Sauerkraut substitute

Best substitute

Quick Vinegar Cabbage

Use the same amount by volume (2 cups shredded cabbage + 2 tbsp vinegar + ½ tsp salt) as the sauerkraut you are replacing

Best for Reuben sandwiches

Different taste

The fastest good substitute is quick vinegar cabbage: toss 2 cups of shredded green cabbage with 2 tablespoons of white or cider vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, squeeze it, and let it sit twenty minutes. Drained kimchi also works one for one if you do not mind chile and garlic, and chopped dill pickles plus a splash of their brine will cover a sandwich. The thing to understand before you substitute is that sauerkraut is not cabbage. It is acid, salt, crunch and fermented funk, and plain fresh cabbage supplies only the crunch.

Other sauerkraut substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Kimchi, Drained
Different taste
Use the same amount
Korean fermented cabbage, which is the same fundamental thing as sauerkraut, lactic-fermented salted cabbage, seasoned with chile, garlic, ginger and often fish sauce.
What changes
Best for
pork dishes, sausages, grilled cheese and Reubens, rice bowls, stews and casseroles
The only substitute that genuinely has the fermented sourness and the same crunch, which is why it works so well. It also brings heat, garlic and a distinct savouriness, so a pork roast made with kimchi tastes spicier and more garlicky and everything turns pink-orange. A brief rinse under cold water tones it down noticeably and moves it closer to kraut. Drain it well or it will water down a filling.
3Chopped Dill Pickles Plus Brine
Taste and texture differ
Use ¾ cup chopped pickles + 1 tbsp of their brine for every 1 cup sauerkraut
Sour dill pickles chopped small, with a spoonful of the jar liquid, giving you fermented or brined sourness, salt and crunch from something almost everyone has.
What changes
Best for
Reuben and Rachel sandwiches, hot dogs, potato salad, sausage plates, burgers
The acid, salt and crunch are all right and it is instant. The tells are dill and garlic, which read pickle rather than kraut, and the chunky shape, which does not drape across a sandwich the way fine shreds do, so it falls out. Chop it finer than you think you need to. Look for refrigerated fermented pickles if you want the funk too.
4Curtido or Mexican Escabeche Cabbage
Different taste
Use the same amount drained well
Latin American lightly fermented or vinegar-pickled shredded cabbage, usually with carrot, onion and oregano, sold in jars and made fresh in many Salvadoran and Mexican kitchens.
What changes
Best for
sausages and hot dogs, sandwiches, pork, tacos, as a side
Already shredded and already sour, so it is the least work of any bought substitute. It is sweeter and carries oregano and carrot, so a bratwurst plate made with it reads Latin rather than German, which is not a problem unless you mind. Drain it hard, because the jars are wet.
5Braised Cabbage With Wine and Vinegar
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume, hot dishes only
Shredded cabbage sweated in fat with a splash of dry white wine or cider and about 1 tablespoon of vinegar per 2 cups, cooked until tender.
What changes
Best for
pork roasts, choucroute-style dishes, casseroles, duck and goose, one-pot bakes
Genuinely good in its own right, and for a hot dish it does the same job of cutting through rich meat. You lose the raw crunch completely and get soft, sweet-sour cabbage instead, which changes the dish's character. Add the vinegar in the last few minutes so the acid survives; added at the start most of it cooks away and the cabbage just tastes sweet.
6Vinegar and Salt Alone, No Cabbage
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 tbsp cider vinegar + a pinch of salt for every ½ cup of missing sauerkraut
Skip the vegetable and replace only what sauerkraut was contributing chemically: acidity to cut fat and salt to season.
What changes
Best for
bean and lentil soups, sausage and potato dishes, pork braises, when the kraut was a background element
The honest minimum, and better than pretending. In a bratwurst plate or a bean soup where the kraut was there to keep a fatty dish from tasting heavy, this covers most of the function. You get none of the texture and none of the visual presence, so it is no help at all in a sandwich, where the shreds are half the point.

What is Sauerkraut?

Sauerkraut is Sauerkraut is shredded cabbage that has been salted and left to ferment, so lactic acid bacteria convert the cabbage's own sugars into lactic acid, producing something sour, salty, crunchy and faintly funky rather than simply vegetal.

