Editor’s Note: Today we are joined by one of my absolute favourite Pacific Coast food bloggers, Mohini from Mango Power Girl.

A fan of all things local and fresh, Mohini comes to us via Seattle and brings with her a passion for melding the traditional food skills from her Indian upbringing with an uncanny knack for bringing flavours and ingredients together in a beautifully contemporary way.

We have tried and loved so many of her recipes at our house – many of which I never expected the tiny person to even entertain the thought of eating due to their vegetable content. Yet the kiddo ended up devouring them and asking for more.

I must stop gushing now. So, here she is:

Last Sunday when we went to our farmers’ market, we didn’t need many vegetables.

That hardly happens, but in the week before we’d gotten ourselves to multiple local markets and gathered a lot of loot. I was looking for only a couple things we needed.

Then my husband, Brian, pointed me to this kohlrabi — it was beautiful.

I’ll be honest and admit that I had eaten, but never before cooked kohlrabi. We had a little chat with the farmer who had the best looking, organic kohlrabi. She said they are commonly harvested in Spring and Fall, but that the previous few weeks we had plenty of rain and cooler weather. As a result, the kohlrabi leaves grew big and happy

Don’t you love happy vegetables!

I did a little more research after I came home and found that kohlrabi is a German turnip — read more about it on its Wikipedia article.

Kohlrabi is available in a few different types (I remember seeing some purple at the market, too!) and apparently, it is very popular in South India — who knew?! It is so much fun to learn about food!

There are many cooked and uncooked uses of this nutritious vegetable. I decided to try it in a salad first. Later, I used my left-over kohlrabi in a soup, in place of celery, and it tasted great! Comox Valley Kids, I hope you enjoy this newly developed, sweet Kohlrabi Salad with Honey-Lemon Dressing

I used:
1 bulb of kohlrabi, peeled and sliced into thin strips
1 green apple, peeled and sliced into thin strips
2 tablespoons local wildflower honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
zest & juice of a 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 cup toasted walnuts
a handful of soft cheese, cubed — mine was made locally from cow’s milk with a sweet, sharp flavor. Goat cheese or blue cheese would be tasty, too.

My method:
1. Slice the kohlrabi, then the apples, and set them aside.
2. Zest the lemon, juice it, and mix both with the honey & oil for the Honey-Lemon Dressing.
3. When ready to eat, toss the Honey-Lemon Dressing, walnuts, cheese, and fennel seeds, and you can eat right away.

Other notes: If the dressing seeps in for 5-10 minutes, the kohlrabi will soften and taste even better. For a variation, try it with pears instead of apples. That was the combination I had in mind, but I did not have any pears in my kitchen today.

Apple did just fine!

Photo courtesy of Mango Power Girl