Category Archives: Vegetables

What’s The Deal with Kohlrabi?

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young kohlrabi and attached greensKohlrabi again was a featured vegetable in my CSA basket from Hilary Chop and Teamwork CSA. Holding it in my hands reminded me of my semester as a student in Vienna and my visits to the famous central Naschmarkt and seeing a knobby light green tennis ball sized vegetable for the first time.  It was described to me as a ‘cabbage turnip’.  At that point in time I tended to stay away from onomatopoeic foods- in this instance to ‘ turn up’ my nose to this vegetable. I did not think of kohlrabi until a couple of years later while thumbing through Madeleine Kamman’s ‘When French Women Cook’ and decided to make a light creamed kohlrabi dish with dill. Since then it made an annual visit into my Canadian kitchen each July.  I would julienne it for salads; make a smooth puree to accompany pork; or simply include it in a seasonal stir fry.

That was until I moved to Delhi where it would greet me in late October.  I would discuss different uses of kohlrabi (known as knol knol in Delhi or gaanth ghobi in the southern states) with the vendors from my favourite vegetable stall at INA market. The two recipes in this post make use of the entire plant. A comforting moong dal uses the leaves while the other, a spiced kohlrabi mash, highlights the main bulb.

Ingredients for dal with kohlrabi greens

Ingredients for the yellow dal with kohlrabi greens

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What's The Deal with Kohlrabi
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 3 cups greens (kohlrabi, spinach, swiss chard, or kale), roughly chopped
  • ½ cup moong dal
  • 3 cups water
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely chopped
  • ⅛ teaspoon turmeric
  • Salt, to taste

  • For Tempering: Tadka
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 plum tomato, seeded and diced
  • 1 dried red chile, halved
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 2 shallots, finely sliced
Instructions
Bring water to boil. Add kohlrabi greens and cook for 3 minutes or so until tender. Drain.

Put moong dal and 3 cups of water in medium sized pot and bring to a boil. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface. Add the garlic, ginger and turmeric. Partially cover and simmer gently over medium low heat for about 20 minutes. The dal should be soft. Add the blanched kohlrabi greens, fresh spinach and some salt and cook for another couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the tadka. In a small pan, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the cumin seeds and once they give off their aroma (about 20-30 seconds) add the shallots and cook for another 3 minutes or until the lightly brown. Add the tomatoes, red chile and cook for another minute or so. Pour the tadka over the dal and mix well. Serve immediately.
kohlrabi greens and yellow lentil dal

The finished dal: fresh, vibrant and alive with flavour

kohlrabi, tomatoes, onions, spices, garlic and ginger: ingredients for kohlrabi bharta

Ingredients for the kohlrabi bharta

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Spiced Mashed Kohlrabi "Kohlrabi Bharta"
Serves: 4
 
This recipe is a riff on the well known eggplant dish baingan bharta. This time I have used kohlrabi as the main ingredient. If you do not have enough kohlrabi you can add some turnip.
Ingredients
  • 1 ½ pounds (6-8 medium sized) kohlrabi, peeled and quartered
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon ginger, finely chopped
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 green finger chile, deseeded and finely chopped
  • ⅛ teaspoon cayenne powder
  • ½ teaspoon turmeric
  • 2 plum tomatoes, seed and pulp removed, diced
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons coriander, roughly chopped
Instructions
Place quartered kohlrabi in a medium sized pot with 1 cup of water and salt. Bring to a boil. !Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. The kohlrabi should be tender and easily pierced with a knife (like testing potatoes for mashed potatoes). Drain and set aside.

In the same pot or in a medium sized frying pan heat the oil over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and fry for 30 seconds. Add the onion and sauté for 3-5 minutes or until lightly golden. Add the garlic, ginger, chile, spices and tomato. Cook for 1 minute. Add warm kohlrabi and roughly mash, ensuring that there are still nice big chunks. Cook for another couple of minutes until the ingredients are well mixed and the kohlrabi is hot. Adjust seasoning if need be. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve immediately.

