Hearty Sauerkraut with Bacon and Beans
Growing up I thought my family’s way of eating sauerkraut was the way everyone ate sauerkraut. And if they weren’t, they weren’t doing it right!
Well, time after time, I would hear sauerkraut, get excited and then be sadly disappointed.
To me, the way everyone else eats it is a plain ingredient. Something to be added to make a meal.
I don’t hate sauerkraut, I just don’t love it plain. I love it my way!
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Apparently my way is not the typical way. But, if you try it, I guarantee it will become your typical way!
I learned from my mom, and she learned from hers.
Unfortunately neither of us had ever thought to ask Gram why she prepared sauerkraut the way that she did.
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She now has dementia and a lot of the questions that I have for her, that I should have asked a long time ago, will go unanswered.
So how do I find out where our ways came from?
I Google it… Yep, pretty anticlimactic. But that’s how.
I don’t always find the answer, but in this case I did!
Our way is not sauerkraut.
The sauerkraut is an ingredient.
Our way is actually a Polish way called Bigos (b-ee-gos) or Hunter’s Stew.
It is a thickened, sweetened sauerkraut with multiple cuts of meat served over mashed potatoes.
Ingredients
4 lbs sauerkraut
1 medium onion diced
2 15 oz cans cannellini beans, drained
1 cup beer (of course beer!)
2 pkg kielbasa (or a combination of kielbasa and pork tenderloin)
8-10 pieces of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/3 cup brown sugar
6 Tablespoons butter
6 Tablespoons flour
1 1/2 Tablespoons seasoned salt
Directions
- Cook and crumble your bacon.
- In a small pan, melt the butter and saute the onions. Then add the flour to make a roux.
- Combine all of the ingredients in a large stock pot or crock pot.
- Cook on medium low heat, or low setting on your crock pot for 2-3 hours (8 hours if you add a pork tenderloin), until thickened.
- Serve over mashed potatoes.
- And, never go back to plain sauerkraut again!
Hearty Sauerkraut with Bacon and Beans
Ingredients
- 4 lbs sauerkraut
- 1 medium onion diced
- 2 15 oz cans cannellini beans, drained
- 1 cup beer (of course beer!)
- 2 pkg kielbasa (or a combination of kielbasa and pork tenderloin)
- 8-10 pieces of bacon, cooked and crumbled
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 6 Tablespoons butter
- 6 Tablespoons flour
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons seasoned salt
Instructions
- Cook and crumble your bacon.
- In a small pan, melt the butter and saute the onions. Then add the flour to make a roux.
- Combine all of the ingredients in a large stock pot or crock pot.
- Cook on medium low heat, or low setting on your crock pot for 2-3 hours (8 hours if you add a pork tenderloin), until thickened.
- Serve over mashed potatoes.
- And, never go back to plain sauerkraut again!
Jennie Durren
Sunday 29th of January 2017
This sounds really good! I actually love sort-of-plain sauerkraut. Well, I cook it with fatty cuts of pork and/or kielbasa, and a bit of brown sugar, and serve with mashed potatoes. Adding beans seems like a great way to extend it into a less expensive meal! (I found your post through the Waste Less blog hop.)