Cooking tips

Never change the cabbage, salt or acid in a recipe for fermenting your own sauerkraut, and never substitute ingredients in a home canning recipe. In fermenting and canning, the salt concentration and the final acidity are what keep the food safe from bacteria including Clostridium botulinum, not just what makes it taste right. Follow a tested recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation at nchfp.uga.edu exactly as written.
Squeeze it out. Most recipes want sauerkraut drained and wrung dry in your hands or in a clean towel, because the brine is very salty and will water down a filling or a casserole. Keep a tablespoon of that brine to stir back in at the end if the dish tastes flat.
Rinsing sauerkraut under cold water makes it markedly milder, which is the fix if your jar tastes harsh, but it washes out salt as well as sourness, so taste and reseason the dish afterwards.
Refrigerated sauerkraut with a cloudy brine is alive and tastes funky and complex; shelf-stable canned kraut has been pasteurised and tastes simply sour. If a recipe seemed flat when you made it, that difference is often the reason, and it also determines how close your substitute needs to get.
If you want kraut to taste alive in a long-cooked dish, add half at the beginning for depth and half in the last five minutes for brightness. An hour of simmering flattens all the top notes.
Cook kraut in stainless steel or enamel. Its acid reacts with bare cast iron and aluminium and can pick up a metallic taste and a grey tinge.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use fresh cabbage instead of sauerkraut?

Not directly, and this is the most common mistake. Sauerkraut has been fermented, which means it is sour and salty; fresh cabbage is sweet and bland. Swap one for the other straight and a Reuben or a pork roast tastes flat and oddly sweet, because you removed all the acid. The fix takes twenty minutes: toss 2 cups of finely shredded green cabbage with 2 tablespoons of white or cider vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, squeeze it hard with your hands, and let it sit. You now have something that does the job, missing only the fermented funk.

Can I just leave the sauerkraut out?

Sometimes. If it is a topping on a sausage or one element in a bean soup, you can leave it out, but replace its function or the dish will taste heavy and one-note: about 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar and a pinch of salt per half cup of kraut you skipped, added at the end. If the recipe is a Reuben, a choucroute garnie, kraut and pork, or a kraut casserole, then the sauerkraut is the dish and there is nothing to leave out. Buy the jar or make the quick vinegar cabbage above.

Is kimchi a good substitute for sauerkraut?

Yes, it is the closest thing on the shelf, because it is fundamentally the same food: salted cabbage fermented by lactic acid bacteria. It has the sourness, the crunch and the fermented depth that vinegar cabbage cannot fake. What it adds is chile heat, garlic, ginger and often fish sauce or salted shrimp, so the dish will taste spicier, more garlicky and more savoury, and everything it touches turns orange. Drain it well, and rinse it briefly under cold water if you want a milder, more kraut-like result. Note that most kimchi is not vegetarian.

Can I substitute ingredients in a recipe for making or canning sauerkraut?

No. When you are fermenting or canning, the salt percentage and the final acidity are safety controls, not seasoning choices. Too little salt and the wrong bacteria take over; insufficient acidity in a sealed jar creates the low-oxygen, low-acid conditions in which Clostridium botulinum can produce toxin. Use a tested recipe from a reliable source such as the National Center for Home Food Preservation at nchfp.uga.edu, weigh the salt, and do not adjust it, swap in a different vegetable or reduce the vinegar. Substituting freely in a finished dish is fine; substituting in a preservation recipe is not.

What is the difference between refrigerated and canned sauerkraut?

Refrigerated sauerkraut, usually in a bag or a jar with cloudy brine and a live-culture label, has not been heat-treated, so it still contains active bacteria and tastes complex, fizzy and funky as well as sour. Canned or shelf-stable kraut has been pasteurised, which kills the culture and leaves a cleaner, flatter, purely sour flavour and a softer texture. For a sandwich or a salad the refrigerated kind is much better. For a dish that will be cooked for an hour anyway, the difference largely disappears and either is fine.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Sauerkraut substitute

Other sauerkraut substitutes

2Kimchi, Drained

3Chopped Dill Pickles Plus Brine

4Curtido or Mexican Escabeche Cabbage

5Braised Cabbage With Wine and Vinegar

6Vinegar and Salt Alone, No Cabbage