when fresh food is scarce.

It is usually added to stews and soups. Unlike kimchi and sauerkraut, no salt is used to produce gundruk.

Villagers in East Africa often ferment cowpea leaves with both salt and sugar. They then dry the fermented leaves in the sun for use during the dry season when the diet is typically deficient in vitamin A and iron.

Kawal is one of the more unusual fermented foods. It is made only from the leaves of the sicklepod tree in Sudan. Towards the end of the rainy season, the Sudanese pound sicklepod leaves to a pulp then pack the pulp tightly into buried clay jars. After two weeks, they roll the fermented leaves into small balls and dry them in the sun. Once it is thoroughly dried, kawal is a compact, high-protein food that provides some food security over the long dry season.

Not all edible greens ferment well. Due to their high chlorophyll content, many dark green leafy vegetables have a strong unpleasant flavor and aroma when they are fermented. For example, our experiments with fermented kale and moringa leaves didn’t result in anything we wanted to eat.

There is great enthusiasm for fermented foods right now and many promising, if exaggerated, health claims. Scientists are conducting many experiments to evaluate those claims, but as of May 2021, most of those studies are still inconclusive. Meanwhile, there is already plenty of evidence that fermenting greens can extend when vegetables are available by three months or more.

The process of fermentation softens the cell walls of the vegetables and makes their nutrients more digestible. While some vitamin C and beta-carotene are lost, the B-vitamin content often increases. Fermentation can also neutralize some of the compounds commonly found in food, including phytates, tannins, and oxalic acid, that block the absorption of nutrients. In addition, it can reduce the level of more dangerous toxins, such as those in cassava and aflatoxins from grains and peanuts that have gotten moldy.

And for millions of people, kimchee and sauerkraut can add appealing flavors to bland, starchy staple foods made from maize, rice, cassava, yams, or plantains.

So, let’s make some sauerkraut and kimchi. Once you are comfortable with these simple recipes, you might want to experiment with different vegetables and spices.

Make Sauerkraut

We’ll start with sauerkraut because it is the easiest.

Sauerkraut is famously paired with hot dogs and sausage or potatoes.

Make Kimchi (Kimchee)

Now, for a little more challenge, let’s make some kimchi. There are thousands of local variations on kimchi. This is a basic one. You can create a range of flavors by adding other vegetables and spices.

This Korean tofu stew is one of the hundreds of ways to eat kimchi.

Sauerkraut and kimchi are fun to make; a sort of miniaturized farming with billions of microscopic livestock. Not everyone enjoys their flavor, but both are safe and healthy to eat. Scientists are rapidly learning about fermented foods and evaluating many of the health claims that are being made. The story of fermented greens is thousands of years old and still growing.

Thanks for watching.

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