As long as it's not grown fibrous it's tasty raw. You can make salad/slaw out of it. Or just do anything with it that you'd do with a turnip.

Sometimes (not usually) our kohlrabi are so sweet, that I don't think parmesan cheese would taste good with it. We usually just boil it plain and add butter at the table if wanted. Is good with a dash of a sauce of soy-water-ginger-garlic-vinegar-sugar.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had kohlrabi. I get these daily emails from The Kitchn and remembered this, FWIW.

https://www.thekitchn.com/best-kohlrabi-recipes-60321

Never had it anyway but raw. Peel, slice, sprinkle with salt. DELISH.

DH's family used to saute and serve in a cream sauce, but it was his grandmother who did it and she and the recipe are long gone.

Other than Annie’s cream sauce, I’ve had it in all the ways mentioned as well as diced and put in chicken or beef soup.

tj

How many of you who have eaten kohlrabi have purchased it in a store?

Same question for turnips.

I don't think either are commonly eaten in the US but maybe that's regional?

Elmer - you have then ever had Eastham Turnip.. Only grown in the sandy, salty not soil on Outermost Cape Cod. It's an unusual sweet sharp vegetable. We have a Turnip Festival In November every year with contests for recipes - our town is in the National Seashore. If you ever want to visit I could shown you around, Closet airports are Boston and Providence. Ferries don't run after summer ends.

Elmer- When my home grown stash is depleted, I’ve gotten them at farmer’s markets and in stores.

tj

I've bought kohlrabi at more than one ordinary grocery store. It isn't unusual here in my part of the midwest.

Turnips both white and yellow (also called rutabaga) are available year round in our grocery stores. Love rutabaga! I make it for all the holiday dinners. I rarely see kohlrabi though. My FIL used to grow it every year. He also grew 2 different kinds of beets....one for the root, another for the greens. And he grew Swiss Chard.

kohlrabi coleslaw ... use kohlrabi instead of cabbage

Turnips and turnip greens are everywhere! I see the k all the time, but never buy or cook it , because hubby only eats what his mother cooked in the 60's.

Standing in the store right now. Turnips and rutabagas, both.🤠

I like mashed turnips with butter and pepper.

Thanks for comments to my question. I'm wondering if the direction of the answers suggests home vegetable gardening in cool conditions and Midwest food practices as far as popularity is concerned.

Consuming a broad spectrum of veggies prepared a variety of ways is pretty typical in my region. Perhaps because so much of America's produce is grown here and the wide diversity of ethnic (especially Asian) cuisines. Turnips are not commonly seen or eaten. Other than as a novelty, as an example, in a fancy restaurant. I've had turnips and rutabagas many times over the years during various trips and living periods in Europe. Just not here.

To the unidentified HU-7534 etc person, thanks for the kind offer. I appreciate it but am unlikely to be contacting you. I'm not often in that part of the country as I once was for work. Can you change your User name here or include it in your comments so that I and others know who your are? thanks.

Kohlrabi is a favorite vegetable but hard to come by anymore. It is mild flavored and has a great texture. I used to grow my own but cant these days. I always liked it just sauteed with a little butter and salt and pepper but you can use it like any cabbage like thing.

Turnip roots were once a major vegetable before potatoes. There were dozens of varieties. People used to pride themselves on their own turnip roots. Hard to imagine the rich and famous of the day eating turnip roots.

" Hard to imagine the rich and famous of the day eating turnip roots. "

I'm not sure what "day" you have in mind. Maybe sometime in the past?

I found that turnip puree, like potato puree and sometimes with the two combined, is considered a humble but also fancy dish in France.

Elmer, before potatoes is a long time ago. Not wanting to bore people with the details I was intentionally vague. Not everyone is as interested in social history as I am. In the past turnips grown for the table were quite small and usually cooked whole unless you were poor in which case they were huge and we would think pithy. Puree does imply a better off household in that you have to own an implement to puree which poor people would not have.

Fresh from the garden, farmers market or grocery store, I like them uncooked. Peeled, thinly sliced, then drizzled (in my case generously) with low-sodium soy/tamari sauce or a good balsamic vinegar.

" before potatoes is a long time ago. Not wanting to bore people with the details I was intentionally vague. "

Yes, it was vague, and because of which the sense you had in mind that was unstated was not apparent. I can do the same thing - before potatoes, the most widely eaten vegetable by peasants and working class people in Europe was cabbage. That doesn't mean that the later availability of potatoes changed anything nor does it imply that eating cabbage is a sign of being low on the totem pole.

So Elmer address "puree" ? or please don't because it doesn't matter.

You might think cabbage and certainly for the middling poor that could be true but you have to have crocks and salt to preserve cabbage for the winter. Turnips on the other hand did not need that. Do you know how these foods were kept through the winter?

I have yellow beets growing in the garden this year also, although only a handful sprouted. They're still very small.

I have cabbage leaves from earlier this year in my freezer. Will use them in soups. Hard to believe I'm still getting strawberries, tomatoes, bell peppers and baby squash in November. No frost projected yet. I have onions, kale, snow peas and Swiss Chard that will last a long time, possibly all Winter. My cilantro is looking a little rough. I forgot, also have a handful of carrots but not expecting them to do much. I never have any luck with them, but I keep trying.

Some potatoes regrew so just before the first hard freeze I'll dig down and see if there are any new potatoes. I've also been picking one or two persimmons and freezing them to speed up the ripening. Yesterday I picked three and dehydrated them. Not sure I like them this way.

