Kohlrabi

The "sputnik" type vegetable you may find in your vegebox today or in the near future, is kohlrabi, valuable for its high vitamin A content. The greeny white variety is called "Cindy" and is grown from organic seed. The late purple variety is called "Azur Star" (also organic seed). To quote Lawrence Hills, "Kohlrabi is an unusual but useful vegetable, which looks like a turnip but is in fact a kind of cabbage with a swollen stem." Do not peel them; merely wash and boil or steam like turnips. Try slicing them after boiling and fry with eggs and breadcrumbs.

The kohlrabi globe has a slightly nutty flavour and is delicious grated raw in salads, or diced to serve cold with mayonnaise, like potato salad. Alternatively, slice them into sticks and serve raw in glasses like a whole food equivalent to potato crisps. You can cook the leaves as you would spinach, but be sure to cut them off, as pulling them can break the skin and cause loss of flavour.

Anna Ross, in her book Green Cuisine - The Organic Vegetable Cookbook has recipes for Kohlrabi Gratin, Kohlrabi Salad and Kohlrabi & Fennel Soup.

A final recipe I found in the Encyclopedia, mentioned above, is for Kohlrabi Stuffed with Peppers. How about that for using two vegetables in your September vegebox! To summarise it:

Trim and top and tail the kohlrabi and arrange in the base of an ovenproof dish. Pour over vegetable stock to about halfway up the vegetables. Cover and braise in the oven for about 30 mins until tender. Transfer to a plate and cool, reserving the stock. Heat some olive or sunflower oil in a frying pan and fry a chopped onion for a few minutes. Add a small red and small green pepper, seeded and sliced, and cook for a further 2 or 3 minutes. Add the reserved stock and a little seasoning, then simmer, uncovered, over a moderate heat until the stock has almost evaporated. Scoop out the flesh from the kohlrabi and roughly chop. Stir the flesh into the onion and pepper mix, taste and adjust the seasoning. Arrange the shells in a shallow ovenproof dish. Spoon the filling into the kohlrabi shells, Place in the oven for 5-10 mins to heat through and then serve, garnished with flat leaf parsley.

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