After a recent visit to a grocery store, I noticed a vegetable that I hadn’t seen in a long time. It is something that I have eaten, as my dad worked in a grocery store and would occasionally bring home some unusual vegetables. However, while I know that Mother cooked almost anything he brought home, (one outstanding no-no was parsnips), this vegetable is kohlrabi, I don’t have any recollection as to how she prepared it, but chances are it was boiled until done and seasoned with salt and pepper and either bacon drippings or butter.
It is a winter vegetable, and the name kohlrabi is a German word that means “cabbage turnip” which describes its shape and the similarity in taste to cabbage. Kohlrabi is a cultivar of cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower as well as collard greens, Savoy cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts. (This article that I found compares the taste to broccoli, but the one I found this morning compares it to cabbage)! Kohlrabi is a good source of many nutrients, mainly Vitamin C, and is a good source of fiber. It is a vegetable you can eat raw, as in a slaw type salad or cooked, as in a stir-fry dish. One of my daughters told me she had been given kohlrabi at one time and made it into a slaw. The texture of a raw kohlrabi, is pretty much the same as the texture of a turnip.
Many of the recipes I found looked as if they’d be tasty, but mostly they had a video to watch, which didn’t help. I tried pulling up several of the recipes, but was not successful, the ingredients would be listed, but the directions weren’t available.
Continue reading “A different vegetable”
