Impromprtu Buy of the week: Kohlrabi

I had seen it before. I just don’t remember where or when. But I saw it again in New Jersey and this time I bought it. I didn’t know what it was, like most of my impromptu produce buys, but I got it anyway…I had to finally find out what it was.

My girlfriend and I were at the second stop of farms in N.J. when I saw what appeared to be an apple like cabbage hanging out with other cabbages in the September sun.

What I didn’t know at the time, was that I was holding an odd looking piece of produce called a Kohlrabi (pronounced ko-hi-ra-be).

A kohlrabi is, I later found out via cashier at the farm, part of the cabbage family. This guy will grow anywhere, but a town in Michigan has titled itself the “Kohlrabi Capital of the World” and had festivals to celebrate the cabbage offspring.

The name kohlrabi is derived from the German Kohl, meaning…. cabbage. The plant is part of the broccoli and brussel sprout clan, which is essentially coming from the mustard plant.

When an online reference said it was sweeter and milder than most cabbage hearts (just the inside of the cabbage…no actual hearts in these guys) I took it and bit into it. Looking back, I don’t think I would tell someone to do this if they were trying it for the first time. It’s true that it is milder and sweeter but I’ll stick to cooking it before I bite into it raw again.

Cook kohlrabi like you would cabbage….make a slaw out of it, cook it down and eat it with corn beef hash or feed it to your cattle out back (some kinds are grown to feed cattle).

Enjoy and be curious!