June 13, 2024 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Kohlrabi

 

What's In The Box

Kohlrabi: Enjoy this week’s featured vegetable in its raw form or cook it! If this is your first time working with kohlrabi, head over to our blog and read more about this unique vegetable. After you peel the lower bulb portion, you’ll find tender, crispy, white flesh that is slightly sweet and reminiscent of cabbage. The leafy green tops are also edible and may be substituted in any recipe calling for collards. If you’re not sure what to do with kohlrabi, start by just cutting the bulb into strips and eating it raw with a pinch of salt and chili powder or dipping it into your favorite dressing!

Strawberries: It’s looking like it is going to be a short strawberry season, but this week’s harvests have been very abundant! Our strawberries are selected for flavor, not shipping and extended shelf life. To get the most out of your strawberries, keep them in the refrigerator and wash them just before eating. We recommend eating them within a few days of receiving…. which shouldn’t be hard to do!

Rhubarb: Just when you think there isn’t one more thing you can make with rhubarb, we uncover yet another goldmine of recipes! Check out the list below which includes Rhubarb & Spicy Goat Cheese Pizza & Rhubarb Chicken Curry.

Salad Mix: We are nearing the end of our spring salad mix run with just one to two more weeks of harvest at most. The nice thing about salad mix is that we’ve done all the hard work. The only thing left for you to do is keep it cold until you’re ready to eat it!

Spinach: This week we are harvesting a new variety of spinach we trialed named “Red Tabby.” The harvest wasn’t as strong as we had hoped, so we mixed it in with some of our regular spinach to make it go as far as possible. If your bag contains some spinach leaves with red veins and stems…. that’s the Red Tabby. Let us know what you think!

Garlic Scapes: Scapes are a byproduct of hardneck garlic production…and a tasty one at that! Use scapes in any recipe calling for garlic cloves. No need to peel, just chop it all up.

Mini Green Boston Lettuce or Red Oak Lettuce: We grow these smaller head lettuce varieties in the spring because they fit nicely in the CSA box and have shorter days to maturity. Use these delicate lettuces as a base for a salad or mix them in with kale or spinach for some variety.

Lacinato Kale: This variety of kale is also called “Dino” or “Tuscan” kale. It’s a good option for making raw kale salads, slaws, etc. You can also add it to soups, mix it in with beans, or cook it and add it to a pizza!

Purple Scallions: We’re adding a little splash of color to your allium this week with these gorgeous purple scallions! Use the lower purple base as well as the green tops, just discard the little root base.

BONUS: Broccoli or Cauliflower or Zucchini and/or Scallopini Squash—All of these items are just starting to come on…very slowly. We don’t have enough for all boxes just yet, but included a taste as supplies allow. Don’t worry, there will be more to come very soon! 

Recipe Suggestions & Inspiration For This Week’s Box Contents

Kohlrabi Custard

Kohlrabi & Chickpea Salad

Kohlrabi, Kale & Sausage Soup

Amazing Coconut Curried Greens (utilizing kale and kohlrabi leaves!)

Kale & Kohlrabi Gnocchi

Chicken with Rhubarb Sauce

Rhubarb Chicken Curry

Rhubarb Quinoa Salad

Rhubarb & Spicy Goat Cheese Pizza

German Rhubarb Pie

Little Gem Lettuce with Rhubarb Dressing & Strawberries

Strawberry Feta Kale Salad

Strawberry Rhubarb Bundt Cake

Roasted Rhubarb Salad with Salad Mix

Greek Lettuce Salad with Scallions & Dill

Spinach Salad with Scallions & Hot Bacon Dressing

Kohlrabi Salad with Spinach, Dates & Hazelnuts

Kohlrabi and Garlic Scape Fritters with Spiced Lemon Tahini

Garlic Scape Curry

Garlic Scape Egg Soup

Vegetable Feature: Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi is a crisp, juicy, sweet, mild flavored vegetable. While kohlrabi is in the cabbage family and resembles a turnip, it grows differently than both. Many people mistake kohlrabi for being a root vegetable that grows under the ground, but it is actually an enlarged stem that grows above the soil level. The stems and leaves shoot up from the bulbous part to give it a unique appearance unlike any other vegetable. We grow green, purple and white varieties, but there really isn’t any distinguishable difference between the three once they are peeled.

Preparation & Usage:

Kohlrabi can be prepared in many different ways, both raw and cooked. It may be sauteed, stir-fried, braised, roasted, grilled and baked. The simplest way to eat it is to peel it and munch on slices plain or with just a touch of salt, a little lime juice and some chili powder. It can also be shredded and used in slaws with a variety of dressings or sliced and added to sandwiches or salads. If you ask Farmer Richard what his favorite way to eat kohlrabi is, I guarantee he’ll say, “Creamy Kohlrabi Slaw!”

