Week 4

In your share this week:

  • Rainbow Swiss Chard (looks so nice right now!)
  • ‘Samantha’ red lettuce
  • ‘Walla Walla’ sweet onions – great grilled, even the tops and bolting tops!
  • Kohlrabi – Here’s the oddball of the week that some of you may not be familiar with.  See the extensive notes at the bottom of this post on kohlrabi!  Basically: peel it, eat it.
  • Salad turnips
  • Peas (snow or snap)
  • Spinach – if you want to you can wash well and cut up the whole thing including the roots for cooking.

I want to let you all know about another great CSA cooking resource.  It’s a very extensive cookbook called “Bounty From the Box: The CSA Farm Cookbook,” by Mi Ae Lipe.  You can order it here http://bountyfromthebox.com

I will occasionally include excerpts from this book in the blog posts, as in this great bit below about kohlrabi.

From Bounty from the Box: The CSA Farm Cookbook, by Mi Ae Lipe:

KOHLRABI:

A curious member of the cabbage family, kohlrabi is sometimes called cabbage turnip because its name consists of the German words kohl (cabbage) and rabi (turnip). Some botanists believe that kohlrabi is a hybrid of the two, whereas others maintain that it is actually a variant of mustard; its exact origins are rather mysterious.

The vegetable’s most distinguishing feature is its large, light green (or sometimes purple), globe-shaped swollen stem that grows above ground and is not a root, topped with turnip-like leaves. The plant is grown for this stem, which is crunchy, juicy, sweet, and quite delicately flavored, with a distinct cabbage taste, similar to broccoli stems or turnips.

Most people eat kohlrabi raw, peeling and slicing the vegetable into rounds and sprinkling it with a little salt. But kohlrabi is just as good cooked, braised, steamed, or shredded.

Storage

If their tops are intact, kohlrabi will keep refrigerated in a perforated plastic bag in the refrigerator vegetable crisper for up to 5 days. Detopped bulbs will last longer, keeping for up to 2 to 3 weeks (since the greens deteriorate faster than the roots).

Serving Suggestions

  • Boil and mash kohlrabis like potatoes, and serve with butter, salt and pepper, and other seasonings.
  • Combine cubes of kohlrabi with Granny Smith or Yellow Delicious apples and your favorite creamy, sweet or mustard dressing for an unusual, refreshing summer salad.
  • Make a cheesy casserole or gratin with kohlrabi instead of potatoes.
  • Try substituting kohlrabi for cabbage in a kohl-slaw.
  • Add sliced rounds of kohlrabi to the vegetable relish tray, and serve with your favorite dip.
  • Tiny whole kohlrabis or thinly sliced rounds are delicious pickled.
  • Prepare kohlrabis cream-style, and pair them with fried chicken and potato salad.
  • Roast kohlrabis with other vegetables like carrots, potatoes, turnips, and rutabagas.
  • Substitute kohlrabi for cauliflower in an Indian curry.
  • Hollow out kohlrabis and prepare like stuffed peppers, filling them with a mixture of ground meat and tomato, or whatever you desire, and baking them in the oven.
  • Shred kohlrabis and stir-fry or sauté in fresh herbs and butter.

Complementary Herbs, Seasonings, and Foods

Bacon, béchamel sauce, butter, caraway, chervil, chives, cinnamon, cream, cumin, curry, dill, garlic, ghee, ginger, hollandaise sauce, lemon, lemon thyme, marjoram, mustard, mustard oil, nutmeg, onion, parsley, pork, sausage, thyme, turmeric, vinaigrette dressing.