Getting a vegetable you’ve never heard of in your veg box is very exciting and also slightly bewildering. Here’s what to do with anything unrecognisable or unpronounceable in your veg box…
Kohlrabi
Once a thing of mystery, now a veg box staple, the best thing to do with this (faintly unattractive but nice and crunchy) vegetable is to julienne it for a kohlrabi slaw, along with carrot, cabbage, red onion and a nice zesty dressing.
Celeriac
Tastes like a nutty turnip; looks like a brain, celeriac makes a lovely creamy soup or gratin, but we think it’s particularly good sliced into ribbons with a peeler as a replacement for pasta with a creamy, cheesy sauce, and a good sprinkling of Stilton and walnuts.
Brusselberry Sprouts
Like sprouts but red, these are too pretty just to accompany a roast. They’re lovely raw, shredded into a salad with nuts, dried fruit and other additions, but we like to show them off on long skewers, cooked on the barbecue or panfried, with chunks of bacon if you like, glazed with honey and lime juice, and then sprinkled with parmesan.
Padron Peppers
Lots of fun. Padron peppers mostly taste just like green peppers, but one in every so many is surprisingly spicy! The classic and best way to serve these tiny green peppers is blistered in a pan with a glug of olive oil and plenty of good salt. Serve with beers for a cooling swig whenever you get a hot one.
Oca
Also known as Oxalis Tuber Rosa, these are a colourful, knobbly alternative to a potato. But they have one thing over the potato - they can be eaten raw as well as cooked. Thinly sliced, they have a pleasant lemony flavour and make a great salad. When cooked they taste nutty rather than lemony, and we love them roasted in oil with salt and dried chilli, as a pre-dinner nibble.
In our September issue, Rachel de Thample has given us lots of advice on using up everything in your veg box , as well as recipes that are great for late-summer-early-autumn veg box contents. Find all her ideas from page 42 of our September issue. The feature includes recipes for sweetcorn polenta with runner bean ragu, apple soda bread, golden marrow marmalade, Moroccalilli and cauliflower dauphinoise.
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