We’ve had kohlrabi a few times in the past. Historically, what I’ve done with it is added it finely chopped to a green salad, or used it shredded in place of cabbage in a coleslaw of sorts. The taste is pleasant-it’s a lot like the center part of a broccoli stem, to give you an idea of the flavor. It’s a little milder though, without that bite that can be found in broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. So this year I thought I’d try growing kohlrabi. It grows okay, but for my small garden space I’ve discovered it’s definitely not worth devoting the space to. It takes up a lot space to grow one bulb of kohlrabi- much as it takes a lot space to grow one head of broccoli or cauliflower. I’d determined that we were done with the kohlrabi and I wasn’t going to grow it again. And then my family tasted a bulb. I kid you not when Andy, Abigail and Zander literally fought over a few slivers of raw kohlrabi. Really and truly, they argued over who got more pieces, and they staked claims to future bulbs. What on earth!!??
Abigail makes it a point to check the garden and check the kohlrabi almost daily, looking for another bulb to be ready. The plants themselves are being decimated by cabbage loopers and ants, so hopefully the bulbs continue to produce here and there. When they’re not howevere, we have our local farm stand and farmer’s markets to provide us with kohlrabi for all. As was the case last week. On our last trip to the farm stand, Abigail caught site of the biggest kohlrabi she’d ever seen- and truly, it was a special variety that was the size of a cantaloupe. There was no was we were going home without one of those bad boys. The plan was to slice it up into sticks for dipping in some ranch dip. But when I sliced into it and took a taste, it was really starchy- more potato like than broccoli like. It would not be even remotely tasty for eating raw, as planned. After a few minutes of thought, I diced up the entire bulb and threw it in a pot with some water to cover. I decided that it would make a tasty mash and was going to cook it up and mash it like potatoes. So it boiled away for a while, and when I went to check for tenderness, I was very surprised to discover that the kohlrabi appeared cooked through, but still had some texture to it. There was no way it was going to mash nicely.
My game was being thrown off by this giant kohlrabi!! I plucked out another cube from the pot, tasted it, and decided that the mild flavor of the cooked kohlrabi would be perfectly paired by some sharp cheddar cheese.
So the next step was to drain the kohlrabi. I added a few pats of butter to the warm cubes and gave them a toss as I spread them out in a baking dish. I grated up about 2 cups of cheddar cheese, sprinkled that on top, and then tossed the whole thing under the broiler. In a minute or so I had bubbling, toasty cheese on top of kohlrabi, and dinner was ready. At first glance, the kids were disappointed, reminding me that they preferred their vegetables to be uncooked. Then they tried the kohlrabi. Abigail’s eyes lit up and she was smitten. I think we all enjoyed our kohlrabi for dinner, and we discovered that it’s delicious cooked as well as raw. Next up for this strange looking vegetable is a gratin. As we ate it with cheese, I thought the most delicious treatment would have been like a scalloped potato- only using kohlrabi. In fact, this would be a great sub for potato in a lot of things I suspect. We have become rather fond of the kohlrabi. Will we grow it again? Not in a small space like we have now, but we will most certainly be buying up plenty of it at our farm stands and farmer’s markets!
