Cooking Seasonally: Kohlrabi
One of the best ways to make great food affordably is to cook seasonally and locally. By choosing produce during the peak of its local harvest (which will change from region to region), we can make food that’s good for us, good for farmers, easy on the wallet, and tastes wonderful. The Budget Gourmet Kitchen series Cooking Seasonally will discuss recipes, kitchen lore, and frugal practices about a highlighted seasonal ingredient.
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Winter may seem like the least fruitful season, with its gloomy skies and bare trees. During the cold weather, many plants save energy by dropping their leaves and sending sugar underground where the energy will be stored until sunnier weather. Not surprisingly, some of the best produce this time of year is root vegetables, which are full of life while many fruit trees are sleeping.
One of the few non-root vegetable families that can hold up to the heavy rains and frost of harsh winters is the cabbage family. This familly includes broccoli, cabbage, kale, and today’s special guest, kohlrabi.
While kohlrabi is not quite a root vegetable, its bulbous stem makes it look like a close
relative. The stem has a hard green or purple skin, with a sweet, earthy, pale center similar to celery root or parsnips. The leaves can grow two feet tall, and are close in consistency and flavor to swiss chard.
Thanks to enzymes common in the cabbage family, you can play with the spiciness of kohlrabi by blanching. If desired, dunk slices of the peeled stem into boiling water for a few seconds immediately after cutting to subdue the spiciness. This will kill the enzymes responsible for developing spiciness and the kohlrabi will taste less like a radish and more like a celery root.
Our favorite kohlrabi dish, Kohlrabi Gratin, is made with the peeled and sliced stem, but make sure to keep the leaves handy for a side dish of sautéed greens. Gratin purists will be horrified by our use of a white sauce flavored with spices and - gasp! - cheese.
But here at the Budget Gourmet Kitchen we’ve found that Kohlrabi releases so much water during cooking that, without the thickness of a white sauce, the gratin can fall apart between the oven and the dinner table. The herbs and spices in the sauce help complement the earthy and spicy flavors of kohlrabi. And the cheese? Gratin purist or not, you’ve got to appreciate the salty crunch and gooey creaminess of melted, slightly browned cheese.
Kohlrabi Gratin
Peel and slice 3 - 4 kohlrabi bulbs and set aside. Make a roux with 2 Tbs. each of flour and butter, and add a cup of warm milk to make a white sauce. Flavor with salt, herbs and spices — our favorites for this dish are usually some combination of nutmeg, white pepper, ginger, rosemary, and Dijon mustard. Add a sprinkle of emmenthaler or gryuère to thicken the sauce if needed.
Preheat the oven to 400°. Cover the bottom of a deep baking dish with slices of kohlrabi, and spoon enough sauce to nearly cover. Continue alternating kohlrabi and sauce, and finish with a shredded handful of emmenthaler or gruyère. Bake until the cheese on top is brown and the kohlrabi pieces are tender, around 40 minutes depending on the thickness of the slices.
You can also experiment by adding other sliced vegetables to the mix, like potatoes and celery root.
Tags: Cooking Seasonally, gratin, kohlrabi, recipe, winter