Kohlrabi cabbage: characteristics, cultivation and methods of preparation

The basis of human life is nutrition and clean water.If the issue of water is not so acute, because almost everyone knows what and in what quantities it is recommended to drink, then here is the question of proper and balanced diet should be addressed in more detail. Many people understand that it is necessary to eat what is useful, but more often they prefer tasty food, but there are such vegetables that can be prepared in such a way that there will be both taste and benefit.

Kohlrabi is a versatile product that you can grow yourself. Using this fruit, you can cook a large number of dishes for the whole family for every taste.

Kohlrabi cabbage has been known for a very long time, and many have successfully eaten it, getting a lot of useful vitamins and minerals. For those who have never seen this root, it can be surprising that it looks exactly like a turnip, having minor differences from it. The peculiarity of this culture is that it is possible to eat both stelplod and green shoots.

Kohlrabi grows within two years, for the first year a stem grows from which shoots appear, the length of which can reach up to a meter. When the green part matures, you can see flowers on it, which after flowering form a pod-like fruit with seeds.

The peculiarity of stebleplod is a variety of forms, it can be flat-rounded, rounded or ovoid. Diversity is also manifested in the color palette of the crop; it can be: crimson, purple or light green, depending on the variety.

Whatever the appearance of the kohlrabi, inside it is always white. From varietal differences can vary the size of the cabbage, from small 10 cm to large 15 cm, which is reflected, respectively, on the weight of the product, which ranges from 200 to 800 grams. The leaves are green, but with a small wax coating, the cuttings have a darker shade and can be with a purple tint. The taste of cabbage is very similar to the stalk of a simple white cabbage, the only difference is the sweeter taste and juiciness.

Vegetable crops of this type are not always popular, but most often this is due to poor awareness of the product. Knowing all the useful qualities and properties of the product, using it as a storehouse of vitamins and trace elements becomes an integral part of the diet of a person who cares about their health.

In order to decide to try a new product, it is important to know its composition, even if it is a vegetable. So, kohlrabi contains a large amount of vitamins C, A, B, B 2, PP, besides them, there are also mineral salts that do not harm the body, as usual, except for which iron, cobalt, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium are available. Especially important is the presence of fiber and vegetable proteins, which play a special role in the normal and full development of the human body.

Kohlrabi pulp contains a lot of glucose and fructose, which, unlike ordinary sugar, is completely harmless even to people with elevated levels of blood sugars. Those who want to not only fully and properly eat, but also lose weight at the same time, will be able to achieve this by eating a sufficient amount of such cabbage in the diet, because the caloric content of 100 grams of it is only 41.5 kcal. Another nice feature is the presence of a considerable amount of vitamin C, which helps strengthen the immune system and maintain human activity.

If we consider the composition in more detail, then it is possible to highlight such elements as:

• ash in the amount of 1.2 grams;
• starch - only 0.5 grams;
• mono - and disaccharides, their number reaches 7.7 grams;
• water in the amount of 86.2 grams;
• organic acids, only 0.1 grams;
• dietary fiber, which can be 1.7 grams.

Vitamins, which are rich in kohlrabi, are difficult to compare in quantity with any other product, there are at least thirteen vitamins and eighteen mineral substances, which in an optimal proportion affect the body, bringing it exclusively benefit.

Deciding to eat this product, it is important to familiarize yourself with all its properties and characteristics, because some of them may adversely affect the well-being and general condition, because you need to eat cabbage in moderate quantities and only in the absence of contraindications to receive.

Before you eat a new product for yourself, everyone wonders what he will get useful and necessary, whether it is worth eating something unfamiliar, or you can do without it. If we are talking about kohlrabi, then this culture should be tried by everyone, because the benefits of it are enormous.

This cabbage helps to make everyone more healthy and strong, as it affects different areas of the human body.

• Genitourinary systemwhere the use of kohlrabi allows you to give the body a small diuretic effect, which helps to remove unnecessary fluid, which is the cause of edema and the formation of stones in the bladder.
• Gastrointestinal tract - with the help of kohlrabi, the appetite is improved, inflammation of the mucous membranes of the digestive system is minimized, the liver is optimized and improved.

