A blog about the Primal Blueprint diet and lifestyle
Kohlrabi Casserole with Sausage and Fresh Thyme
This is my first year eating kohlrabi, thanks to my CSA farm share. I wonder where this vegetable has been all my life! It’s like it just appeared out of nowhere. I have only just begun to explore the possibilities of kohlrabi but so far I am quite taken. Fresh, the texture and water content (though not flavor) reminds me of jicama. You can shred it, dip it, put it in a salad, whatever. Cooked, however, it takes on a totally different quality. It firms up like the center stem of a cauliflower and takes on a very mild flavor easily associated with a cruciferous vegetable. Mostly I’ve been using it as one of my lunch time sautee vegetables. I have also grilled slices of it with eggplant and topped them both with olive oil and fresh basil.
In this recipe the kohlrabi is cubed and cooked casserole style. If you don’t eat dairy, look away now. I can’t think of a good substitute for the cream. I have made this several times and have mixed in other vegetables with the kohlrabi with good results. Any sturdy vegetable would work well. I have also mixed in raw chopped collard greens. Another idea is to top the whole thing with cheese (such as parmesan) and finish it off in the broiler to get a nice browned top.
This recipe is adapted from the Kohlrabi Ham Bake at Simply Recipes, one of my favorite recipe blogs.
3 tbsp butter
5-6 cups kohlrabi, cut into ½ in. cubes (or a mix of vegetables)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 lb sausage, cooked (I’ve used both the ground variety and cut up turkey sausage)
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
3 egg yolks
1 cup cream
2 tsp arrowroot starch (if you don’t have arrowroot starch you could use cornstarch *gasp*)
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Sautee the onion, kohlrabi and thyme with the butter in a large pan until the onion softens, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, beat the yolks in a bowl and whisk in the cream, starch, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Add the sausage to the kohlrabi and onions and transfer to a 9×11 in casserole dish. Pour the cream and egg mixture over the kohlrabi and onions. Bake for 30-40 minutes.
This blog is about how I cook, how I eat, how I exercise, how I have fun, and my general approach to health and wellness.
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Great recipe! I too, have recently discovered this wonderful veggie. I planted some in my garden Saturday in hopes that they will overwinter for me! I hear they grow like radishes, which is a good thing! Hopefully I can get the timing down well enough to have a good supply of them.
I love to use them as a stand-in for potatoes and this dish you’ve made looks stunning. I’ll wait until more comes in my CSA bag….hopefully soon.
Carrie@ Organic & Thrifty
This looks delicious. Do you really put the sausage in raw, though? You don’t cook it before it goes in the oven?
Carrie – I didn’t know how they grew. I think I may try planting some, too!
Crunchysue – Cook the sausage first. The ingredient list says cooked sausage but maybe I should have reiterated that in the recipe instructions.
Doh! Sorry, I missed the “cooked” part in the ingredient list. Thanks for pointing it out.
BTW, I had my first kohlrabi today, in the form of raw slices. It’s my new favorite. Tastes like fresh peas to me.
I use coconut milk as a substitute for cream and milk. Works well! Also, tropicaltraditions.com has a coconut cream that I’ve been meaning to try. You add water to it to make it the consistency you want, so you can make it thicker (cream) or thinner (milk).
Thanks for the recipe! Can’t wait to try it!
Oh, MAMA, this looks and sounds DELICIOUS! I have never tried kohlrabi, so this will be a first for me. I am new to all this — is dairy OK…or is this something you choose personally to go ahead and keep in your diet? @katydid: I have written down the info on where to get coconut cream. Thanks for this.
Love the sausage variation!