Oh that mysterious UFO so commonly found in veg boxes! What to do? What to do?

Kohlrabi is one of those vegetables you probably haven’t met in the average supermarket yet, but it is well worth making the acquaintance. Kohlrabi is a descendant of wild cabbage, along with kale, broccoli, cauliflower and all other cabbagy suspects. Its name has been imported from German, where kohlrabi means “cabbage turnip”, but kohlrabi sounds a bit more exciting, doesn’t it?

Kohlrabi is really a very swollen stem, similar in texture and flavour to broccoli stem. As I’m sure you can guess, it’s pretty much the same thing, too…  Kohlrabi comes in purple and green, with purple definitely having the most dramatic look. However, green varieties such as the superschmelz arguably have an edge over them when it comes to taste.

The skin of kohlrabi is very tough and and unpleasant and needs to be peeled off. The inside of a good kohlrabi however is fantastically crunchy, juicy, and just a little bit sharp. It’s pleasant to eat raw sliced, maybe with a dip (analogous to carrot sticks) or cooked in a bit of butter and water till it becomes so tender it melts in your mouth. Apparently kohlrabi is also popular in parts of India and Vietnam so it’s well worth a try in an oriental dish too!

As a bonus, should your kohlrabi come with leaves, you can treat them just like kale.