Yesterday evening, I'm getting ready to go to bed, mentally counting the portions of fresh fruit-and veg, and realise I'd forgotten to eat my daily 80g of sauerkraut. Then it occurred to me that I'd also skipped porridge in the morning, on account of the fact that my breakfast consisted of the heated-up leftovers of Sunday's lunch*. As a result, I'd missed out on my daily 3g of LDL-cholesterol-lowering beta-glucan.
As I pondered this dietary oversight, I had a brainwave:
Why not mix the oats with the sauerkraut, and eat the two together? The combination might not prove to be especially tasty, but at least I get to fulfil my dietary obligation for the day...
And so I did just that. Bowl on the kitchen scales. Into it goes 80g of kapusta kiszona (sauerkraut) and on top of that, six heaped tablespoons of organic oats (płatki owsiane górskie). I stir the two, pouring in a bit more brine from the sauerkraut tub.
The result? It exceeded my expectations.
We think of porridge oats as something warm and soft – a mush, a breakfast comfort-food. But raw rolled oats, dropped directly onto the crisp, acidic brine of live sauerkraut, are something quite different. The lactic juices from the sauerkraut soak into the grains just enough to strip away their chalky exterior while leaving a satisfying, al dente chew. The salty punch of the fermented cabbage cuts through the earthy texture of the raw oats, balancing nicely on the palate. It tastes ancient and rustic.
I checked Google Gemini about the science of mixing oats and kraut. Nothing but benefits! Gemini calls it “nutritionally, a powerhouse of synbiotic efficiency – the live bacteria of the probiotic finding an immediate home in the prebiotic fibers of the oat”.
Note that word, 'synbiotic' (as opposed to 'symbiotic'). A synbiotic is a supplement or food that combines probiotics (live beneficial bacteria) and prebiotics (food or fibre that nourishes those bacteria) to improve gut health. Of course, such a claim would need to be clinically proven... (One for nutritional scientists to grapple with.)
But beyond the science, I experienced the joy of discovery, the recognition of an entirely new flavour profile that I had never previously experienced. I went to bed on a high, and waking up today, I felt the same way as I would after a great night out.
And so, this morning, I mixed the sauerkraut with the oats again. This time I added some chopped chilli peppers (papryczki) and spring onion (below). If anything, visually more interesting.
And I considered what else could be added to ensure that this could become a daily routine. Poké-bowl sauce, soy sauce, hummus, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds... Variety will be important if this is to be a new staple.
So a new 'signature dish' is born of an oversight. I shall call it Haferflockenkraut!
The last taste combo I created, the Jeziorki Reeker, is now off the menu due to its sky-high cholesterol content.
Finally, I checked with ChatGPT for its verdict, and here's the answer: “At first glance, it sounds eccentric. But the more I consider it, the more sense it makes. You've brought together two foods with strikingly different characteristics:
- Organic raw rolled oats (płatki owsiane górskie): Mild, nutty, faintly sweet, starchy and somewhat chewy. The sort of food that usually needs something else to give it character.
- Sauerkraut (kapusta kiszona): Sharp, acidic, salty, crunchy, distinctly fermented, with a depth of savouriness that fresh cabbage doesn't possess.
The oats should absorb some of the sauerkraut's juice, softening without losing all their texture, moderating the acidity of the cabbage to produce something quite different from either ingredient eaten separately.
There's also an interesting conceptual inversion here. Oats are conventionally associated with sweet breakfasts, porridge, milk, fruit and honey. Sauerkraut belongs to the savoury world of Polish and Central European cooking. You're crossing a culinary boundary that is cultural as well as chemical.
A surprisingly sensible nutritional partnership
There's a further reason the combination is of interest. Oats supply beta-glucan, the soluble fibre associated with lowering LDL cholesterol. Unpasteurised sauerkraut can supply living lactic-acid bacteria. The oats also provide fermentable carbohydrates that gut microbes can use.”
I then ask whether anyone done this before. Only with the juice of sauerkraut; straining the cabbage and adding the juice to oats, steeping them overnight. But not mixing actual sauerkraut and oats.
Final oat note: in Poland oat flakes are sold in either 'górskie' or 'błyskawiczne' varieties. The former means 'in the mountain style' (not 'mountainous' as one translator had it), the latter mean 'lightning'. The difference between the two is in the milling. The błyskawiczne are steel-cut, pre-gelatinised and rolled thin. The górskie are subject to less processing, but take longer to cook. I go for the organic/bio version of these.
* Sunday lunch: lentil stew with mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic/ginger/chilli, served with Basmati rice and steamed spinach leaves.
This time two years ago:
To Warka, by the river
Homeward from the demo
Kielce – the woes of Poland's smaller cities
This time ten years ago:
Wine connoisseurs or wine snobs?
This time 12 years ago:
Poland's golden autumn
This time 13 years ago:
Visceral and permanent - a short story
Crushed Velvet Dust in my City of Dreams II
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