Sauerkraut Soup Recipe (2024)

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Our Sauerkraut Soup Recipe with Sausage, Originate in Eastern Europe and has been served as a Hearty Christmas Soup for Generations. It is also known as Slovak Kapustnica, Czech Zelnacka, German Sauerkraut Soup Sauerkrautsuppe and Polish Sauerkraut Soup Kapustniak.

Served with crusty bread such as our farmer’s bread, yogurt buns, protein buns, or fiber bread rolls, you are bound to have the incredible experience a soup can offer you.

Sauerkraut soup is one of the best winter hearty soup from Eastern Europe. This keto sausage sauerkraut soup is a perfect mixture of tanginess coming from actual sauerkraut. All of the flavors of the soup, the smoky paprika taste, the forest nature aroma from wild mushrooms, and the healthiness of all together will be on your menu from now on.

Best sauerkraut recipes

If you love sauerkraut, you will love all the recipes made with it.

Apart from eating raw as a sauerkraut salad with your dinner meals, you can cook perfect dishes. Our baked sausage sauerkraut is my husband’s favorite, and sauerkraut chicken is my daughter’s.

For me, it is and will forever be our sauerkraut soup.

You can make various sauerkraut dishes, from soups, main dishes, pastries, sauerkraut casserole and desserts. It gives every dish a perfect tangy feel and changes the way we look at simple ordinary pastries or pies, for example.

We use it in our family quite a lot.

I am going to make much more recipes with sauerkraut. This is for all of you to try and fall in love with it as we all do.

What is sauerkraut?

Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage. It is a fresh cabbage that has been thinly sliced and fermented with various spices.

How do you transform cabbage to sauerkraut?

The fermentation process starts around November when the vegetables are grown and picked. Fresh cabbage is shredded and placed for fermentation, which usually takes approximately one month for sauerkraut to form.

What is sauerkraut soup?

Sauerkraut soup is a soup cooked mostly during winter times. It is when cabbage has been fermented and is in the pantry of every European household.

Depending on the country, ingredients such as dry mushrooms, sausage, sweet paprika, caraway seeds, tomato paste, or bay leaf are added to the homemade sauerkraut soup and let simmer for hours.

It is an easy soup without complications, using just one pot, lots of sauerkraut, and a few additional spices.

History of sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is one of the main ingredients used in Middle Europe. Especially during winter, when it was pretty challenging to get fresh vegetables. Sauerkraut has been a part of every household kitchen.

The word sauerkraut comes from the actual taste of sauerkraut in German. Kraut is a cabbage, and Sauer as a sour taste.

The history begins in China, where laborers of rice vines used to shred the cabbage. They fermented it to survive throughout the season, where very little produce was grown.

Sauerkraut 1000 years later.

Coming back to Europe, Germanic people used to mix shredded cabbage with salt to extract water. By fermentation, the sugar from the cabbage itself worked as a preservative. That way, sauerkraut lasted fresh for an extended period.

Every family had barrels. There, the cabbage used to be fermented into perfect sauerkraut to be used throughout the whole winter months.

Nowadays, you can buy sauerkraut in every single shop or market. The tradition had decreased a bit. But it is still active in some families.

As I know from my country – Slovakia – my parents still make their sauerkraut. As all of my friends and family relatives.

Every family has its recipe and adds different spices to it, but the process is generally the same all over. Learn on how to make sauerkraut at home.

Carbs in sauerkraut

Sauerkraut does not contain much carbohydrates.

If you take our soup as an example, a whole bowl contains 5 grams of carbs and 3 grams of fiber. A total of 2 net carbs per bowl.

Considering this soup is delicious and healthy like no other, this is the best you can give to your body.

Cooking sauerkraut

If you plan to cook sauerkraut for various recipes, you must ensure it is cooked or simmered on low heat for at leas an hour. That way, the sauerkraut will get soft and release all the deliciousness.

You can add various types of meat or sausages for a complete meal.

Sauerkraut in soup

Sauerkraut soup is great to cook using broth, wine, or water. Depending on additional ingredients, the flavor might change slightly.

Different versions of sauerkraut soup

Sauerkraut soup, as already mentioned, is one of the most popular soups in Central Europe.

Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Russia, Romania, and Hungary, just to name a few.

The differences in various recipes for sauerkraut are very minimal, and some recipes interlink with each other. Some are even a combination of a few.

