Fruity, Fermented Cabbage and Beans

Fruity pickled cabbage adds new dimention to a simple bean soup. The idea is neither new nor mine, but the basic elements I used were leftovers from my fridge.

It all started with the discovery of a forgotten jar of pink fermented cabbage on the back of my fridge. It was leftover from last year, still bright and fruity, although its vivid color had faded.

Then I read in

Nancy Harmon Jenkins

’ post a description of jota, an Italian bean and sauerkraut soup where she mentioned Lidia Bastianich’ dish. I loved the idea, which had not crossed my mind, and searched for the recipe which I found in Saveur. Lidia’s Trieste-Style Sauerkraut and Bean Soup uses store-bought sauerkraut and asks for lots of rinsing to get rid of its strong, salty flavor (scroll down for my version of the soup).

My leftover fermented cabbage (right) had lost its bright color, but not its lovely fruity flavor.

My leftover fermented cabbage was perfectly tangy and fruity and only needed to be drained from its juice —which became the base for the new batch I started.

My fermented cabbage is far from the heavy, somewhat fowl-smelling sauerkraut. This is a vividly colored, tangy-fruity cabbage you can eat on its own, as part of a meze spread, or add it to any of your winter or spring salads.

It is simple to make and only needs about three days to ferment before you can start enjoying it in many different ways.

Pilk, fermented cabbage combined with a classic winter lettuce salad.

I had never cooked or served my fermented cabbage with beans, but I had paired it with my traditional lentil soup, minus the pickled bulbs.

I found that its fruity-tangy taste complements beautifully the sweetness of this classic traditional soup I learned from my mother.

Here is the beautifully ‘sloppy’ photo Penny De Los Santos did for my Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts.

In the fridge I also found a bag of apaki, the delicious cured and smoked pork from Crete.

I didn’t intend to use as much pork meat as Lidia’s recipe required and decided that the 200 grams apaki I had was plenty.

I am not completely sure what kind of preserved pork one could use elsewhere in Europe or the US, but I think that maybe some kind of good speck, or maybe Canadian Bacon, or German Kasseler will be close enough, according to my friend Michael Costa, Zaytinya’s brilliant chef, who is always trying to find the closest substitutions to our often ‘exotic’ Greek ingredients.

We are in Athens for a week, seeing the ‘big city’ and eating GREAT food. More on our wanderings and the delicious food we had, soon…

Bean soup with home-fermented cabbage and smoked pork

Note that I have only made the soup with my own fermented cabbage, as the commercial kind is not available here, on Kea.

But I am sure you can buy artisanal fermented cabbage these days, and this is the best to use here if you are not up to making your own.

Serves 5-6

¹⁄₂ lb (250 grams) dried borlotti or cannelini beans soaked overnight and drained

2 bay leaves

200 grams apaki, or speck, Canadian Bacon, German Kasseler, or any kind of good-quality thick-cut smoked bacon, cut into bite-size pieces

4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped