Karin's Week Seventeen Recipe: Kohlrabi Remoulade

This recipe is a result of still having 1/2 of my Giant Kohlrabi leftover from last week's recipe. Two people cannot eat a 3lb kohlrabi in a single sitting.  Looking around for a recipe that had ingredients that I had on hand, I found this by using SimplyRecipes.com. As I had already had on-hand the ingredients for making guacamole, I thought that this might be an interesting recipe to try. Kohlrabi has the flavor of a cross between cabbage and broccoli, with a bit of radish thrown in. It's nice and firm, so once you get it peeled, it's very easy to chop or grate, etc.

Kohlrabi Remoulade

For the remoulade:
2 small-ish, kohlrabi, thickly peeled
2 heaped tablespoons of good quality mayonnaise (see below)
3 fat green olives, pitted and finely chopped
1 small clove of garlic, crushed
Small palmful of hazelnuts, roasted, cooled and chopped
2 teaspoons of grain mustard
Sea salt and pepper

What I did was grate the half kohlrabi I had left on the large holes of a box grater, which made it about 2x the amount called for in the recipe. So I doubled the mayo, garlic, and mustard, and omitted the olives and hazelnuts. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

For the guacamole:
2 ripe but firm large Hass avocado
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
1 heaping tsp of sweet chilli sauce
Cayenne pepper, to taste
1.5 tomatoes chopped
juice of 1 ½ lemons

Handful of leaves (arugula, spinach, whatever you like)


Smash the avocados in a small bowl or molcajete*. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the greens) in order to the bowl, mixing thoroughly after each addition. You could also use your own guacamole recipe.


To serve: Place some greens on the plate, top with a mound of guacamole, then a mound of the remoulade.
 

*Using the molcajete always reminds me of visiting Mexico or one of the other Latin American countries. I picked mine up on a trip to Juarez from a small housewares store in the city center - a true molcajete is made of volcanic stone. Now that it is summer, I can use it to make sauces from all kinds of fresh veggies, so you may be seeing more of this nifty device.

Verdict on this was very delicious, and kohlrabi is much better raw than cooked. I think I will be making this again, albeit with a much smaller kohlrabi to start with. Nate's point was, anything that is 50% guacamole has to be delicious. The remoulade gave it more of a salad flair, and we ate it alongside brats on the grill. I think this would make a great summer picnic dish, but I might use a food processor for all the chopping/grating.

Taking up the Gauntlet / Chris's New Year's Recipe: Lemon-Pesto Goat Cheese Dip

Chris here! After some thought, I accepted Tricia's challenge, but with the caveat that I could tweak the ground rules a bit. I'm cooking for myself and don't have a convenient man or child about the house to eat all those leftovers!

After reading Tricia's guidelines, I've decided that the main difference is going to be that desserts are allowed in my corner of the culinary world. It's easier to fob off desserts than casseroles on one's unsuspecting co-workers.

Without further ado, here's my New Year's Day recipe:

Lemon-Pesto Goat Cheese Dip

This recipe is based on the following from Epicurious: Crudites with Lemon-Pesto Goat Cheese Dip and was tailored to fit ingredients at hand.

4 oz goat cheese crumbles

1/4 c sour cream

3 T pesto*

1 T fresh lemon juice

3/4 t lemon zest

Whir everything in the food processor** until well-blended and creamy. Like most dips, this tastes better the second day.

* Thanks to Linda who helps me make pesto from my basil.

** Thanks again to Linda who decided I needed my own food processor to make pesto.

Would I make this recipe again? Definitely! I think I might try whole plain yogurt instead of the sour cream next time.