 

Kohlrabi bharta as a finished dish

The finished kohlrabi bharta

NOTE: This was originally posted to my blog India On My Plate on July 9, 2011

Fiddleheads: Himalayan Style

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Fiddleheads cooked with Indian spices

For my first recipe post I want to offer a seasonal recipe using fiddleheads, a vegetable which has been instrumental in shaping what I view as local and seasonal food.  Ten years ago I participated in a Canadian Food promotion in Tokyo. While visiting the famous Tsukiji fish market I explored the nearby vegetable stalls and much to my surprise saw in-season fiddleheads.  The host Japanese chefs were shocked to learn that this, a Japanese vegetable to them, was also Canadian.  We incorporated them into an asparagus, fiddlehead, morel and wild rice pilaf.

Six years later while driving the winding roads away from the Himalayan village of McLeod Ganj, headquarters of the Dalai Lama, I again caught a glimpse of this familiar spring vegetable being sold along the roadside. Wanting to make sure I wasn’t suffering from altitude sickness, I recall asking my wife for reassurance that I had just seen a bunch of fiddleheads. Soon I was chatting with the vendor trying to explain in broken Hindi that we had the same seasonal delicacy in Canada.

These experiences, seeing the familiar in a foreign context, provided me with both comfort and intrigue. My definition of “local” and “seasonal” food began to shift and now I constantly find myself searching for more ‘local’ food as I travel.

In rural communitites, where vegetable cultivation is scarcely practiced, villagers often rely on nutritious wild vegetables. Such as fiddleheads which are high in omega-3, omega-6 essential fatty acids and rich in iron, potassium andother minerals and vitamins. From Shimla to Sikkim fiddlehead ferns, known as lingra, lingri or ningro, can be found in the remote forests of the Himalayas.  During the Monsoon, women often harvest the tightly coiled fronds, for personal consumption, or to sell along the roadside. Often, the fiddleheads are simply boiled and eaten on their own.  In Himachal pickled fiddleheads, lingri achaar, are a local delicacy while in Sikkim, they may be sautéed with chhurpi, a local cheese.  I have added some new potatoes to a recipe shared with me by the roadside vendor along the route to McLeod Ganj. The fiddleheads pictured below are sourced from the nearby Gatineau hills.

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Sauteed Fiddlehead Ferns with New Potatoes
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 3 cups or ½ lb fiddlehead ferns* (or substitute asparagus, okra or green beans)
  • 8 to 10 new potatoes
  • 2 tablespoons mustard or vegetable oil
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
  • ½ teaspoon coriander seeds, lightly crushed
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric
  • 2 dried red chiles, cut in half (or good pinch of cayenne powder)
  • salt, to taste
  • fresh coriander for garnish
Instructions
  1. Trim cut end of fiddleheads. Place fiddleheads in a large bowl with a lot of water and gently shake to remove any dirt or grit. Drain and repeat again. Drain the fiddleheads and set aside.
  2. Place new potatoes in a pot of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are just cooked. Use a slotted spoon to remove potatoes to a plate to let cool. Cut into halves or quarters depending on size of potato.
  3. Bring the water back to the boil and add the fiddleheads and cook until just tender, about two to three minutes. Use the slotted spoon to transfer the fiddleheads to a bowl of iced water for 5 minutes. Drain and keep aside.
  4. Heat the oil in a karhai, wok or large saute pan over medium high heat. Add the cumin, coriander seeds and dried red chilies and cook for 30 seconds. Toss in potatoes, remaining spices and some salt. Reduce heat to medium and saute for 3-4 minutes until the potatoes are warm. Add fiddleheads and cook for another minute or so. Adjust seasoning and serve immediately garnished with some fresh coriander.
Notes
Fiddlehead ferns are like wild mushrooms in that some species are ok for human consumption while others are not. So, it's best to purchase them from a well known vendor. Fiddleheads should be boiled first in boiling water before proceeding with any recipe.