Well, Sauerkraut actually is fermented white cabbage, a VERY traditional German winter vegetable. (Some of you might have heard about it?)

The traditional way it is served with mashed potatoes and a piece of roast meat, or Bratwürstl, or goose…

The way I recommend to prepare it today is entirely without meat, a bit crossover (lentils, curcuma and apricots) and very warming. The perfect lunch for someone who has been outside the whole morning raking oak leaves, planting tulip bulbs and piling logs…. Although the sun is still shining (splendid november until now!), the air is getting chilly.

Here’s the recipe: Potato-kurkuma-sauerkraut

500g sauerkraut (canned – or the fresh fermented kraut, which must be cooked before)
60g dried apricots, cut in small stripes
60g lentils
600g potatoes, in small pieces
1 onion, chopped
250ml vegetable stock
1 ts paprika
1 ts caraway seeds
1 ts kurkuma (turmeric)
1 tbs curry
1 tbs olive oil

Put the onion and the olive oil in a sauce pan and fry until golden.  With a wooden spoon stir in the paprika powder and then add the vegetable stock.
Add now potatoes, lentils, caraway, curcuma and curry, cover it and let it simmer for about 20 minutes until the lentils are smooth.
Finally add the apricots and the sauerkraut. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes to give the sweet and the sour time to blend in.

When I use freshly cooked sauerkraut I like to add a few spoonfuls of the delicious sauerkraut stock. And of course, for me a dash of Tabasco!

Moritzburg Schlossteich without water after the big fish harvesting