We do not make sauerkraut from scratch in the Thermomix®. We take ready-made sauerkraut from a jar or bag and turn it into something far better. That is the honest answer nobody gave us at the start. True lacto-fermentation takes weeks, not 25 minutes. What the Thermomix® does brilliantly is transform shop-bought cabbage into a side dish that tastes like it came from a grandmother’s kitchen rather than a jar.
We serve this classically alongside smoked pork, bratwurst, roast pork shoulder or knuckle, several times a month through winter. We have been making this recipe for years, always in the same order: chop the onion, sweat it with butter and flour, then add the cabbage with wine, stock and bay leaf. That sequence is not random. It is what turns 500 g of jarred sauerkraut into a side dish that tastes like a proper Sunday roast.
Sauerkraut with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 9 ✓
- 1 onion
- 30 g butter
- 1 tbsp flour
- 500 g sauerkraut
- 100 g vegetable stock
- 100 g dry white wine
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 pinches pepper
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions 0 / 4
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1
Chop the onion.
Peel the onion, halve it, place it in the mixing bowl and chop for 5 seconds / speed 5, then scrape down with the spatula.
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2
Sweat the onion.
Add the butter and flour and cook for 3 minutes / Varoma / speed 1.
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3
Cook all ingredients.
Add the remaining ingredients and cook for 20 minutes / 100°C / reverse direction / speed 1.
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4
Serve.
Remove the bay leaf, season the sauerkraut to taste if needed, and serve.
Tip: If you need more sauerkraut, not just as a side dish, double the quantity and extend the cooking time to 30 minutes. Simply place the simmering basket on top as a splash guard.
Sauerkraut reheats very well and often tastes even better the next day.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Reverse direction is essential, not optional
The most important setting in this recipe is reverse direction at speed 1 for the final 20 minutes. If you use normal direction or turn the speed up, you can stop the recipe right there. The blades spin sharp-side first and will reduce the cabbage to a mush within minutes. Sauerkraut depends on its firm, fibrous bite. Without that texture it tastes like acidic baby food.
In reverse direction the Thermomix® stirs with the blunt side of the blade and simply pushes the cabbage around the bowl. That is exactly what we want: even heating, all the flavours coming together, but the structure of the cabbage preserved. We cook for 20 minutes at 100°C because that is the time it takes for the sharpness of the sauerkraut to mellow slightly and for the wine to lose its raw alcohol note. You can shorten the time, but the result will taste rawer and more acidic.
A roux as a binder, not a filler
30 g butter and 1 tbsp flour sound like very little, but they make the difference between watery jarred sauerkraut and a side dish that stays on the plate rather than running into the gravy. We sweat both together with the chopped onion for 3 minutes at Varoma on speed 1. This cooks out the raw flour taste and later binds the stock and wine into a light coating around the strands of cabbage.
If you need a gluten-free version, replace the flour with 1 tsp cornflour, but stir it in with the stock rather than at the sweating stage, otherwise it will clump. Without any binding at all the sauerkraut turns out too wet. That is our experience from several attempts.
Juniper berries make it a classic
The base recipe uses bay leaf, salt and pepper. That gives you an honest sauerkraut, but a fairly plain one. If you want to push the dish towards bratwurst and roast pork territory, add 5 to 7 lightly crushed juniper berries with the other ingredients. Juniper is the ingredient that lifts sauerkraut from good to classic. It is our secret from a Franconian family recipe we have been making for years.
Crushing is important, otherwise the berries will not release their essential oils. We use the base of a heavy glass and press them on a chopping board until they split. Fish them out before serving. They are not meant to be eaten. If you have no juniper, you can add 1 tsp caraway seeds instead. It goes in a different direction but works well.
What bacon and wine add to the dish
The 100 g of dry white wine in the recipe is not a luxury extra. It lifts the acidity of the cabbage and adds a fruity note that works brilliantly with pork. We use a Riesling or Silvaner, both classic German pairings with pork knuckle. You can leave out the wine and use 200 g of stock instead, but the result will be flatter.
If you want something even more robust, fry 50 g of diced streaky bacon in a pan until crisp and add it along with its fat to the cabbage in place of the butter. That is the Franconian pub version. You can fry bacon in the Thermomix® at 120°C in reverse direction, but the result is never as crisp as in a pan. One extra pan is genuinely worth it here. It is one of the few places where the Thermomix® is not the fastest route.
Mistakes we have made along the way
We used sauerkraut straight from the bag without draining it
Bagged sauerkraut sits in its own brine. If you tip all of it in, the result is too salty and too sharp, because the acidity concentrates over less volume. Our fix: tip the cabbage into a sieve and let it drain briefly, but do not squeeze it dry. A little brine is fine. It is part of the flavour.
We kept the cooking time the same when we doubled the quantity
With 1 kg of cabbage, 20 minutes is not enough. The cabbage ends up cold in the centre and overcooked on the outside. Our fix: extend the time to 30 minutes for a double batch and place the simmering basket on top as a splash guard so the sauerkraut does not hit the lid. This is also mentioned in the original recipe notes and is completely accurate.
We once forgot to remove the bay leaf
Bay leaf is not harmful, but it is as tough as leather and very unpleasant to chew. Our fix: before serving, always stir around the bowl with the spatula and fish the leaf out. The same applies to juniper berries. If you want to keep it tidy, put both in a small tea infuser or spice bag, then retrieving them is much easier.
Variations we make regularly
With apple: One tart apple (such as Bramley or Cox), roughly diced, goes in with the cabbage. It makes the sauerkraut milder and slightly sweeter. Classic with Christmas goose.
With pineapple: It sounds unusual, but it is a classic from the former East Germany. Add 100 g pineapple (fresh or tinned, drained) in the last 5 minutes. It pairs surprisingly well with smoked pork.
With lard instead of butter: 30 g of lard instead of butter, and leave out the flour. This is the simpler, heartier version from an older generation. It tastes more rustic. With flour the result is a little more refined.
With sparkling wine instead of white wine: We make this version on New Year’s Eve when there is an open bottle to hand. The bubbles are gone after 20 minutes of cooking, but the fine yeasty notes remain. It works with any dry sparkling wine.
What we serve alongside
We classically serve this sauerkraut with smoked pork made in the Thermomix®, alongside creamy mashed potatoes with the Thermomix®. On cold days, two bratwursts and a slice of dark rye bread turn it into a complete evening meal. If you are looking for a vegetarian option, the sauerkraut pairs just as well with homemade potato dumplings from the Thermomix®.
Keeps for 3 days in the fridge, even better on day 2
In a sealed glass container the cooked sauerkraut keeps for 3 to 4 days in the fridge. Reheated, it often tastes even better than on the day it was made, because the flavours have had time to develop. To reheat, cook for 5 minutes at 90°C in reverse direction on speed 1. For larger portions, extend to 8 minutes.
Also goes well with: Bacon.
Also worth trying: Mangetout with the Thermomix®.
Freezing works too, but the cabbage loses some of its firm texture on thawing. We only freeze it when we have leftovers we cannot eat within the next few days. Reheat straight from frozen in the pot rather than in the microwave. The microwave makes the flour binding watery.
More classic side dishes with the Thermomix®: red cabbage, potato dumplings, mashed potatoes.
