Kohlslaw

CSA Delivery 7/10/2012

• Baby cabbage
• Purple kohlrabi
• Broccoli
• Garlic
• Green-leaf lettuce
• Red-leaf lettuce
• Carrots
• Scallions
• Baby zucchini and summer squash
• Cucumbers

Kohlrabi is a vegetable that you'll see regularly in your CSA box or at your local farmer's market, but is largely absent at the grocery store.  Maybe it has to do with its almost alien appearance, with slender stalks topped with leaves coming off at nearly right angles from a central green or purple orb.  Despite its weird looks, I would encourage everyone to give kohlrabi a try (especially if it comes in your CSA share, since you already paid for it).  Raw kohlrabi tastes like a cross between broccoli and a granny smith apple.  Cooked, it acts like any of your root vegetables (e.g. turnips, parsnips, carrots). 

Here's a good entry level kohlrabi recipe, which makes enough to bring to a cookout - you will look like a culinary wizard, and you'll use up a bunch of veggies which otherwise may sit in your crisper for days/weeks on end.

Kohl-slaw

• 2-3 heads of purple and/or green kohlrabi
• 2-3 heads of baby cabbage (or 1 head regular size or napa cabbage)
• 5-6 carrots
• 1/2 bunch (maybe 6 individual) scallions
• 1/2 cup mayonaisse (light is fine)
• 1/2 cup plain fat free greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoons of white sugar
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• salt and black pepper to taste
• [shortcut - buy a jar of premade coleslaw dressing from the cooler section of the grocery store and dump it over the salad, rather than making your own]

This recipe is incredibly easy if you have a piece of kitchen equipment known as a mandolin.  It's basically a home deli slicer for veggies, and comes with piece that converts it to julienne (matchstick-size pieces).  You can also try slicing the veggies yourself with a knife, but try to keep your pieces as small and consistent as possible (especially with the kohlrabi).

Julienne all the veggies and toss them together.  In a seperate bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients, then add them to the veggies.  You may need to make another 1/2 batch of dressing, depending on how nuts you go with the sliced veggies.