While kohlrabi pairs well with creamy sauces and is great in refreshing salads, it is actually an adaptable vegetable that also pairs well with a lot of other flavor profiles from around the world.  Don’t be afraid to use kohlrabi in curries or stir-fries.  You may also come across some recipes for stuffed kohlrabi that is baked, a concept that descends more from European cuisine along with a variety of soup and stew recipes.

Kohlrabi in the field

To use kohlrabi, first remove the fibrous peel from the exterior of the bulb prior to eating.  You can do this easily by cutting the kohlrabi into halves or quarters and then peeling away the outer skin with a paring knife.  The flesh is dense and crisp, yet tender, juicy and sweet with a hint of a mild cabbage flavor.  The leaves on kohlrabi are edible as well, so don’t just discard them.  They have the texture and characteristics of collard greens, so you could use them in any recipe calling for collards or kale.  They are also good eaten raw.  Just make sure you slice them thinly and toss them with an acidic vinaigrette to soften the leaves.

Storage Tips:

To store kohlrabi, cut the stems and leaves off. Store both leaves and the bulbs in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. The leaves will keep for about 1 week, and the bulbs will last up to several weeks if stored properly.

Health & Nutrition:  

Kohlrabi is an excellent source of vitamin C, fiber, and potassium.  It is low in calories and sodium, and contains indoles, which are believed to be potentially significant anti-cancer compounds.  These plant compounds are not destroyed with cooking of the vegetable.

Cultural & Historical Background:  

The name for kohlrabi is derived from “khol” meaning stem or cabbage and “rabi” meaning turnip.

Transplanting Kohlrabi

Growing Information:  

Kohlrabi is seeded in the greenhouse in early March and transplanted to the field as early as possible in April, along with other vegetables in the same family of brassica crops including broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.  Kohlrabi is reliably one of the first of this family of vegetables to be ready, so it has earned its “niche” in seasonal eating while we wait for broccoli and cauliflower to make heads.  We also grow a slightly different type of kohlrabi in the fall that is intended for long term storage.  We hope to include storage kohlrabi in your boxes most likely in December!

Creamy Hungarian Kohlrabi Soup

Kohlrabi has, historically, been a part of central and northern European cuisine, primarily in countries such as Germany, Hungary, and Poland. Creamy kohlrabi soup is a traditional way to eat kohlrabi in Hungary, and it is a simple, humble recipe. As with many traditional recipes, every person’s grandmother has her own special way of making these traditional recipes.  Thus, the recipe below is my adaptation of several recipes I found for this soup. I hope you enjoy it in all its simplicity.

Yield:  4-6 servings

2 Tbsp olive oil or butter

3 medium kohlrabi with greens

3-4 garlic scapes, finely chopped

3-4 scallions

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1 ½-2 tsp sweet paprika

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

3/4 cup heavy cream

½ cup sour cream

2-3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley

2 tsp salt, plus more to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. First, prepare the vegetables. Remove the greens from the kohlrabi and set aside. Cut the kohlrabi into quarters and remove the peeling with a paring knife. Once peeled, cut the kohlrabi into medium dice, and set aside. Wash the leaves and separate the leaf portion from the thick rib and stem. Rough chop the leaves and set aside.
2. Roughly chop the garlic scapes and set aside. Remove the green tops from the scallions and slice the lower onion portion. Set aside with the garlic scapes. Finely slice the green tops and set aside to use as a garnish for serving the soup. 
3. Warm the oil or butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic scapes and sauté until fragrant and tender. Sprinkle the flour and 1 ½ tsp paprika over the onion & garlic mixture and stir to combine all of the flour.  It should make a light paste. Add 1 cup of the chicken or vegetable stock to the pan and stir to incorporate the flour paste into the liquid.  Once well combined with no lumps, add the remaining stock along with the diced kohlrabi, kohlrabi leaves and 2 tsp salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4. Bring the soup to a gentle simmer over medium-to-medium high heat.  Simmer, uncovered, until the kohlrabi is just tender when tested with a fork, about 20 minutes.
5. Remove from the heat and carefully puree the soup either with an immersion blender in the pan you prepared the soup in, or carefully transfer the soup to a blender. Purée until smooth, then return the soup to the original pan. Heat the soup over low heat and carefully stir in the heavy cream and sour cream, being careful that the mixture does not come to a boil. 
6. Once warmed through, taste the soup. Add additional salt, pepper, and/or paprika to your liking. Stir in the chopped fresh parsley and serve with the green onion tops.

Recipe developed by Chef Andrea, based on several different Hungarian cooks’ recipes. The primary sources for this recipe are as follows:  https://www.gastronomersguide.com/2008/12/kohlrabi-soup.html 

https://www.thespruceeats.com/hungarian-creamy-kohlrabi-soup-1137419