Kohlrabi Kurma – Kohlrabi Recipe Indian | Noolkol Kurma | Ganth Gobhi Ki Sabzi Recipe | Turnip Kurma – A well balanced and delicious side dish to pair with rice or roti. Kohlrabi with a few other veggies is cooked along with various spices in a yoghurt-based sauce.
A big Hi to all my lovely readers!!!!!! Well, I’m back home again after embarking on a lovely 2-month vacation, settling back into the old routine, back to normalcy. But, then, I really ask myself what is “normal”? It was unintentional to be away from blogging and social media for so long. I needed to miss it. I feel so good, healthy and completely refreshed to be back here. Today I’m here to share with you the recipe for “Kohlrabi Kurma“.
Kohlrabi can be an intimidating vegetable if you have not been around it much. I had to look up what Kohlrabi was in english, because I didn’t know and found that it is also called Kohlrabi, some say cabbage turnip or german turnip. The name comes from the German Kohl (“cabbage”) plus Rübe ~ Rabi (Swiss German variant) (“turnip”), because the swollen stem resembles the latter. Kohlrabi is a very commonly eaten vegetable in German speaking countries….Now you know why I use it a lot!!
It’s easy to think of kohlrabi as a root vegetable, but it isn’t. It’s a brassica with the base of its stem swelled into a slightly turnipy globe. You’ve probably spotted knobby purple or green kohlrabi at the farmers market and wondered what the heck this odd-shaped thing with the weird name is! Well, it’s an amazingly versatile vegetable with the texture and crunch of a radish and taste of a mild turnip, cauliflower or broccoli stem, making it a tasty addition to summer salads and stir-fries. The young stem in particular can be as crisp and juicy as an apple, although much less sweet. This is one veggie we always succeed to grow in our vegetable garden!! Source: Wiki
Look at this beautiful kohlrabi grown in our garden !!
While the kohlrabi bulbs are what you’ll usually see being sold, I like to pick them up with the greens still attached — they’re delicious and can be eaten raw in salad if they’re young and tender, or sautéed or steamed like mustard greens.
Kohlrabi needs little prep, but you should always peel off the tough outermost layer of the bulb with a vegetable peeler first. Kohlrabi stems are surrounded by two distinct fibrous layers, which do not soften appreciably when cooked. These layers are generally peeled away prior to cooking or serving raw, with the result that the stems often provide a smaller amount of food than one might assume from their intact appearance.
We are a bit of kohlrabi fans at home, and you may turn into one, too, but you won’t know until you try. Kohlrabi can be used in a lot of Indian cooking, it naturally does well with traditional Indian spices. Honestly, though, I feel that the mild flavour of kohlrabi gets lost if mixed with too many other vegetables or seasonings, so I tend toward simple preparations where the kohlrabi can take centre stage. So just include very little of any other vegetable to prepare “Kohlrabi Kurma“.
So next time these aliens land in your veg box or at your local farmer’s market, you know what to do – steam, boil, bake or grate them. Or prepare this wonderful “Kohlrabi Kurma“ and show them there’s intelligent life on Earth. I feel that it’s time for kohlrabi deserves a more prominent place in our cooking.
Steps to follow for
Kohlrabi Kurma:
- Grab all the required ingredients.
- Peel off the tough outermost layer of the bulb with a vegetable peeler and chop the into small cubes. Likewise peel carrots and cube them too.
- Thaw the frozen peas or you can also use them directly.
- Finely chop onions, coriander and slit green chillies.
- Grind all the ingredients under the section “To grind” in an electric blender to a fine paste.
- For this, first powder the ingredients finely without adding water. Then use slightly hot water, soak for a minute and grind to a fine paste. Soaking in hot water aids easy grinding of the poppy seeds.
- I have used only almonds, feel free to use cashews too if you want to.
Let’s prepare the curry:
- Heat oil in a pressure pan over medium heat.
- Season with dry masalas under the section “To season” stir for a minute till you smell the aroma of the spices.
- To this, add chopped onions, green chillies and curry leaves.
- Sauté till the onions turn transparent.
- Add cubed veggies, peas and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Now add chopped tomatoes, chilli powder and turmeric powder.
- Add the ground masala paste and simmer the heat.
- Fry till the raw smell goes off. This will take about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Now add some yoghurt and required water till the veggies immerse.
- Add half of the chopped coriander.
- You can adjust the consistency of the “Kohlrabi Kurma“ to suit your requirement.
