In Season: Kohlrabi shines as cooked veggie

On a visit to an organic homestead about 60 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska, not long ago, the mistress of the property showed me around her garden.

We stopped by the kohlrabi patch. Now, I’ve grown kohlrabi down here in the lower 48, and mine usually get between 2 and 3 inches in diameter when they reach top quality. This lady’s kohlrabis were the size of soccer balls and weren’t pithy at all! Seems that all that light in the land of the midnight sun stimulates some crops - especially members of the cabbage family, of which kohlrabi is one - to quickly grow to huge size.

To many Americans, kohlrabi is an oddity, and certainly giant kohlrabis are a double oddity. They do have a strange look to them. The stem just above ground level swells into a globe from which petioles bearing sparse collard-like leaves protrude at jutting angles. But despite their creature-from-outer-space appearance, they are a delicious, versatile crop woefully under-appreciated in this country. And they come into season in November, just in time for Thanksgiving.

It’s a crop very much appreciated in Eastern Europe from Germany down to Hungary, on the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and in China, where kohlrabi is a staple vegetable. No wonder - it’s packed with nutrition. A cup of boiled kohlrabi provides the full daily requirement of vitamin C and over a quarter of a person’s daily potassium needs.

Kohlrabi - known botanically as Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes - is at its mildest and sweetest eaten raw. You can peel one and eat it like an apple - it’s crisp and juicy and tastes like a mild “Tokyo Cross” turnip with hints of raw broccoli stem, daikon radish, cucumber, Jerusalem artichoke, celery root and cauliflower.

Its texture is crunchy, like water chestnuts. Peeled and thinly sliced, it makes a fine addition to a tray of crudités and can be grated raw into a salad or incorporated in a coleslaw - it is a cole crop after all, which means it’s a member of the mustard family and a descendant of wild cabbage.

In Europe, some folks get variety in their homemade fermented sauerkraut by replacing regular shredded cabbage with the peeled, shredded “Gigante” variety of kohlrabi - a type that grows to 10 inches in diameter without turning woody.

But it’s as a cooked vegetable that kohlrabi really shines, because cooking intensifies its sweetness and turnip-like flavor. It can be cooked like potatoes and prepared a la German potato salad. Julienned, it can be stir-fried in a little butter with herbs and spices of your choice, although it has a true affinity for nutmeg.

Its flavor also merges seamlessly with butter and cream, lemon, parsley and rice vinegar. In India, kohlrabi is used in numerous ways, but I like it peeled, boiled, pureed and made into a hot soup with curry spices and cumin.

Like small turnips, it can be peeled and added to stews. Also like turnips, it can be cooked with potatoes and smashed together with them to add tang to mashed potatoes.

If you like Moroccan cooking, try adding peeled, sautéed, small kohlrabis to spiced lamb or chicken tagines. And get creative - think of other ways to use kohlrabis as you would cabbage or turnips.

In fact, the name kohlrabi combines the German kohl, meaning cabbage, with rapa, the species name of Brassica rapa, or turnip. This suggests that kohlrabi is a cross between these two types of brassicas, but it’s not, although it does combine the taste and texture of cabbage and turnip. It’s classified as part of the gongylodes group of brassicas, a name taken from the Kashmiri word for a small red turnip, gongolou. You often see that suffix “odes” or “oides” on botanical names, and it means “like,” as in “like a gongolou.” Besides, it’s just fun to say, “gongolou.”

The leaves - but not the fibrous, tough leaf stems - can be cooked and eaten, and they have a sharp tang, sort of like spinach. Many kohlrabi dishes include the leaves, such as steamed kohlrabis tossed with their sautéed leaves and flavored with lemon and butter.

If you’re buying kohlrabis at one of our great Sonoma County markets like Oliver’s, Whole Foods or Community Market, or from a grower at a farmers’ market, look for bright, fresh-looking leaves. If the leaves are fresh, the globes will be perfect. Be aware that in Asian markets, though, the leaves are usually cut away before the kohlrabis are displayed.

Buy large globes or small ones? It all depends on the variety. If it’s a variety like Gigante, Superschmelz or Grand Duke that doesn’t get woody or pithy and stays tender and crisp even when grown from 4 to 10 inches in diameter, then the larger size is better. You lose less flesh when peeling them. All kohlrabis can be peeled raw, but boiling, then peeling them, is easier.

The larger globes are more versatile because their size allows you to grate, shred, chop, slice or julienne them. If they are of a variety that reaches peak quality and tenderness at from 1 to 3 inches, such as Early White Vienna and Early Purple Vienna (standard varieties you’re most likely to find at organic farmers markets and roadside stands), then be wary if they are larger than 3 inches.

Where did this strange vegetable originate? Pliny the Elder (ca. 20 to 79 A.D.) makes a reference to a “Corinthian turnip” that grew above ground and sounds like it might be a kohlrabi, but he wrote about so many fabulous - and chimerical - creatures, both animal and vegetable, that it’s hard to trust him on that.

It next shows up in 14th-century France as a fully formed kohlrabi, so it’s a good bet that peasant farmers kept saving seed of Brassica oleracea strains with the most bulbous stems throughout the Dark Ages and Middle Ages, simply because there was something tender and good there to eat. Eventually, there was kohlrabi; and here it still is, just waiting for us to get with the program.

hhhhhh

Austria is the heart of kohlrabi country, and the Austrians have a simple way of preparing the globes that allows their delicate flavor to come through.

Austrian-Style Kohlrabi

Serves 6

2 pounds kohlrabis

1/2 cup vegetable broth

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon Italian parsley, minced

- Salt to taste

Boil kohlrabis in lightly salted water for 15 to 20 minutes or until soft throughout when pricked with a fork. Drain and cool, then peel.

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat, add the sugar and stir until the sugar browns slightly.

Blend in the flour and parsley. When the flour is well saturated and bubbling with hot butter, add the stock and bring to a boil.

Add the peeled kohlrabis and stir until they’re heated through. Turn the contents into a serving bowl and serve.

Jeff Cox is a Kenwood-based food and garden writer. Reach him at jeffcox@sonic.net.