Cream of kohlrabi

I agree that kohlrabi has an odd name. According to Wikipedia the name kind of means cabbage turnip, and is popular in German speaking countries and Vietnam. Now we know.

Typically we ate it cubed in vegetable soups, though raw and roasted are both tasty way to consume this vegetable. When I was growing up, we would only eat the root. Eating green leaves was never even considered. It took many years and a move across the ocean to start to appreciate the goodness of leafy greens!

This is a full-meal cream of kohlrabi with no cream. I added some carrots, steel-cut oats and cooked kidney beans to add some carbs and boost the fiber, even though kohlrabi itself already has lots of fiber. Extra smooth tofu is there for proteins, onion and garlic help with the depth of flavor, and lemon balanced everything out nicely.

With any cream of X soup, I have learned that having the best blender one can afford makes an enormous difference. We have been using our VitaMix for almost 10 years now and every time we make a soup, we still marvel in its smoothness. The VitaMix run has not been totally issue free, we are on the second blending jar and I replaced the potentiometer, but the motor is still going as strong as when it was new.

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of kohlrabi, I used 4 roots and also the leaves
• a handful of carrots, brushed or peeled, and chopped roughly
• a handful of quick-cooking steel-cut oats; use rolled oats if that is what you have in the pantry
• a handful of cooked kidney beans
• 3-4 cups of low-sodium vegetable stock, chicken stock works fine too
• 1 medium size onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 package (11oz, 300g) of extra-soft tofu (Soondubu), liquid discarded
• juice of one medium-sized lemon
• vegetable oil or coconut oil, a couple of TBS

For mise en place chop kohlrabi roots, no need to peel them, just wash them well. Wash and chop roughly kohlrabi leaves. Also clean and chop the onion, carrots, and garlic.

In a 3 to 4 quart pan heat the oil, add onions, season with a pinch of salt, and sautee until the onions soften a bit.

Add chopped carrots and chopped kohlrabi root, sautee some more until the vegetables start to soften.

Add the garlic and sautee for another minute.

Add the vegetable stock and steel-cut oats, cover, bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the chopped kohlrabi leaves, cover the pot and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Transfer the soup to your blender.

Add tofu and cooked beans.

Add lemon juice.

Blend until smooth. Taste, add salt if necessary.

Serve in a bowl with some nice garnish. I used pine nuts and a touch of pumpkin seed oil - the green-on-green combination worked well.