Curtido is the Central American version of sauerkraut, in El Salvador it is made with cabbage, carrots, onions and oregano, in Belize, they add habanero chillis. Fermented Red Cabbage Curtido my version, I use red cabbage as I love the colour, and jalapenos as I grow them too. There are many widely recognised health benefits of eating fermented foods, we add curtido to many meals just because it’s delicious.
Fermenting is also an easy way to preserve cabbage when they too many are ready to harvest at once.
Fermented Red Cabbage Curtido
Ingredients:
- 1kg shredded red cabbage
- 1 medium size carrot, grated
- 1-2 jalapeno or other type of chilli, finely sliced
- 2 medium red onions, finely sliced
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1-2 tsp toasted cumin seeds
- 20g sea salt
Method:
Prepare your ingredients
Combine cabbage, carrot, onion and chilli in a mixing bowl then mix though the cumin seeds and oregano.
Sprinkle with sea salt and gently massage the vegetable mixture with clean hands for about 8 minutes or until the cabbage softens and starts to release moisture.
Transfer the mixture to a sterilised fermenter. Use fermenting weights or a small sterilised glass jar filled with water to weigh the cabbage mixture below the moisture line.
Use sterilised long utensils to turn the mixture daily to ensure, this will ensure the liquid is evenly distributed. It should be ready to eat in 5 days, or sooner if the weather is warm and slower when it’s cold.
Taste the Curtido to decide whether it‘s ready, it should have a pleasantly sour flavour. Transfer to a sterilised jar or container and keep in the fridge for up to a month.
It’s quick, cheap and easy to make a fermenter at home, learn how to here.
