Curtido Recipe (Salvadoran Cabbage Slaw) (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between curtido and sauerkraut? ›

Interestingly, the process required to make Curtido involves beating the Salvadoran cabbage to release the juices. Curtido is not the same as sauerkraut. It is more similar to a cabbage slaw. It is lightly fermented and uses many of the same ingredients and methods for fermentation.

Or coleslaws — what's the difference? Really nothing. Technically, coleslaw involves cabbage, whether green, red or napa, while the category of slaws can include all kinds of chopped or shredded crunchy vegetables. The two words are used interchangeably for the most part however.

Fermented foods like curtido have a myriad of health benefits. By helping to maintain healthy gut flora, probiotics in fermented foods aid digestion and may even help certain digestive disorders like IBS and GERD.

Curtido is a Salvadoran cabbage slaw or relish made with finely shredded cabbage, red onion, carrot, oregano, and vinegar. This is a must-try, authentic Salvadorian recipe. In Central America, curtido is often served with pupusas (corn cakes) and salsa roja.

Allow the curtido to ferment for 4-14 days. That's a long range of time, but it all depends how sour you like it. The longer the ferment, the sourer it gets! two weeks is usually about right.

Danish Ballhead, Late Flat Head and Premium Late Dutch are good cabbage varieties for sauerkraut. Krautman is one of the most popular varieties for making sauerkraut, and growers are encouraged to try new varieties as well.

The fast food chain was forced to stop selling its coleslaw tubs when a supply issue meant the slaw would have to be served up without the dressing. “We are currently experiencing a supply issue with our KFC coleslaw dressing,” a KFC spokesperson said. The slaw is made up of cabbage and carrots coated in mayonnaise.

Sugar: KFC's dressing is definitely sweet, so don't skimp on the sugar. It's a huge part of what makes this KFC coleslaw recipe work. Lemon juice and white vinegar: Balance the sweetness from the sugar with these acidic ingredients. Lemon juice adds brightness, and white vinegar adds a bold tang.

Curtido is often served with pupusas, a Salvadoran flat bread made of corn and stuffed with meat or cheese. Curtido is usually marinated with vinegar, but is even more delicious when simply fermented!

What do you eat curtido with? ›

Traditionally, curtido is served with Pupusas and pairs well with Salvadoran Salsa Roja, but it is also excellent used alongside grilled meats and heavier mains, or any time you want a bright and pickle-y topping. Editor's note: This recipe was originally published on May 5, 2017.

But the pupusa also has a deep cultural significance. Pupusas are family meals, Sunday dinners, and, importantly, the taste of home. Just as the indigenous people used corn tortillas to sustain themselves on their travels, many Salvadorans today seek refuge in pupusas when they are outside of El Salvador.

El Salvador's most notable dish is the pupusa, a thick handmade, tortilla-like corn flour or rice flour flatbread stuffed with cheese, chicharrón (cooked pork meat ground to a paste consistency), refried beans or loroco (a vine flower bud native to Central America).

If you're planning on keeping your curtido around, be sure to give it a stir every few days just to redistribute flavors. Curtido is delicious after a few weeks, but you shouldn't keep any leftovers in your fridge for longer than one month.

Sauerkraut has a more acidic taste without the distinct umami flavor of kimchi and other Asian foods. The longer it's fermented, the sourer and tangier it becomes. Overall, it has a more astringent taste, a simpler flavor profile, and a firmer texture than kimchi.

4. Vegetables: You can make kimchi in many different ways, whereas sauerkraut has more defined limits. Baechu-kimchi is the closest to sauerkraut in that it has a simple cabbage base without any additional veggies. Sauerkraut is always cabbage, whereas kimchi can encompass a panoply of fermented vegetables.

How to make Curtido – A fermented Salvadoran Slaw (similar to sauerkraut) made with cabbage, carrots, onion and oregano. Simple to make and FULL of healthy probiotics – use curtido in tacos, with pupusas, quesadillas, burrito bowls or with enchiladas as a delicious healthy side!

Suancai (also called suan tsai and Chinese sauerkraut; lit. 'sour vegetable') is a traditional Chinese pickled Chinese cabbage (napa cabbage) or Chinese mustard, used for a variety of purposes. Suancai is a unique form of paocai, due to the ingredients used and the method of production.