Easy Polish Sauerkraut Salad

Looking for a quick and tasty side dish that pairs perfectly with any meaty main? This sauerkraut salad is easy to make in just 15 minutes and packed with tangy flavor and crunchy textures that your taste buds will love.

This is my wife’s go-to salad when she wants to quickly whip up a healthy side dish, and one of my favorite easy salads. It’s light, fresh, packs a ton of vitamins, and uses products I almost always have on hand: sauerkraut, carrots, and apples.

Plus, it only takes 15 minutes or so to make, so you can put it together while waiting for the meat on the pan to fry. It’s similar to this Polish cucumber salad or Polish tomato salad in that manner.

If you’re making this polish sauerkraut salad for the first time, read the ingredients notes, step-by-step instructions, and tips. If you’re a veteran, feel free to jump to the recipe card.

Ingredients Notes and Substitutes

• Sauerkraut. Make sure you buy the uncooked variety to get all the health benefits that kraut offers.
• Carrot.
• Apple. Choose a sweet variety if possible, as it compliments the sourness of the kraut. A single medium apple is more than enough for 2 cups of sauerkraut, so if you’re scaling the recipe, don’t add another apple until you’re using 4 cups of kraut or more.
• Oil. Choose neutral oil, like canola or vegetable oil. Besides improving the dish’s texture, the oil helps you absorb more nutrients. I wouldn’t use olive oil or a finishing oil (say, toasted sesame oil) here because they can affect the flavor.
• Caraway seeds. Caraway seeds give this salad a flavor boost, but not everyone likes the taste, so you should test whether you like it more with or without them. It’s okay to skip them if you don’t have them on hand.
• Sugar. Usually, the carrot and apple are plenty sweet to balance out the acidity of the sauerkraut. But a teaspoon of sugar should do the trick if they’re not.

Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Place the sauerkraut in a colander or strainer. Use your hands to squeeze out most of the excess liquid, being careful not to make the sauerkraut completely dry. Excessive liquid will make the salad too sour.

2. Roughly chop the drained sauerkraut to avoid long strips in the salad. I typically do a single pass, then rotate the cutting table 90 degrees and do another pass. That’s typically enough.

3. Grate the apple and carrot using a box grater with large holes. If you’ll serve the salad to toddlers, consider switching to medium holes so that the strips will be relatively small and easier for the little guys to eat.

4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the chopped cabbage, grated apple, and grated carrot.

5. Add one tablespoon of neutral oil and mix well. Add more oil if you like oily salads. Some recipes out there call for much more oil, but from what I’ve found, a tablespoon is enough to enhance the flavor without making it oily. If the salad feels quite dry, definitely add more oil.

6. Optionally, add caraway seeds and sugar. Caraway seeds give this salad an extra flavor punch, but my wife doesn’t particularly like those, so I skip them quite often. As for sugar, I almost never add it, as I rely on the apple to lend its sweetness to the salad.

7. Mix everything together until well combined.

8. Serve.

Storage & Reheating

• Storage. Unlike many salads, this one stores well for up to 4 days in the fridge in an airtight container. After a day or two, it might start to feel a bit dry, so it’s best to taste it before serving. To fix the issue, stir in another half tablespoon of oil.

What to Serve With This Sauerkraut Salad

• Potatoes. Potatoes are a staple in Polish cuisine, and they pair nicely with sauerkraut. If you have an extra 20 minutes, make these polish potato dumplings instead of regular boiled or mashed potatoes.
• Meat. Heavy meaty mains is what Polish cooking is known for, and almost anything you can think of here will play nicely with this salad. Some examples include these polish breaded pork cutlets or baked chicken thighs.
• Fish. If you’re looking for a high-protein main, any fish you like, be it fried, baked, or even steamed, should work okay.
• Pierogi. If you cooked savory pierogi for dinner, be it meat pierogi, spinach pierogi, or lentil pierogi, serving them combined with this salad is a great option. You can put this salad together while waiting for the pierogi to cook.