Chef-owner Aric Attebery highlights the freshest produce of the season at his East Hollywood restaurant Fountain Grains & Greens, which specializes in grain bowls and salads made with farmers market ingredients.
His bright, lightly tart sauerkraut captures one of his favorite ingredients: Cone cabbages grown locally in fields flourish in cold temperatures and yield a slightly sweet flavor. A standard green cabbage also would work for this recipe, but Attebery prefers cone cabbage.
“It has an excellent texture to it,” he says. “This particular cabbage is really hearty and has a great crunch, and it holds up really well to fermenting.”
To add more texture to his sauerkraut salad, he turned to another of his favorite ingredients, surplus beet stems. The stalks are meaty and fibrous, retaining their brine’s sweetness and adding a thicker crunch.
When combined, this salad is a crunchy, refreshing addition to the chef’s grilled-steak grain bowl, but it’s also a standout on its own.
Attebery stores the base sauerkraut in the fridge for up to one year, covered by plastic wrap that rests directly on the product (and not the rim of the container) to avoid oxygenation. Once combined into the salad with fresh herbs, store the finished dish in the fridge for up to one week.
