Features
Kohlrabi Soup and Other Secrets

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By Marcy Gunder
Staff Writer
I cradled the fleshy root in my hand. It was about the size of a baseball without the weight and encased in tough, whitish-green layers of skin that extended to a short leafy stalk. It was alien to me, looking like a pale overgrown radish. Mama Schweizer deftly chopped the stalk off and started to peel the rough skin into even shreds with a paring knife. She held it tenderly, yet skillfully and unmercifully. The exposed flesh of the root gave off a pungent earthy odor and it was soon reduced to what looked like a small greenish, pared potato.

Mama Schweizer’s hands were worn and arthritic but cleanly manicured. Despite increasing pain from the degenerative condition, she made costumes for the high school play every year. Last summer she and her close friend, a Roman Catholic nun we affectionately called “Sister,” had made filmy scarves for us out of the leftover material from Allentown High’s production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

We were starting preparations for kohlrabi soup, descended from her mother-in-law’s famous kohlrabi soup. “The family kohlrabi soup that everybody came home for all the time... everyone wanted a bowl of kohlrabi soup when they came in…” recalled Mama Schweizer. But her mother-in-law would never share her recipes, especially not her cherished kohlrabi soup. So Mama Schweizer was on her own.

Mama based her recipe largely on a Hungarian recipe for kohlrabi soup called Kalarabeleves. This recipe called for

"After years and dozens of versions, Mama’s mother-in-law finally admitted one choice detail of her cherished recipe."

bacon, which she omitted, but it was a good start. After remembering carrots and onion in her mother-in-law’s soup, she worked them into her recipe. “I started working on it and come back to her and I’d ask her, you know, ‘How does this taste?’” After years and dozens of versions, Mama’s mother-in-law finally admitted one choice detail of her cherished recipe. The secret to the flavor was in the roux—juices from the soup, butter, and flour. In order to make it correctly, it must be browned.

“But it’s never as good as Mom’s, right?” She directed the question towards Mr. Schweizer, who was passing through with a slice of fresh blueberry pie on his way to the living room.

“It’s not the same,” he quickly answered. “It’s different.”

Mama Schweizer added to me, "But it's Americanized. Hers is German, it's European and mine is American.”

Mama Schweizer usually makes kohlrabi soup in the summer so we can use fresh kohlrabi and parsley

"Mama Schweizer added to me, 'But it's Americanized. Hers is German, it's European and mine is American."

from the garden, but sometimes the soup was the result of yesterday’s boiled chicken. Waste is still a sin in her kitchen. Kohlrabi can also be found at the farmer’s market, nestled somewhere between leeks and cabbage. The name kohlrabi comes from the German kohl for cabbage out of the Latin caulis for cabbage combined with rapa for turnip. Kohlrabi is part of the crucifer family named for its members’ characteristic cross-shaped blossoms.

The ingredients for kohlrabi soup are nothing out of the ordinary.

Butter
1 large onion, halved and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 large carrot, grated
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
3 ½ cups chicken broth
1 pound kohlrabi with leaves (2 to 3 large bulbs)
1 tablespoon flour
1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice
Dash of pepper to taste

Step One
Sauté the chopped onion with a tablespoon of butter for about a minute. Next, add minced garlic, carrots, celery and parsley, and cover the mixture for five minutes. Add one cup of chicken broth to the mixture and cover, simmering for ten minutes. Mama Schweizer happily concedes to the modern convenience of creaming the contents in an electric blender, a luxury that her mother-in-law never utilized.

Step Two
Trim, peel, and dice the kohlrabi bulbs. Wash the kohlrabi leaves and blanch in boiling water until a brilliant green, about one minute, then rinse in cold running water. Drain and finely chop. Boil the kohlrabi pieces and vegetables in the rest of the chicken broth until tender, about 15 minutes.

Step Three
To make the roux, brown the butter. Cook the roux, stirring constantly for two minutes. Stir this mixture back into the rest of the soup. Cook until the soup thickens, about ten minutes. Add the lemon juice and pepper to taste and serve hot.

The first time I tasted the soup was in the winter when Ann and I pirated glasses of Chablis near the wood

“'The first time I tasted the soup was in the winter when Ann and I pirated glasses of Chablis near the wood stove in the living room."

stove in the living room. We brought it back to school preserved in frozen chunks from the batches her mother made in the spring when the garden yielded baskets of fresh ingredients. I grew accustomed to the slower pace and the summer breeze scented with lavender and the faint tang of manure from the farm down the road. Ann and I spent afternoons in the lazy hammock with the cats. In the next few years, we would faithfully return home to pick fresh peas, green beans, tomatoes, and blackberries in exchange for a generous share of the bounty, and a generous portion of kohlrabi soup.
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