That wasn't a very vegan headline for a post you might think. I'm happy to tell you that you are wrong. My world has been turned upside down by learning that one can take something as un-meaty as a kohlrabi, coat it in bread crumbs and fry into crispy wonderfulness! A kohlrabi? That might be your next thought. What is that? Don't they have a peculiar taste? Well yes, raw they have quite a strong and unique taste. But cooked gently and then breaded and fried the flavor mellows and the consistency becomes is soft yet firm and plain perfect.
In my mind, eggs were essential to breading something, but the internet showed me how wrong I was. A simple mixture of flour and water is quite sufficient for dipping the kohlrabi in before coating it with bread crumbs. The beautiful thing about this is that you can easily add flavors and spices to this mix. For my schnitzels I used homemade bread crumbs that I'd flavored with garlic and herbs. If you don't have this, I'd recommend adding som herbs to your crumbs and some grated garlic or garlic powder to your flour batter.
Something that goes very well with the "schnitzel" is a yummy tomato sauce. I won't say making the kohlrabi schnitzel is hard, because it isn't. It does include a few steps though so I've made the tomato sauce simple stupid to make things easier. Use an oven-proof pan for the sauce. Then it will happily cook away in the oven while you're making the schnitzel!
Keep in mind that the recipe does not include a great source of protein. I solved this by serving it with a mix of cooked grains and puy lentils. You could also add beans to the sauce of you want to. Or make sure to get your protein at some other point in your day. When I dig into the leftovers I'm planning on having them with polenta, keep an eye out for the polenta recipe!
Serves 2 with left-over sauce
Crazy simple tomato sauce
800 g of whole, peeled, canned tomatoes (you can probably use chopped if you want to)
1 onion
3 small carrots
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1 spring of rosemary
5-8 dl water, depending on how thick you want the sauce
Black pepper
Oil
Heat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Dice the carrots, chop the garlic and onion. Heat up an oven-proof pan with some oil. Gently sauté the vegetables in the pan on low heat for 5 minutes, stirring now and then. Add the salt and sauté for another 5 minutes. Add the whole tomatoes and rosemary to the pan, give it a good stir and pop it into the oven. You want to roast the sauce for a good 30-35 minutes until it starts looking a bit dry, even brown around the edges. Meanwhile you can start preparing the schnitzel. After about 30 minutes have passed, take out the sauce and stir it up to break down the tomatoes. Add water until the sauciness fits your taste, as well as pepper, and put it back into the oven for another 20-30 minutes. If it looks too dry, add more water.
Kohlrabi schnitzel
1 small kohlrabi
3 tbsp water
2 tbsp all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1 tsp vinegar
1-2 tsp Dijon mustard (depending on the strength of the mustard)
½ tsp salt
Pepper
2 dl good bread crumbs (see note about bread crumbs above)
Oil for frying
Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Peel and slice the kohlrabi in about 7 mm thick slices. Cook the slices for about 8 minutes or until tender. Drain. While that is happening, mix the water, flour, salt, pepper, vinegar and dijon in a small bowl. Pour the bread crumbs onto a plate. Heat a frying pan and add the oil. Dip the kohlrabi in the batter and then in the crumbs, coating both sides. Put directly into the pan and fry on medium heat for about3-4 minutes per side or until beautifully golden and crispy.
Serve the schnitzels with the sauce and some pasta, grains, bread or polenta.
No comments:
Post a Comment