Home Grown Kansas manages the CSA I participated in at the Old Town Farmer’s Market in Wichita. One week, among other things, I had kohlrabi and turnips in my haul. Your first thought may be similar to mine: “What is a kohlrabi?” According to Simple Recipes, a kohlrabi is a vegetable that tastes similar to broccoli stems. They are often eaten raw but if you want an easy way to cook them that keeps them fairly pure to form, simply to roast them like this:
Roasted Kohlrabi
ingredients:
kohlrabi
olive oil
minced garlic
shredded Parmesan cheese
- pre-heat oven to 450
- peel kohlrabi
- slice kohlrabi (1/4 inch thick or so) and cut them again in half (so you end up with half-circles)
- in a bowl, mix olive oil and garlic (with a little salt and pepper if you must) to taste and per the amount of kohlrabi you have (approx 1 tablespoon of olive oil to one clove of minced garlic)
- coat kohlrabi with the oil and garlic mixture
- bake until brown (15-20 minutes) in preheated 450 degree oven, stirring/flipping occasionally to make sure it browns evenly
- briefly remove to sprinkle with shredded Parmesan cheese and then return to the oven for about 5 more minutes to brown the cheese
- serve immediately (certainly don’t wait for it to cool)
For the turnips that may also be available at your farmer’s market, the easiest thing to do is to throw them in a Crock-Pot with a roast, potatoes, carrots, onion and some fresh herbs. But that’s a heavy meal for this time of year. Here’s an alternative:
Spiced Baby Turnips
ingredients:
4 plum tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
3 small onions, sliced
3 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
4 baby turnips, trimmed
1 teaspoon soft brown sugar
1 pound (about 1 bunch) Swiss chard
1 handful of parsley
- Score a cross in the top of each tomato, plunge into boiling water for 20 seconds, transfer to bowl of iced water to cool, and then peel the skin and discard. Cut the tomatoes width wise into 5/8-inch slices, then gently squeeze out most of the juice and seeds.
- Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and fry the onion until for 5-6 minutes or until soft. Stir in the coriander and paprika, cook for 1 minute, then add the tomato, turnips, sugar, and 1/3 cup of hot water. Season well. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and cook for 4-5 minutes or until turnips are tender.
- Meanwhile, strip the Swiss chard leaves off the stalks (you can reserve the stalks for another use). Rinse the leaves under cold water and shake off the excess.
- Stir the parsley and Swiss chard into the pan, check the seasoning and cook, covered for 4 minutes or until the Swiss chard is wilted, serve hot.