The Purloined Recipe

Serves 2 to 4

This pretty vegetable ragout should prove, if any doubt lingers, that members of the cabbage family can be delicate and pretty, especially in early summer.

Improvise with what you have: small onions or red scallions, spring leeks or green garlic, shallots in the fall, bunched spinach or loose leaves.

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
6 spring onions or shallots, halved
6 or more small turnips, scrubbed and quartered
2 or 3 small kohlrabi, about golf ball size, peeled and quartered
1 thyme or lemon thyme sprig
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound pod peas, shelled
a few handfuls of baby spinach
dollop crème fraîche
4 large basil leaves, slivered

1. Melt the butter in a skillet and add the onions, turnips, kohlrabi, and thyme. Add water to cover halfway and a teaspoon of salt. Simmer while you shuck the peas.
2. As soon as the vegetables are tender, after 12 to 15 minutes, add the peas and spinach and cook until the spinach has wilted down, a few minutes more. Stir in the crème fraîche and add the basil. Taste by itself. With a starch (puff pastry, ravioli, even buttered toast), it can be offered as a vegetarian main dish.

Recipes By Ingredient, The Recipes, basil, cabbage, entrees, kohlrabi, side dishes, spinach, thyme, turnips

from a Hungarian market customer

8 Kohlrabi
½ pound ground pork
2 oz. rice
1 ½ Tbsp. oil
1 tsp. chopped onion
1 egg
3/8 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp. flour
1 bunch Parsley
1 tsp sugar
salt and ground black pepper

Carve out the inside of the peeled kohlrabi. Work together the meat, the eggs, the cooked rice, and season with salt and pepper. Stuff the Kohlrabi with the mix. Pour the oil in a deep pot, put in the carved out shavings, add a little water,season it with salt and sugar and sauté it under cover until soft. Sprinkle in chopped parsley, stir the sour cream and flour together,  add this mix to thicken the sauce. Cook the stuffed kohlrabies in about a finger of water under cover until soft. Place the cooked kohlrabi in the sauce, the meal is ready to serve.

Recipes By Ingredient, The Recipes, entrees, kohlrabi, onions, parsley

(recipe from the book Local Flavors used with permission of the author, Deborah Madison, submitted by CSA member Lisa Nau, whose act inspired the title of this recipe collection)

Serves 4

Peel 12 ounces kohlrabi and/or turnips and cut into fine julienne strips. Thinly slice or grate 3 or 4 inner celery ribs (lovage or celery leaf works fine too.) Toss with enough Mustard Vinaigrette to moisten.

Mustard Vinaigrette
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar, sherry vinegar or fresh lemon juice
2 shallots, finely diced
1 garlic clove, minced
salt & freshly milled pepper
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 Tablespoons crème fraîche or sour cream
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons snipped chives
1 Tablespoon chopped parsley
3 Tablespoons capers, rinsed

Combine vinegar through salt in a bowl. Let stand for 15 minutes, then
vigorously whisk in the mustard, crème fraîche, and oil until thick and smooth.
Grind in a little pepper, then stir in the herbs and capers.

The Recipes, garlic, kohlrabi, onions, salad dressings, salads, turnips