• Figure - for slimming, the use of cabbage will have excellent characteristics, because the use of such a product in the daily diet will improve health and improve the shape. Good results are achieved with the help of a large amount of fiber, which triggers metabolic processes, and the body is cleared faster from waste slags with toxins. Another very important positive thing is the presence of tartronic acid, which does not allow carbohydrates to turn into fats.
• Immune system, because due to the high content of vitamin C, most microorganisms die, and the immune system is gradually strengthened. With the help of freshly squeezed root juice or leaf decoction, they used to be treated for asthma, problems with cough or tuberculosis. Kohlrabi will be greatly benefited by people with hypovitaminosis and diabetes mellitus, providing an extremely positive effect.
• Cardiovascular system due to the possibility of cleansing the body of cholesterol in all organs and systems. This cabbage makes the walls of blood vessels more durable, affects the normalization of blood pressure. It is very useful to eat vegetable crops for anemia, coronary heart disease, chronic heart failure and hypertension.

• Cancer cells, the appearance of which prevents a large number of sulfur-containing elements in the cabbage. Practically all the organs in which tumors are often formed, Kohlrabi are actively cleaned, removing aggressive and harmful compounds in time.
• Nervous system - thanks to the product, people with neurosis and a tendency to depression cease to suffer from similar conditions. This cabbage has a beneficial effect on the work of the nervous system, restoring it, which helps a person to keep his nerves under control, to rejoice more and to adequately perceive all life situations.
• Oral cavitydue to the presence of cabbage in the mouth, the gums and teeth are strengthened, it saves in situations with gingivitis and stomatitis, and it destroys most of the bacteria that are in the oral cavity, which helps prevent the development of any inflammatory process or disease. Especially recommended to use kohlrabi for pregnant women and children.
• Skin coveringBecause of the beneficial properties of this culture, a large number of masks are made that effectively moisturize the skin. The use of such products will make the skin soft and elastic, and the person will look significantly younger and fresher.

Everything is useful in kohlrabi: both the fruit itself and the leaves, the main thing is to use them correctly. Glycemic index of cabbage will not change from the way in which the product will be prepared, in this case only the roasting process is different. For the raw, salted or stewed variant, the index will be 15, and for frying as much as 35.

Kohlrabi refers to such a product, which can be eaten by everyone in a wide variety of cooking options, but there are some contraindications. It is not recommended to use cabbage with:

• immunity to this product and its intolerance;
• high acidity;
• the presence of acute pancreatitis.

If it is not enough to subject the cabbage to heat treatment, then people with a weak stomach may feel heaviness after it is consumed, painful sensations and even nausea.

Due to the fact that the kohlrabi cabbage in the composition of a huge amount of nutrients, work on the selection is carried out quite actively. Every year there are new forms, color variations that differ in terms of ripening, taste and other characteristics. To choose a suitable option for yourself, it is worth trying the most popular varieties.

This is a vegetable crop that has medium late ripening rates. The peculiarity is the large size of the fruit, which sometimes can reach the size of a human head, and in weight reach seven kilograms. The ripening period is up to one hundred days, because the place in the garden can be used again when the kohlrabi harvest is gathered.

Despite the fact that the dimensions are quite impressive, the taste of the “Giant” in many ways surpasses the other varieties, and the flesh inside remains juicy for a very long time and does not harden. Cabbage storage periods are quite long: if you leave it in the fridge, you can use it until new crops, while the taste and appearance will not change.

As for cultivation, there are obvious advantages of this variety here: it is practically not touched by pests, which often spoil the crops of other types of cabbage. In order to precisely protect the crop from any problems, it is better to treat it several times with the Aktara or Ridomil solution.

If you wish, you can get two harvests from one planting, the amount will be less, but the taste and other qualities will be at the height, the main thing is to cut the kohlrabi so that a long stem remains at the bottom, which is treated with nitrophoska, and with good watering a few months later there will be a new crop .

Also applies to late varieties. A distinctive feature is good frost resistance and resistance to drought, so you can grow in a variety of areas and in all climatic conditions. The cabbage color is dark purple, inside it is consistently white. The shelf life is no more than 30 days, after which the flesh begins to coarsen, and the cabbage loses its qualities. The sizes are average, usually the fruit reaches a weight within two kilograms.

These are early cabbage varieties, which can be harvested after 88 days have passed since planting.The stem has a rounded flat shape and a weight of 160 grams, the color range is blue-violet. Regarding the taste, you can note the juicy and tasty flesh, which is also tender. This variety has many beneficial substances, especially calcium and vitamin C, which makes the fruit sweet. It is necessary to plant cabbage in loamy and sandy soils, watering is important in the care, regular feeding and thinning of the soil around the vegetable crop.

Treats mid-season grades, round with the extended form of a fruit. The cabbage color is light purple, usually reaching a mass of more than a kilogram. Ripens in 120-130 days and gives a good harvest. The peculiarity of the variety is that it contains the most useful substances in comparison with other types of cabbage.

Planted "Madonna" need in loamy or sandy light soil. Care involves watering, fertilizing and loosening the soil. In this case, you can also get two crops, if you cut off the top of the stebleplod, and leave the bottom and the root to grow further.

