I took a chance on the mysterious celeriac a couple weeks ago and, after preparing it, was quite pleased to have made such a delicious new vegetable discovery. Perhaps that’s why I was feeling a bit braver when the very next week my CSA presented me with another such opportunity: a bunch of apple-green kohlrabi.
When I got home, I realized that I knew so little about the vegetable that I had a tough time getting all the consonants in its name in a close-enough-to-correct order for Google to recognize it and point me in the direction of a few good recipes. Mostly, I turned up subtle variations on soups or slaws–both of which felt like a cop-out, somehow. It was as if, when in doubt, the answer was to shred or blend it into oblivion.
The night I actually got around to preparing it, however, I ended up going an even simpler route: peeling and cutting the bulbs into bite-sized chunks, de-ribbing and chopping up the leaves, and then sautéing them in separate batches with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper (plus a dusting of my favorite spice blend for such situations on the greens). It ended up being a great way to experience this new vegetable–a little bit cabbage, a little bit turnip, maybe a hint if broccoli stalk?–on its own. Mixed into a roasted vegetable and lentil salad later in the week, it also demonstrated that it plays quite well with others.
