Kohlrabi, the vegetable no one knows about, but everyone should!

One of my absolute favorite vegetables, both to grow and to eat, is kohlrabi.  It's a member of the brassica family, that is the same family with broccoli, brussels sprouts and collard greens. It's half bulb, half greens and is ridiculously easy to grow.  Up until I ended up with seeds, I had never even heard of it before.  It's not something commonly sold in stores.  The only non-health food store I've seen them at is here in Mexico, at Walmart of all places.  I've never actually bought kohlrabi, this is one vegetable that I've only eaten out of my own garden.  Considering the way those kohlrabi in the store looked, I think it's better off this way. 

Like mentioned, kohlrabi is a brassica which means its ordinarily a cold weather crop.  In my experience, it's very hardy and will grow any time of year, although I have only grown it twice.  It takes 3 months or so from seed for kohlrabi to mature, sometimes more or less.  You can harvest them earlier, although they will get much bigger if you let them grow to full size.  The kohlrabi I harvested for the purposes of this article realistically could have been much bigger and rounder. 

I first grew kohlrabi when we were farming in Cleveland, several years ago at this point. At the beginning of the season, I planted a lettuce and onion bed next door that I all but forgot about once the lettuce bolted(meaning it started to flower, ruining the flavor of the lettuce).  I also forgot I planted some kohlrabi seeds in there.  This bed taught me that direct sow is not the way to go, for me at least.  It's pretty unreliable and you have no control over the distance between plants.  Anyway, I ventured out there 3 months later to find big fat kohlrabi, ready to eat.  I prepared them in a stir fry and have sung their praises ever since.  

I start my kohlrabi indoors, just by planting the seeds into soil filled egg containers.  I poke holes in the bottom of each egg shape before I fill it to make sure that the water can drain.  Once watered, they'll be up in a couple of days.  I just planted some with seeds left over from that farm in Cleveland, that I brought with me all the way to Acapulco.  All of them have sprouted, even before some newer lettuce seeds. I let them grow until they have a good little bundle of leaves then I transplant them outside, wherever I'd like.  I found that they like a decent amount of water and direct sun, as they seem to thrive here on my sunny mountainside. As long as they have regular supply of water, you won't have to do much to produce a lot of really good food.  

Kohlrabi can get pretty large, so harvesting depends on your preferences after a certain point.  If you're eager to try it, harvesting it while it still looks something like the one I picked, is not a bad idea at all.  If you're interested in seeing the full potential, let it go until it swells and rounds out.  I intend to do that with the other two kohlrabi I end up eating.  There are two more that will be left outside to flower so I can produce some more seed. 

When you decide it's time to harvest, just pull it out of the grounds by its roots.  Wash it off well and cut off the end with the roots, like demonstrated in the photo above.  Remove all of the leaves, just by pulling them off and either set them aside to cook or compost them.  I've never eaten the leaves, although I've heard of them compared to spinach and collard greens. 

Next you need to peel it, which involves both hands and knives. Use your hands to pull off any easy to pull off layers. Cut off the top end and use a knife to carefully peel it, leaving as much of the white flesh still attached as possible. Chop into whatever shapes or sizes you'd like.  Many eat this raw, by itself and in salads.  There are a lot of options for cooking as it's a mild flavored vegetable and blends well in all sorts of dishes. Just one of my favorite ways of preparing it is in what I call a Detroit Skillet. 

What you'll need is shown above, in the approximate amounts you'll need it save for salt and pepper.  The idea is to stuff a skillet with this stuff to fry and crisp it together.  This is something I came up with when we lived in Detroit and had access to nearby gardens of our friends.  It consisted of whatever there was to harvest that day, with a little meat from the Chaldean butcher on 7 mile.  They ground the beef for you fresh and made a smoked in house sausage that was to die for.  I honestly really miss that sausage.  The prices were amazing too, one more reason to miss it.  So don't feel you need to do it how I did it, if that's not what you have on hand.  This can be done with any vegetables, honestly. I boil my carrots and potatoes before hand, partially due to the over firm texture of mexican potatoes.  

Next add a good amount, three quarters of a full stick, of butter to a large frying pan.  This can be done on smaller scale, although I've never done so. Chop the rest of the ingredients starting with the meat and add them one by one to the pan until it's full, or until you feel it's enough for you to eat.  

Cook it on medium high, turning the food over every few minutes.   The idea is to evenly brown and crisp the edges of everything over the course of a half hour or so.  

You end up with something like this, which is topped with salt, pepper and anything else you'd like.  I've seen everything from mustard to hot sauce to ketchup on top of this dish.  It's something better done in a cast iron skillet over a wood fire in my opinion, but is really good on a regular stove too. 

All in all kohlrabi is a simple vegetable worth growing, especially if you aren't used to growing your own food.  You get a lot of food without a lot of input, which is desireable if you don't have experience gardening.  It's been a surprising delight to grow here in Acapulco.  It's hardiness is astounding, as it's survived being swallowed up by jungle vines. There's little to know pest damage to speak of, something else I was concerned of being in the jungle.  I grew it during the hot wet season here and didn't have to water, or anything really.  I anticipate needing to water this dry season, but I'll need to water everything as it can be months in between rain during the right time of year here.  If you're a new gardener unsure of what to plant, try kohlrabi.  You'll get pleasing results without much work. 

All photos used in the article were taken by John and I for the purposes of the article.