Kohlrabi bigger than a sports ball
Since we began sheltering at home, we have been ordering our groceries directly from local farms, and from a wonderful store (Argus Farm Stop) that aggregates products from a lot of different farms. On the list of available products a few weeks ago was a “ large kohlrabi.” I love kohlrabi. So of course, yes, I clicked the order button. I don’t recall now if the listing said more than that, but if so, I didn’t pay a lot of attention.
Two days later, when my order arrived on my doorstep, there was a bag with only one thing in it. When I looked, I actually laughed out loud. They were not joking, it was one LARGE kohlrabi. So the first thing I did, naturally, was to text photos of it to my family and friends. And then I weighed it. 14 pounds. Seriously.
For those of you not familiar with the cabbage-like, root looking (but not a root) vegetable, they are, in my experience about the size of a tennis ball (but not as round), or maybe a baseball. And in extreme cases maybe the size of a softball. But this thing was bigger than a football! (but probably smaller than a basketball).
Given its size, it could not possibly taste good, I thought to myself. But of course I had to get into it to find out for sure. So with our biggest knife, I carefully (super duper carefully—this is not the time for a visit to the ER) hacked the end off of it. And Y’all, it was good! So I used my decidedly bad vegetable butchery skills and started to make stuff. I made a block of “cheese” hoping to convince John that it was practically a meal (not just an extreme amount of fiber for two people living in a small space to consume—also, remind me to tell you about the time I convinced my kids that tofu sticks were french fries). I also made some slaw, which is a fabulous thing on fish sandwiches. But my very favorite way to eat is just sliced and drizzled with seasoned rice vinegar.
I wanted to share a recipe with you, but I don’t have anything fancy—so here is a dressing I use for most of my slaws:
Ingredients
3 teaspoons sesame seed oil (or use half olive oil, half sesame seed oil if you prefer)
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
Sometimes I’ll add a tablespoon of peanut butter —but it’s totally optional
4 cups julienned kohlrabi
1 cup julienned carrots and/or cabbage
Instructions:
Mix the dressing ingredients well
Pour over vegetables, and mix until coated
voila, slaw!
