You know it's Spring when new organic produces starts to appear at your favorite farmer's market: strawberries, Boston lettuce, radishes, kohlrabi, chives... The weather might still be a bit capricious and we cannot make up our minds whether to put our winter jackets away or keep them ready for an unexpected day of snow. But one thing is certain. We can bring more life into our kitchens as new crops are being harvested daily. Look around and make a good use of your local, organically grown produce.
Young Organic Kohlrabi
I found some wonderful kohlrabi and decided to make raw pasta out of it. I wanted the dish to taste like spring and chosen lemon balm for the pesto sauce. The result surpassed my expectations. Really!
Ingredients:
for the pasta:
- 2 medium large kohlrabi
- 2 Tbsp freshly pressed lime juice
- 2 Tbsp virgin olive oil
Lemon Balm Pesto
for the pesto:
- 1 cup fresh lemon balm
- 2 cloves of young garlic or 1 clove old garlic
- 1/2 cup pine nuts
- 1/4 cup olive oil (add more if necessary)
- juice of 1-2 limes (depending on how juicy they are)
- 1/4 tsp Celtic sea salt
Method:
- Wash and peel the kohlrabi. Make noodles using spiralizer or a vegetable peeler.
- Mix lime juice and olive oil and pour the mixture into a bowl with kohlrabi noodles. Mix gently and allow to tenderize while you are making the pesto.
- Make pesto using food processor or mortar and pestle. Adjust the amounts of olive oil and lime juice to make pesto that is a bit more liquid, like a salad dressing rather than a thick pasta sauce.
- Add pesto to noodles and mix well.
- Portion out and enjoy in good company!
Spiralized Kohlrabi
Method:
- Wash and peel the kohlrabi. Make noodles using spiralizer or a vegetable peeler.
- Mix lime juice and olive oil and pour the mixture into a bowl with kohlrabi noodles. Mix gently and allow to tenderize while you are making the pesto.
- Make pesto using food processor or mortar and pestle. Adjust the amounts of olive oil and lime juice to make pesto that is a bit more liquid, like a salad dressing rather than a thick pasta sauce.
- Add pesto to noodles and mix well.
- Portion out, add freshly ground black pepper and enjoy in good company!
Kohlrabi Pasta with Lemon Balm Pesto
The dish is ready and wonderful all by itself but I decided that my fun in the kitchen did not have to end there. I bought many other things at the farmer's market and I could add them to this pasta.
Fresh From the Farmer's Market
Add whatever you can to transform this simple pasta into a colorful dish, but make sure that your pasta retains the light, Spring-like character. I added orange and red cherry tomatoes, snow peas and chopped spring onions.
Delicious Early Spring Treat: A Raw Kohlrabi Pasta with Lemon Balm Pesto,
Cherry Tomatoes, Snow Peas and Spring Onions
Dominique Allmon©2014