Today's vegetable recipe: An unusual and refreshing coleslaw made with kohlrabi, apple and fresh mint. Weight Watchers 0-1 points but tastes like more.
What a salad! With ribbons of fresh mint, it has a summery taste and feel. The kohlrabi and apple meld so beautifully together that for anyone prone to hiding vegetables amid fruit, well, you're not likely to get caught.
And I love-love-loved the dressing, just a small bit of cream whipped into pillows, then stirred with lemon juice, good mustard and salt and pepper. It occurs to me -- ha! -- that homemade creamy coleslaw dressing is what creamy coleslaw dressing is supposed to taste like! It's that good! This dressing will be repeated, truly, perhaps to change it up some times, with sour cream or Greek yogurt, with lime juice or maybe a delicate vinegar.
This salad is almost like a sweet-ish Celeriac Rémoulade and in fact, I'd interchange the sauces and the vegetables for these two recipes in a heartbeat.
IS RED KOHLRABI RED INSIDE? A grocery-store scout tipped me off that a local store was carrying 'red kohlrabi', whose color must have been named by someone color blind for red kohlrabi is the the same color as, um, oops, red cabbage -- that is, they're both purple. But red kohlrabi is white inside, just like green kohlrabi, just like a red-skinned apple is white-fleshed.KOHLRABI & APPLE SLAW with CREAMY COLESLAW DRESSING
Hands-on time: 25 minutes
Time to table: 25 minutes
Makes 4 cups, easily adapted for less
Time to table: 25 minutes
Makes 4 cups, easily adapted for less
DRESSING
1/4 cup cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon good mustard
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt & pepper to taste - go easy here
Fresh mint, chopped
1 pound fresh kohlrabi, trimmed, peeled, grated or cut into batons with a Benriner
2 apples, peeled, grated to cut into batons (try to keep equivalent volumes of kohlrabi:apple)
Whisk cream into light pillows - this takes a minute or so, no need to get out a mixer. Stir in remaining dressing ingredients, the kohlrabi and apple. Serve immediately.
KITCHEN NOTES
The inspiring recipe called for a tart Granny Smith. I used sweeter apples and liked it fine - but tart would be good, too. Once grated, the apple begins to brown instantly so move it straight into the sauce and toss right away. That said, once the apple/kohlrabi were in the salad, it didn't turn brown for a couple of hours (if it would have stayed white longer, I don't know, it didn't last!) NEXT TIME For a less rustic presentation, I will get out the Benriner and use the medium blade. It would also be pretty with just a spoonful or two tucked into a pocket of Boston lettuce.
MORE FAVORITE RECIPES
~ more kohlrabi recipes ~
~ more salad dressing recipes ~
~ more recipes mixing fruits & veggies ~
~ more kohlrabi recipes ~
~ more salad dressing recipes ~
~ more recipes mixing fruits & veggies ~
NEVER MISS A RECIPE! For 'home delivery' of new recipes from A Veggie Venture, sign up here. Once you do, new recipes will be delivered, automatically, straight to your e-mail In Box.
Eat more vegetables! A Veggie Venture is the home of Veggie Evangelist Alanna Kellogg and is the award-winning source of free vegetable recipes, quick, easy, and yes, delicious. Start with the Alphabet of Vegetables or dive into all the Weight Watchers vegetable recipes or all the low carb vegetable recipes. © Copyright 2008
Thank you for supporting advertisers from BlogHer.
Thank you for supporting advertisers from SixApart!
Your Comments:
I think I almost doubled the recipe by accident, because holy cow it made a lot.
I used labne instead of cream but I think that my mustard was not up to the task, it was pretty tame.
I am guessing that the mint will have infused it longer over the course of the night and that the leftovers for lunch will be outstanding.
BTW, a nice garnish of mint leaves and dried cranberries does not go amiss for presentation either...
BTW - it's nice seeing a veggie blogger from St. Louis! I grew up there. I'm now living in KC but I always look forward to coming back "home" whenever I can. :-)
Alison ~ Welcome!
DervishSpin ~ It does seem to make a pile, doesn't it?! The dressing isn't what I'd call 'hot', it's more a subtle creamy underlying dressing, pillowy. And your presentation ideas are great!
Lady ~ It's much recommended!
Vegan Blog Tracker ~ Welcome! Please know that A Veggie Venture is 100% vegetables but is an omnivore site and not vegetarian. Still, you'll find plenty of vegetarian and vegan recipes here!
I, too, love kohlrabi raw, so much so that I usually eat it raw before I can do anything else with it!
I had never seen nor heard of kohl rabi until a couple of weeks ago, when it appeared in my box. We ate ours in an Asian stir-fry, which was quite nice. But if I get it again, perhaps I'll try this instead.
Caitlin - Asian stir-fry sounds good, too!
Thanks for the entry to Waiter...
In your introduction to the recipe, you mention that the person who labeled red Kohlrabi red must have been color blind. Actually, it might have been pretty red (or at least a very red shade of purple) when it was named. The color of some vegetables, "purple/red" cabbage is one, depend on the type of soil they were grown in. If they were grown in an acidic soil, they will tend to be more red. If they were grown in an alkaline soil, they will be a more blue shade of purple. This is because the chemical coloring agent in the vegetable is pH sensitive.
If you want to see an interesting effect, boil some purple cabbage. Save a little of the boiling water. Put a couple of tablespoons in a clear glass and 2 tablespoons in another clear glass. Dilute the juice in each glass by adding 1/4C water. Add vinegar to one glass and see what color the juice changes. Add baking soda to the other and see what color it changes to. If you want to see something really spectacular, add laundry detergent to some cabbage juice. It will turn a bright electric lime green! The more alkaline a substance, the brighter green/yellow it gets and the more acidic a substance is, the more red/orange the juice gets.
If you put some juice in a clear bottle and cap it, you will notice over a period of several days that the juice gets more pink. This is because the juice has started to ferment. In the fermentation process, bacteria and yeast produce carbon dioxide (carbonation) which is a mild acid.
The color agent in these vegetables can be used as acid/base indicators which means they can be used to test whether a substance is acidic or alkaline. My middle-school science students used this test to test a number of substances and place them in order on a pH scale which rates amount of acidity or alkalinity.