I did make the first little Kohlrabi with a turnip, drizzled with oil, salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder, and parmesan cheese. It was okay. Next I'll try one with butter, salt and pepper. I don't see any bulbs forming on any other plants right now.

I have no idea where Elmer shops but turnips, rutabagas, parsnips and kohlrabi are commonly found in any grocery store in my area. I eat and cook with them frequently. I love to roast them at this time of year with other roots or squashes but I also include in soups, stews and mashes.

These are not vegetables I like to eat raw :-)

Turnips and carrots mashed together are marvellous. As kids we called that particular dish "carnips".

" So Elmer address "puree" "

Sure. There's a vegetable dish in France that goes by a few names, one short version of which is pommes purée. You may not know or recognize the term but you may have had it or tried it before.

" I have no idea where Elmer shops "

Did I mention stores? What I said was that these items are not common here. None of them were ever served in my childhood home. Nor in my wife's. Nor have we ever had them in our own home as a married couple. Or at a friend's house. And rarely if ever are they seen in restaurants.

A funny story. When we were living in Europe, my parents came to visit us a few times. On one visit, we treated them to dinner at a Michelin 3 Star restaurant. This is the highest Michelin rating, then as now. There were many fewer of them back then.

I did a limited translation run through of the menu for them, hitting high points and answering questions without covering each and every item that went with each and every dish. Served with my mother's order as a veg was turnip purée. I'd noted while reading but not translated that particular part of the description of what she ordered.

She marveled at the taste and exclaimed a few times how much she was enjoying this unusual and unidentifiable item. Just to have fun with her, I said nothing. When she was done, she asked if I could ask the waiter what the delicious item was. I told her I didn't need to ask, I could tell her. (but I didn't immediately). "Okay, okay, what was that"? "Turnip purée", I said. "Are you kidding, I've never had that before. It's delicious!" "Yes, I know" I responded. "Have you had it before?" she asked. "Yes", I said. "Where?" With a smile, I said "Here".

We've had it many other times over there, at many other places, then and on other trips. We've still never made turnip purée at home. Nor, as above, have ever had it in anyone else's house here.

Well, that only makes sense. A lot of people eat certain foods only when they are visiting/living in other places. Especially years ago.

Back to the OP. Kathy, the way you are planning to eat it sounds delicious!

I’m not a gardener at all, but my mother-in-law was a very good one. (N. Alberta) She tried growing everything. One year she even managed a watermelon. It was very, very tiny.

I hope the weather holds out for you. We’ve had a light frost already but today and yesterday was close to 20 C.

Happy gardening!

Patriciae, Newfoundland has a traditional dish called Jiggs’ Dinner. It consists of salt beef, cabbage, turnips, potatoes, carrots, and I believe split peas. It was a common meal and still is. Leftovers are made into hash.

I do not like puree. I know Gordan Ramsey loves them and hates all mashed potatoes, they MUST be pureed, but I like texture in my food. I like mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, etc. The seasoning is the same, but it is not baby food.

Sherry, there is a restaurant that I go to that makes wonderful potato leek soup that I believe is pureed. It’s seasoned with nutmeg and is so good!

They make quite a production when you order it. You’re brought a wide, shallow bowl with itsy bitsy pieces of potato and leek and then the server comes with a pureed mixture and heavy cream and pours it on top. It is very tasty.

Yes, I have made the leek/potato soup. It was good, but I still like texture. The next time I make it, it will NOT be pureed.

I do agree. Potatoes can be over pureed if not done properly. They can become a gummy mess. Chopping or pushing it through a press would work just as well.

I prefer the masher.See

Amazon.

Ah Roxsol Jiggs was from a comic strip called Maggie and Jiggs. Nouveau riche. He loved corned beef and cabbage to his wife's elegant seeking despair.

At issue with pureed turnips as a historical poverty food is that to make a puree you needed a ricer, and or tamis or later a food mill. The poor mashed with a knob ended stick for comparison. Such elegant preparations would be out of their reach and even out of their knowledge or need. People shared a common dish and perhaps their spoons.

Anyway back to the lovely kohlrabi, it is a lovely vegetable. I wish I could still grow them but gardening is not in my future any more.

" At issue with pureed turnips as a historical poverty food "

With respect to the regions appliable, any vegetable that would grow in the damp ground of a cool climate location was poverty food. As with potatoes.

I don't see any relevance of this comment to the current conversation. The topic is food and food preparations, not history.

Exactly Elmer hence my not going into details originally.

However interestingly I cant grow Turnips roots here because the soil is too cold.

when it finally heats up the planted turnips would just go to seed. My county on the other hand is famous for its potatoes. Kohlrabi always did really well though.

Poor Elmer, he cannot admit any loss.

I don't know where you are but if your grocery stores have displays of turnips as large as displays of apples, as some suggest, you can buy them anytime. Isn't it a cool weather crop anyway, with a schedule similar to other traditional root crops? Harvested just before winter and then kept in cool storage for later consumption.

" Isn't it a cool weather crop anyway, with a schedule similar to other traditional root crops? "

In this day and age with the scope of food importation available and access to climate controlled growing conditions, cool weather crops - virtually ALL brassicas and root crops - are available all year round.

Seasonality really has no bearing any longer on the availability of any produce.

The topic with Patricia was home growing and why it wasn't possible where she is. I did direct her to check her store.

Thanks Sherry, maybe read it again to better follow the flow.

Pbhppt……….

Oh Elmer you are so sweet. Now I know where to find Turnips. Thank you!