This variety can also be attributed to mid-season varieties of cabbage, its shape is round, the color is yellow-green. The peculiarity is the presence of small-sized leaves of oval-shaped gray-green color. It will grow to a mass of one and a half kilograms in 150 days. The shape of the fruit is almost round.

Each variety has its own characteristics, but they have in common that the taste of each option is very pleasant, especially if you harvest in time. Fresh use gives the maximum benefit to the human body, because all the beneficial substances remain in the cabbage, not volatilizing during heat treatment. To always have at hand such a valuable fruit, it is worth exploring in detail how to grow it.

Kohlrabi is a cabbage, which looks more like a turnip, which differs from the stem, which is very thick to a stalk that has a different shape and color, but inside it is stably white. It is possible to use in food both fresh, and as a garnish. You can get this product in two ways: buy it in a store or grow it yourself.

In order to properly grow kohlrabi, you need to know the characteristics of planting and growing this cabbage. The first step is to prepare a place for landing in advance, in the fall or early spring. When digging up the soil, fertilizers are immediately applied, which saturate it with useful properties, and later cabbage will also receive them. In the autumn, it is recommended to make superphosphate, and in the spring - ammonium nitrate.

It is best to grow the plant in the open field, where the soil is fertile and slightly acidic. You can grow seedling method or with the help of seeds. If we are talking about seedlings, then disembarkation is made in early May, in the afternoon, so that there is no direct sun the best, it is best if the weather is overcast. Plants deepen below the level of the root collar, and ash or humus is immediately added to the hole itself.

Growing kohlrabi has its own rules, it is important to observe the correct planting in the garden, so for early varieties the distance from bush to bush should be 60 by 40 cm or 70 by 30 cm, and for later varieties: 55 by 60 or 45 by 70 cm. If the crop will grow thicker, the crop will be smaller, and the quality of the fruits will become worse.

Sowing of seeds occurs at the end of spring or at the beginning of summer, it is necessary to sow in rows, leaving a distance of 35 cm between them. You should not deepen the seeds by more than 2 cm.

If it is necessary to propagate a crop, then seeds are used for this, as well as for any other variety or type of cabbage. Before planting, it is worth checking which seeds will sprout, for which they are laid out on a damp cloth for almost a week. Before this procedure, you need to lower them into water with a temperature of 50 degrees for 15 minutes and spread them out on matter. Hot water treatment helps to avoid the development of parasites and microorganisms in a young culture.

Planting on seedlings can be at different times due to the variety of kohlrabi species in terms of ripening. Since the vegetable is not afraid of cold, the planting can be carried out back in April right in the open ground. If you want to get the desired product out of season, you can grow it in a greenhouse, even at home you can achieve good results if you do everything right.

When planning to grow kohlrabi, you should know that it should not be large in size, because it affects the quality of the product, taste and characteristics of the pulp. The optimal time for harvesting is the diameter of the fruit of about 8 cm, and the timing of each variety will be individual. To get a quality and tasty product, you need to know how to properly care for it.

In itself, care for vegetables is simple and requires systematic watering, loosening and periodic feeding. The process of loosening should be carried out carefully, without falling asleep the point of growth of cabbage, untimely and poor watering make the flesh hard and can give a bitter taste. If you pour the cabbage too much, it will only cause the appearance of fungal diseases that will affect the health of the vegetable negatively.

It is important to properly and timely fertilize the cabbage. The first stage of feeding should be three weeks after the date of transplanting. Useful substances are added to the earth along with the irrigation process with water, and it is best to make a change of mineral and organic substances with a difference of at least two weeks. If everything is done correctly, the harvest begins to grow quickly and in the future will give good results.

As for pests, they are dangerous for cabbage at the stage of seedlings, when the plant is still weak and is not able to endure all sorts of attacks of viruses, infections and pests themselves. The most common threat is several diseases.

• Black spot, which is a fungus and spreads through the seeds. Most often, the defeat of cushes occurs on thickened beds and in the case when watering is carried out above the norm. To protect the plant from such a problem, it is worth taking measures to treat the seeds before they are planted.
• Whites it is a thick white bloom, which provokes the drying of cabbage leaves, after which the plant dies. To protect the crop, it is necessary to use drugs containing copper and watch where exactly Kohlrabi land.
• Cabbage mosaicwhich causes mosaic spots on the entire surface of the leaves and between the veins, which leads to the curvature of green vegetation and its gradual drying out. It is not yet possible to cure this disease, therefore, after identifying the first signs, it is necessary to immediately remove the infected sample from the garden bed. Distributors of this virus are aphids and mites, which suck the juice from infected plants and transfer the infection to a healthy sample.

