Bod, my sister is the one who loves kohlrabi, so I can’t tell you how it tastes, but I can surf for information so that you’ll know what it is. The one she bought last weekend was a small round pale green globe with leaves growing out of the sides and top. Although it’s a member of the cabbage family, she eats it as though it was an apple. BECAUSE it’s a part of the cabbage family, it’s probably a very good addition to her diet!
This is how the University of Illinois describes kohlrabi:
Kohlrabi is a part of the cabbage family. It was first grown in Europe around 1500 and was imported into America 300 years later. It has a turnip like appearance, with leaves standing out like spokes from the edible portion, which is a rounded, enlarged stem section growing just above the soil line. Kohlrabi is sometimes misclassified as a root vegetable.
Here’s another site, with more information. It seems that kohlrabi is native to Europe, and has only been introduce to the US in the last two hundred years or so.
Wikipedia has a good picture of kohlrabi in their entry.
And here’s a site that offers recipes!
Bod, I hope this helps. Kohlrabi are readily available here, but since I don’t see huge displays of them, I suspect they are used sparingly. I’ll have to ask my sister how she came to know about them. She’s the only one in my family, to the best of my knowledge, who eats kohlrabi.
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
thanks for that buffy. it looks very familiar. ill check the produce section here and see if we call it something else.
You’re welcome, Bod. It’s very possible that you know it as something else. It seems the name has a German background, indicating that it’s a cole crop.
I have Scottish friends and it’s occasionally difficult to know if we’re talking about the same veggies. For instance, I’m not sure I know what a “swede” is.
a swede is very like a turnip in taste buffy. its a good deal bigger and the skin is brown and the flesh more yellow. those of us who grew up in the north have always referred to swede as turnip and only when i moved to the south did i actually discover it was another veg!
I am very fond of both sweded and turnips. When I was a child both were served up on a regular basis. Swede is nice mashed and served instead of mashed potatoes – it has a niceorange colour but a more distinctive and somewhat sweeter taste than potatoes. Parsnips are nice roasted with a roast meat meal. They are, I think, the sweetest tasting vegetable and are white in colour. My favourite way of serving them up for a special meal is Parmesan Parsnips, as at http://momentaftermoment.blogspot.com/2005/12/parmesan-parsnips.html