kohl-ra-bi: it's a word jumble

ben & i signed up for our first CSA membership this year, and boy is it fun. i really mean that. every week, we (and by "we" i mean "i") pick up our box of delicious, locally grown veggies from our farmer and then head home, immediately contemplating the delicious that can be procured from these gems.

tonight, i played with the kohlrabi from our box this week. it's not actually a word jumble, but it is a vegetable. it sort of looks like some sort of alien lifeform, this pale green orb with strange, tentacle-like leaves growing from it's top. i have been contemplating what to do with it since monday, and have had various ideas bouncing around in my food obsessed brain. since it is the first of the season, i decided to head in a raw foods direction to savor kohlrabi as it is. no butter, no heat, just the kohlrabi. and to pair with it would be those beautiful baby lettuces we also got in our box. oh, the baby red leaf, green leaf & romaine lettuces with a little lemon would be perfect!

so i peeled my alien babies, julienned them on my handy-dandy mandolin (minding my finger tips, which typically i don't think twice about and end up with perfectly symmetrical cuts). my greens i cleaned & left whole. they were so beautiful i didn't have the heart to cut them up. the cilantro was lightly chopped, the peanuts were dry-toasted with a little red chili which i barely crushed with the mortar and pestle. the garlic was sliced thin and crisped up in a little oil. a little salt, a little pepper, a little olive oil, then all tossed together and voila! a delicious salad.

ben loves him some protein, so we fired up the grill and threw some chicken breasts on it, simply seasoned with a little s/p and some extra virgin olive oil. oh, and i did end up incorporating the alien tentacle leaves from the kohlrabi. they were sauteed for about 5 minutes in a pan with a little duck stock which i made last week, some rice wine vinegar & salt. i definitely will blanche them in the future before sauteing to make them more tender.

the highlights from dinner:
1. definitely the kohlrabi! it's crunchy, fresh, and has a little hint of radish-like flavor. plus it's cool to say: "coal-robbie"
2. the greens: how beautiful and fresh! i instantly felt healthier.
3. the peanuts: man, the chili flake was fantastic!
4. the cilantro: pulled the whole shindig together.

and now i'm going to go scarf down some of those amazing strawberries that also came in the box this week, maybe with some vanilla ice cream. mmmmm...