In addition to diseases, there are still a number of dangerous harmful insects that threaten the integrity of cabbage in the beds, these are cruciferous fleas, a dark nutcracker, a rapeseed covert, brown bear, slugs and others. To get rid of them, you need to use the appropriate drugs, diluting them in strict dosage, as indicated by the manufacturer. There should not be several varieties of cabbage on one bed, because each of them has its own pests and diseases, and the presence of problems on one bush can provoke a disease of the whole bed.

Any vegetable during storage must maintain a maximum of its properties and qualities, as regards kohlrabi, for this it must be properly maintained. The best place for this is considered the cellar. To leave the culture for the winter for storage, you need to cut off all the leaves, and place the stemplod in the basket for two pieces. It is desirable that the walls of the basket were latticed, and air passed through them. Wash cabbage before storage is impossible, you can remove excess dirt and no more. The product must remain completely dry during the entire shelf life.

Once everything has been laid, you need to pour wet sand on top and cover it with polyethylene. It is important not to pack the container tightly, otherwise Kohlrabi will begin to rot. If there are no suitable containers in the cellar in which the cabbage is conveniently arranged, you can use another preservation method, namely, scattering slightly wet sand on the floor and placing the fruit in it vertically.

There is another method of storage, it involves hanging the vegetable by the roots using wire. This method also requires respecting the distance between the vegetables so that they do not touch each other. Using the basement room option, it is important to take into account the characteristics of the room itself, it is required to maintain the optimum temperature, the ideal temperature is zero degrees, and the humidity is 95-100%.

Using the cellar, it is possible to achieve the preservation of Kohlrabi of early varieties without loss of properties for at least two months, while the late varieties remain fully suitable for use for about six months. The presence of varietal diversity allows you to provide yourself with a source of vitamin complex and mineral wealth throughout the year, even in cold weather.

Another option for storing kohlrabi is freezing. The process is as follows: sthepleplody well washed out, cut into pieces or even rubbed on a coarse grater, laid out in packages and placed in the freezer. Before freezing, it is recommended that a stelplod be dipped into ice-cold water, which will preserve the maximum level of fetal vitamins. Frozen product can be used for at least 9 months, using it in the cooking process as well as fresh vegetables.

Kohlrabi can be attributed to this type of vegetable crops, from which you can cook a variety of dishes. Fresh cabbage is equally useful, as is the stew, no less tasty and fried culture. You can cook salads, stews, because compatibility with vegetables of any type is very good, and even jam. Any dish is prepared rather quickly and simply, it tastes good, and most importantly, it has a beneficial effect on the body. It's nice that you can always make preparations for the winter, and indulge yourself with healthy food all year round.

There are many recipes for preparing food from kohlrabi in a tasty and easy way.

• Kohlrabi salad. We take a pound of cabbage, a few carrots, 50 g of sour cream, mayonnaise and salt with greens. Kohlrabi is cleaned and washed, then rubbed on a grater, it is better to use a fine grater for half of the vegetable, and a large one for the other part. Carrot is also finely rubbed. Everything is salted to taste, mayonnaise is added and sprinkled with greens in the end. Best salad a little insist.

• Fried kohlrabi cabbage. One kilogram of cabbage, 2 tbsp. tablespoons flour, one egg, 150 g butter, 120 g of rusks, salt and spices.Preparation takes place as follows: kohlrabi is cut into slices half a centimeter or centimeter in the form of rings, then boiled until it is fully prepared, the water should be salted. When the cabbage is ready, it is taken out and dried, then rolled in flour, dipped in an egg, sprinkled with breadcrumbs and fried.
• Kohlrabi fritters. A pound of cabbage, 70 grams of flour, one egg, 60 grams of milk, 10 grams of sugar, 30 grams of margarine, 60 grams of sour cream, salt. Kohlrabi is rubbed on a fine grater, then you need to add an egg, then flour and water come in, everything is well mixed, and you can proceed to frying. Pancakes can be served seasoned with sour cream or using various spices.

There are a huge number of recipes, in which Kohlrabi appears, whatever is chosen, in any case, the result is very tasty and very useful for the organism, all dishes are very simple, so anyone, even an inexperienced cook, can cook them. The availability of cabbage, ease of handling makes this vegetable indispensable for those who seek to be healthy and eat only healthy food. For those who are forced to follow diets, and there is something that he never loved, kohlrabi can be a real discovery: with proper preparation, this vegetable culture can pleasantly surprise with its taste and become a frequent guest on any table.

Below you can visually see the process of cooking kohlrabi.