NOTE: You can include 2 tablespoons of heavy cream (optional) to make the gravy rich. And also double the nuts, coconut and poppy seeds quantity for a thicker gravy.
- Close the lid of the pressure pan and cook over medium-high heat for about 1 whistle. If you are not using a pressure cooker, then cook on medium heat till the veggies are cooked. Turn off the heat.
- Open the pressure pan once the pressure subsides.
- Finally sprinkle garam masala powder (optional) and garnish “Kohlrabi Kurma” with coriander.
NOTE: I usually use garam masala powder only when using this as a side dish for roti, paratha or puri. I avoid garam masala when pairing with idli or dosa. Finally it’s just personal choice.
“Kohlrabi Kurma“ is best paired with, vegetable pulao, coconut milk rice, roti, paratha, idli, dosa, Puri or just with plain rice.
Today I have served “Kohlrabi Kurma“ my favourite idli and so made the gravy slightly runny, so that the idlis can absorb the gravy. You can make the consistency of the gravy to suit your requirement.
Kohlrabi Kurma
Ingredients
To grind:
- ½ inch Ginger
- 4 Garlic pods
- 1 cm Cinnamon stick
- 3 Cloves
- 1 tsp Poppy seeds
- ½ tsp Fennel seeds
- 1 tbsp Desiccated coconut
- 5 to 8 Almonds
- ¼ Cup Hot water for grinding
To season:
- 1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 1 cm Cinnamon stick
- 3 Cloves
- 1 Cardamom
Other Ingredients:
- 1 Large Onion finely chopped
- 3 Green chillies slit lengthwise
- A sprig of Curry leaves
- 1 Cup Kohlrabi cubes Peel Kohlrabi and cut into cubes
- ½ Cup Carrot cubes Peel carrot and cut into cubes
- ½ Cup Peas fresh or frozen
- 1 Large Tomato Roughly chopped
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- ¼ tsp Turmeric powder
- Required salt
- ½ to 1 Cup low fat Yoghurt
- ½ Cup Finely chopped Coriander
- ½ tsp garam masala powder Optional
Instructions
- Grind all the ingredients under the section "To grind" in an electric blender to a fine paste and set aside. First powder them finely without adding water. Then use slightly hot water, soak for a min and grind to a fine paste. Soaking in hot water aids easy grinding of the poppy seeds.
- Heat oil in a pressure pan over medium heat.
- Season with dry masalas under the section "To season" stir for a min till you can smell the aroma of the spices.
- To this add chopped onions, green chillies and curry leaves. Sauté till the onions turn transparent.
- Add cubed veggies and sauté for 2 min.
- Now add chopped tomatoes.
- Add the ground masala paste, chilli powder and turmeric powder. Fry till the raw smell goes off. This will take about 5 minutes.
- Now add required water till the veggies immerse. You can adjust the consistency of the gravy to suit your requirement.
- Close the lid of the pressure pan and cook over medium-high heat for about q whistle. If you are not using a pressure cooker, then cook on medium heat till the veggies are cooked. Turn off the heat.
- Open the pressure pan once the pressure subsides.
- Finally sprinkle garam masala powder (optional) and garnish with coriander.
- This korma is best paired with vegetable pulao, coconut milk rice, roti, paratha, idli, dosa, or just with plain rice.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Go ahead and adjust the spices to suit your taste and preference.
- You can also include other veggies likes beans, cauliflower, potato etc.
- You can add 2 tablespoons of cream at the end to make it a rich gravy in case you are not calorie conscious and especially when serving your kids.
- You can also use full fat yoghurt!
- Use hot water to grind the paste, it eases grinding of poppy seeds.
- You can also add mint leaves (optional), which gives a different flavour to the kurma.
- Cooking in pressure cooker saves time. You can also cook in a skillet following the same method. For this cook over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes with occasional stirring. Then simmer and cook for 2 minutes till the veggies are soft and turn off the heat.
DO CHECK OUT OTHER NORTH INDIAN CURRIES & VEGETARIAN SIDE DISHES FROM BLOG!!
Few popular dishes from blog:
- Palak Paneer
- Dal Makhani
- Paneer Butter Masala
- Baingan Bartha
- Matar Paneer
- Beetroot Kofta Curry
- Baingan bartha
- Garlicky tomato onion gravy
- Paneer butter masala
- Stuffed Indian eggplant
- Tricolour capsicum masala
- Stuffed okra
- Punjabi Chole Masala
Many more to come!!…..STAY TUNED!!
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Happy Cooking 
Cheers!!
Padma.