German sauerkraut soup – Sauerkrautsuppe

The main difference in German soup is that they add a tomato paste. They are also using bavarian sauerkraut, which is milder and sweeter.

Czech sauerkraut soup – Zelňačka

Closest to our recipe with a difference of adding flour to thicken the soup for almost as a sauerkraut stew.

Russian sauerkraut soup – Kapustnyak

Russian or Ukrainian sauerkraut, on the other hand, is made without sweet paprika powder, and beans, carrots, celery, and smoked bacon are added to the soup.

Polish sauerkraut soup – Kapusniak

Polish, like Russians, skip paprika powder and add leeks, carrots, parsnip, and cut potatoes into small pieces in their kapusniak recipe. It is a soup made from a stock of pork ribs, pork shoulder, and ham bone.

Is keto sausage sauerkraut soup tasty?

It is the tastiest soup of all.

I love this soup dearly. I can’t wait for the next time I make this soup again.

When you have never tried it before, you might be surprised by the varieties of flavors you might not have had before.

But trust me. A few tablespoons and you are in love. The tanginess of sauerkraut and the wildness of mushrooms give this soup such great flavors as nothing else would.

Whoever has made it several times can not stop talking about it.

Sausage sauerkraut soup

This great recipe contains sausage as well. I must mention that there are so many varieties of this keto sauerkraut soup.

You can always choose the one you like, and add or remove what you do not like.

In our tradition as Christians, during Christmas evening, meat is strictly prohibited. Therefore the sauerkraut soup is made entirely vegetarian. But also gluten-free.

The next day we cook a fresh one in a big pot to last till New Year. This time, we also add sausage to make it even more tasteful and perfect as keto sausage sauerkraut soup should be.

The more the soup is reheated, the better it tastes.

Come New Year. It is the best soup to be served after midnight. Just when sourness and tanginess are all you need after a few sips of alcohol.

What kind of sausage to use?

Depending on your liking, you can pick any sausage you like. We usually always use smoked sausage cut into slices.

But if you want fresh sausage, place the whole sausage inside the soup for cooking. You can slice it after the soup has been made.

What type of sauerkraut to use?

Any type of sauerkraut can be used for our recipe.

What kind of mushrooms to use?

For the real and proper Slovak sauerkraut soup, we always use dry mushrooms picked directly from the forest.

We always pick Boletus Edulis, Penny Bun or Porcini mushrooms since they are the ones with the strongest flavor and the taste you can give.

If you do not have those freely available in your part of the world, any dry mushrooms will also work. It gets even better if you can get fresh mushrooms from a nearby market.

How to make sauerkraut soup?

I will explain exactly how to make our family Slovak sauerkraut soup with my wonderful recipe. The one not only us but also all of our friends love and adore.

The perfect caramelized onions, together with smoked paprika. Dried wild mushrooms are added to the taste of sauerkraut. This unbelievable feeling of having the best soup you have ever imagined.

How to make Slovak keto sausage sauerkraut soup?

Apart from skipping dry plums, which are added to the original recipe my mom used to make, I will guide you through this delicious sauerkraut soup I cook, eat and pass the recipe to my kids.

All of the exact measurements are added to the recipe card below.

Kitchen gadgets needed:

Large soup pot or dutch oven

Ingredients needed:

Evo Oil
Onion
Garlic
Dried Wild Mushrooms (Penny Bun or Porcini)
Dry Red sweet paprika
Jar of sauerkraut
Italian Sausage
Salt & pepper

*Exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR EASY SAUERKRAUT SOUP

First step: Prepare ingredients

First, prepare all of the ingredients. Hopefully, by now, you have a jar of dry mushrooms in your pantry to use it.

Onions and garlic should e thinly sliced.

Prepare the sauerkraut. In my recipe, it should be used together with water. But if you prefer a milder version, you can drain the sauerkraut and have the water as a morning energy boost drink.

Second step: Sauté

First, sauté onions and garlic with a bit of olive oil in a large pot. Let the onion caramelize, and add sliced sausage.

Mix, add dry mushrooms, sauté a bit more and continue with a pinch of salt as well as pepper.

Third step: Sweet paprika

Once everything is sautéed (see video), switch off the heat and add sweet paprika powder.

While the heat is turned off, incorporate paprika powder fully.

By switching the heat off, you will not have a problem with paprika powder burning or becoming bitter, which sometimes happens by overcooking.

Fourth step: Sauerkraut

Add the sauerkraut and mix well.

