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
- 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.
- 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.