Polish Sauerkraut Salad – Surówka

This is one of our favorite polish foods, and it’s insanely easy to make. It’s so easy, in fact, that if we were in Poland you would probably slap me for thinking this was an appropriate recipe to share in a blog post. Another benefit is that it’s very, very good for you – especially if you make it with fermented sauerkraut and not the kind made with vinegar (which is more of a pickle). This recipe is also gluten free, low carb, vegan, paleo etc. etc. etc. 

One of my dietary goals is to eat more fermented foods – yogurt, kefir, kimchee, kombucha, and of course sauerkraut. Fermented foods are packed with good-for-you live cultures (aka probiotics), that are great for your gut, digestive health, immunity, and for the ladies, vaginal health, as they promote the growth of good bacteria. I like Bubbies or Farmhouse Culture (shown above). Since these have live cultures, you’ll find them in the refrigerated section of the supermarket.  

Sugar and salt: some of recipes I’ve seen on line for this salad call for both sugar and salt in the dressing component. I went for both the first time I made this, and the salt was serious overkill and I had to add an extra apple and carrot to balance it out. Sugar is often used in slaws, as it helps macerate the apple and carrot, enhancing their flavor, softening them slightly and perhaps most importantly, drawing out their juice and flavor so that liquid becomes part of the dressing of the salad. This isn’t strictly necessary, but it isn’t a lot of sugar, and gives an extra punch to the salad. And I love punch. 

The only other thing to note with this recipe is to pick a tart, flavorful apple as mild apples simply won’t be able to stand up to the flavor of the sauerkraut. I usually go for granny smith as you can get them year round, but in the fall there are a lot of other great options like pink lady, macintosh, and honeycrisp. Save the galas for dipping in peanut butter. 

So let’s get started!

Surówka

Ingredients:

1-2 crisp, tart apples (I used 1 granny smith)

1 large carrot or 2-3 medium to small carrots

1 jar or pouch of sauerkraut (appx. 22oz. I used Farmhouse Culture classic caraway flavor)

fresh cracked pepper (to taste)

2 tbs. olive oil

Optional:

1tsp sugar

1/4 medium sized onion (or more/less to taste – I based it on a medium onion because that is what I tend to have on hand)

Strain the liquid out of the sauerkraut. This liquid is full of live cultures, so I like to save it to use as the acid component in vinaigrettes. Dump the sauerkraut into a medium sized serving bowl. 

Cut the apple off the core by cutting top to bottom about where you expect the core to start on 4 sides of the apple. You can obviously core the apple however you like, but I find this to be easiest, and a trick some people don’t know about. Whether you use one or two apples depends on how much you want to taste the apple, and how sweet you want the salad to be. I used one here, but I think 1 1/2 would have been perfect for me – I wanted just a bit more apple flavor.

Grate the apple slices and carrot(s) into the bowl with the sauerkraut using the coarsest option on a grater, or grate using a food processor and dump that into the bowl. If you like onion, do a fine chop on your onion and add that in too. I have made this salad both with and without the onion, and it’s great either way, but you can definitely taste the raw onion, so keep that in mind. I found 1/4 of an onion to be about as much as I would want, as I could still taste the onion, but it didn’t overpower the other ingredients. 

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, pepper to taste, and sugar together until the sugar is dissolved. 

 

Dump the dressing on the sauerkraut mixture, and blend everything together. Taste it. Do you want more pepper? Add it now! No? You’re done! You can serve this immediately, or let it hang out on the counter (covered – fruit flies love it) or in the fridge for a while so the flavors can all really come out. I like to taste test multiple times, just to be sure it’s ready…