Sauerkraut and Noodles - Variation

This is a variation of sauerkraut and noodles that I personally really enjoy. Depending on your view of what's vegan you may want to use an alternative to soy sauce. You may also want to check the ingredient list of pasta or noodles, as some brands or varieties are not vegan and do contain animal products.

Ingredients:

• Sauerkraut - 1/2 C. to 3/4 C.
• Cabbage - shredded (cut long and thin) - 1/2 small cabbage or 2 C.
• Noodles or Pasta - 3/4 C. dry pasta or 1 to 2 servings dry noodles
• Soy Sauce - 2 tsp.
• Vinegar - Unseasoned Rice or White - 1 or 2 tsp.
• Ginger - 1/2 tsp. powdered
• Vegetable Oil - 2 tsp.

Preparation:
Heat oil over medium heat in a pot large enough to hold the raw cabbage. Add cabbage, stir occasionally, add soy sauce and well-drained and/or rinsed sauerkraut a few minutes into cooking, cook until tender, but still a little crunchy (around 5 - 10 minutes). Stir in vinegar and ginger powder while still hot.
Cook pasta or noodles according to package instructions. Combine noodles with sauerkraut-cabbage mixture. Serves 2 - 4

Butternut Squash with Sauerkraut and Marinara

One of the very first recipes I experimented with.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash - diced or cubed
• 1 14oz. can sauerkraut - drained well or rinsed
• marinara or spaghetti sauce to your liking

Preperation:
Simmer the squash until cooked thoroughly but not overcooked, you want it to be firm not mushy. Meanwhile drain or rinse the sauerkraut and heat it up if you would prefer it warm. When the squash is done just drain it and put it in a dish, top with the sauerkraut and then add the sauce on top as much or as little as you like.

This can serve as a main dish or quite an interesting side dish. Depending on how you use it this can serve about 1 to 4 people.

Sauerkraut, Potatoes and Pumpkin

Potatoes and pumpkin. They compliment each other quite well and the tangy sauerkraut really rounds it out in my opinion.

Ingredients: 

• Potatoes - 2 pounds; cubed about 1 inch
• Sauerkraut - 1.5 lbs. drained
• Pumpkin - 1 small can; plain pumpkin (preferably use 1 fresh small pumpkin - roasted)
• Onion - 1 medium; sliced thin
• Black Pepper - to taste

Preparation:
Boil potatoes until fully cooked and tender; drain the potatoes. Combine the canned pumpkin and black pepper with the potatoes and mix it up; optionally you can add some onion powder. Slice the onion and drain the sauerkraut; combine in a cooking pot with 1 tsp. vegetable oil or spray with non-stick cooking spray. Cook on medium-low heat until onions are soft; stirring occassionally.

Serve on a plate by first placing the potato-pumpkin mixture and adding sauerkraut on top. I suppose you could just mix it all up together though.

Sauerkraut Pierogi

For those who don't know what pierogi are, they're a polish dumpling traditionally filled with savory or sweet vegetable or fruit based fillings like prunes or other dried fruits, cabbage, potatoes or other root vegetables, etc.

Note: This recipe does not have egg or salt in the dough. You could add a little bit of salt if you want to, but it's not necessary and neither is adding egg substitute or anything like that, egg isn't and never was needed for this dough and originally it was made egg-less. The dough sticks perfectly fine to itself with a little dab of water around the edges.


Ingredients:

Dough:

• 200g wheat flour (use whatever type you feel like)
• 120g water

Filling:

• sauerkraut
• a bit of shredded carrots - optional
• fried onions and garlic - optional
• mushrooms - optional
• fresh ground black pepper - optional
• anything else you might like to add

Preparation:
Mix the water into the flour and knead it well. The dough should be smooth and elastic when you're done. Set aside for about 30 minutes and cover with a towel so it doesn't dry. Drain and squeeze out the sauerkraut. You want it to be as dry as possible or it may get the dough too wet and cause it to fall apart. Simply mix in any spices or whatever else you plan to add for flavor, there's no need to warm the sauerkraut. Set a pot of water to boil. Roll out the dough on a floured surface as thin and as even as you can get it, about 1/8th inch. Cut out about 4 inch rounds and if possible if the leftover dough isn't too dry or tough yet repeat the rolling and cutting.  Fill the rounds with 1 heaping tsp. or so, you really don't want to overfill or you'll never get them closed right and they'll break open. Dab a bit of water around half of the edge and then fold over and press the dough together making sure it's closed up properly... or just use a pierogi press. Now the pierogi need to take a hot bath in that boiling water for a couple minutes. Drop them in 1 by 1  and they're done when they start to float. Take them out and drain them. You can eat them like this or continue on to spray a pan with a little nonstick spray, add about a tsp. - tbsp. of oil and put on medium heat. Fry the pierogi on each side until browned - about 5 minutes, it really depends on if you're using electric or gas so watch carefully. Now eat them!

This should end up somewhere around 10 - 12 pierogi, if you can manage to be efficient with your dough you might end up with more.

Sauerkraut & Noodles

  Sauerkraut with noodles can be used for lunch or dinner and it goes very well with potatoes and other root vegetables.
  This is a dish where the ratio of sauerkraut to noodles is really dependent on personal preference. I prefer a little more sauerkraut than noodles especially if serving with a starch like potatoes, but it works equally as well in the other direction.

Ingredients:

• sauerkraut - about 200 - 500g
• noodles - about 100 - 200g dry (pretty much any kind will work)
• onions - 1 medium/large
• garlic 2-4 cloves
• fresh ground black pepper - to taste

Preparation:
Slice the onions, chop the garlic and fry them in 1 tsp - 1 tbsp of cooking oil until onions are translucent, or use non-stick spray. Add the drained sauerkraut and cook over medium heat, mixing it up occassionally to prevent burning, until warmed. Cook noodles according to package directions or if using homemade noodles: boil them for just 2 - 5 minutes until done. Now simply combine everything together and mix well. Best served hot-warm.