Switch the heat on again, add boiling water or bone broth and cover with a lid.

Let the soup simmer on medium heat for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Once you make the soup, serve it with a spoon or sour cream or creme fraiche. Regular bacon bits and chopped parsley can also be added.

TIPS AND TRICKS:

Sauerkraut – if you like a stronger version, keep the water from the sauerkraut. Drained sauerkraut, on the other site, gives you a milder version of tanginess.
Sweetness – in my family, dry plums are added for sweetness. You can add them and, in the end, take them out, as plums are not a part of keto.
Sausage – if you use fresh sausage, keep the whole piece in and slice only towards the end of cooking.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

What to serve with Sauerkraut Soup?

A piece of crusty bread, such as our farmers bread, yogurt buns, protein buns, or fiber rolls, could be served with this easy recipe.

We have also made crispy garlic croutons from the same bread, which could be another choice to go with this wonderful soup.

Also, you can top it up with sour cream, creme fraiche, and chopped herbs.

Can you make vegan sauerkraut soup?

Taking out the sausage would make your soup entirely vegetarian and vegan.
For Christmas dinner, we make vegan soup as on a Christmas day, no meat is eaten.

The non vegetarian version, sausage sauerkraut soup, is used for the New Year party.

Keto sausage sauerkraut soup recipe in an Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker?

This question has crossed my mind already. And since I have just got an Instant Pot for Christmas and already fallen in love with it, I have personally yet to try it.

It is already on my next to-do list. I would sauté the onions and all as per the recipe below.

I would then pressure cook it for approximately 45 minutes on a high once everything is added.

In that way, you get all of the ingredients combined. And get probably even more delicious, and dense sauerkraut soup then one can ask for.

Keto sausage sauerkraut soup in a Slow Cooker?

I don’t have one. But I can imagine this recipe working perfectly. I would sauté it first and bring to a boil. Following with reduced heat, cook it in a crockpot for a few hours.

What do you do with leftovers?

Once you make this sauerkraut soup, it lasts 5 to 6 days in the fridge. The longer it is stored, the better it tastes. Therefore it is great to make a big batch.

But if you still have some leftovers, place them in a Mason jar and store them in your freezer.

Can sauerkraut soup be frozen?

It certainly can, and I do it almost every time I cook one for us. I never add sour cream or creme fraiche directly into the soup, but only as an addition while serving. Therefore once unfrozen, this soup can be boiled without you being afraid of sour cream curdling.

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Sauerkraut Soup Recipe

Zuzana Paar

4.82 from 49 votes

Equipment

1 Large soup pot or dutch oven

Ingredients

1 Onion
3 Cloves Garlic
2 Cups Dried Wild Mushrooms Penny Bun or Porcini
2 Tablespoons Dry Red Sweet Paprika
500 grams Sauerkraut
100 grams Italian Sausage

Instructions

First, prepare all of the ingredients. Hopefully, by now, you have a jar ofdry mushroomsin your pantry to use it. Onions and garlic should e thinly sliced. Prepare the sauerkraut.
First, sauté onions and garlic with a bit of olive oil in a large pot. Let the onion caramelize, and add sliced sausage. Mix, add dry mushrooms, sauté a bit more and continue with a pinch of salt as well as pepper.
Once everything is sautéed (see video), switch off the heat and add sweet paprika powder. While the heat is turned off, incorporate paprika powder fully.
Add the sauerkraut and mix well. Switch the heat on again, add boiling water orbone brothand cover with a lid. Let the soup simmer on medium heat for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Video

Notes

Sauerkraut – if you like a stronger version, keep the water from the sauerkraut. Drained sauerkraut, on the other site, gives you a milder version of tanginess.
Sweetness – in my family, dry plums are added for sweetness. You can add them and, in the end, take them out, as plums are not a part of keto.
Sausage – if you use fresh sausage, keep the whole piece in and slice only towards the end of cooking.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 117kcalCarbohydrates: 5gProtein: 5gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 13mgSodium: 676mgPotassium: 413mgFiber: 3gVitamin A: 1165IUVitamin C: 15mgCalcium: 41mgIron: 2mg

Disclaimer

Please note that nutrient values are estimates only. Variations can occur due to product availability and manner of food preparation. Nutrition may vary based on methods of origin, preparation, freshness of ingredients, and other factors.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

First Published: March 10, 2019

Last Updated: November 06, 2022

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