If you’ve never cooked kohlrabi, it can sit on the cutting board looking a little mysterious. It is a cruciferous vegetable in the cabbage family — the same family as broccoli and cabbage — with a swollen stem that peels up into a crisp, juicy bite. Fresh from the garden, it tastes like a mild, sweet cabbage with a hint of turnip, and the crunch is almost like an apple (or a water chestnut, once it is in a salad).

Kohlrabi is also one of the quietly useful vegetables we like to have around. According to USDA FoodData Central (FDC ID 168424, “Kohlrabi, raw”), it is rich in vitamin C and a good source of fiber. We grow it in the cool season, pull it when the bulbs are ready, and then actually eat it — not just photograph the harvest.

This salad is what we made with that harvest: a savory chili-lime chicken salad. No apples, no walnuts. Just cubed garden kohlrabi, oven-baked chicken, carrots, a handful of parsley, and a creamy dressing with avocado-oil mayo, milk kefir, lime, and a little chili powder.

A quick note on the “recipe”: I am not an exact cook. I throw together what the garden and the fridge already have, and I eyeball the dressing. The amounts below are what I guesstimated while I made this batch — “about,” “a handful” — not lab-measured cups. If your kohlrabi is smaller, or you like a thicker dressing, follow the same method and adjust.

We also like to tuck a fermented food into everyday meals. Here that is milk kefir, which gives the dressing a creamy, slightly tangy, buttermilk-like flavor and keeps the mayo from being the only thing you taste. It is a small habit, not a treatment — just the way we cook at home.

Recipe: Chili Lime Chicken Salad with Garden Kohlrabi

Yield: I am not sure how much this batch makes, since I never measured it.

Time: The salad itself comes together quickly once the chicken is already cooked. If I were not filming, I could probably make it in under 10 minutes.

Ingredients

Amounts are written the way I eyeball them. Where I only approximate, I have kept that wording.

For the chicken (baked ahead)

About 2-ish small chicken breasts
Salt, pepper, and paprika
Olive oil, slathered on
Baked at 350°F for about 20 to 25 minutes, depending on your oven, then cooled in the fridge

For the salad

1 large kohlrabi, peeled and cubed (I cut it into matchsticks first, then into cubes about the size of the chicken)
About 2 medium-sized carrots, chopped
A handful of parsley (curly parsley from the garden)
About ¼ cup milk kefir (I eyeball it)
About ½ cup mayonnaise made with avocado oil (a guesstimate; make it as creamy or as dry as you like)
Lime juice from about 2 limes (I start with about a lime and a half, taste, then use the remaining half)
About ⅛ teaspoon to ¼ teaspoon chili powder (start with ⅛ teaspoon and add more if you want more of that flavor)
Salt to taste (I add a little, then a little more after tasting; the mayonnaise already brings salt)

Lemon can stand in for lime if that is what you have. I like lime better, but lemon works. You can also swap the kohlrabi for celery, turnips, or radishes if that is what is in your garden.

Instructions

Bake the chicken ahead, if you need to. Season the chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and paprika, slather on olive oil, and bake at 350°F for about 20 to 25 minutes, depending on your oven. Cool and refrigerate. Cube the chicken into small cubes and add it to a mixing bowl. (I used leftover chicken from the day before.)
Peel the kohlrabi. Cut off the skin with a knife. I find a potato peeler does not do a great job because the skin is a little too thick. You eat the whole peeled vegetable — it is a swollen stem, not a root.
Cube the kohlrabi. Cut it into matchsticks, then into cubes, matching the size of the chicken so you get a little bite of kohlrabi in each forkful. Add it to the bowl with the chicken. This batch used one large kohlrabi with those two-ish small chicken breasts.
Add the carrots and parsley. Tip in about two medium chopped carrots and a handful of parsley.
Make the dressing in the same bowl. Pour in about ¼ cup milk kefir (I eyeball it) and about ½ cup avocado-oil mayonnaise, more or less, depending on how creamy you like it. Stir to start bringing it together.
Add the lime. Squeeze in about a lime and a half, then taste. I usually use the remaining half of the second lime as well, because I like it a little brighter (and because my wife likes things really limey).
Add the chili powder. Sprinkle in about ⅛ teaspoon, up to ¼ teaspoon. It should smell smoky and earthy, not hot — depth without it being spicy.
Salt to taste and mix. Add a little salt, mix, and taste. If you refrigerate the salad overnight, the salt will draw some water out of the kohlrabi and the salad may taste less salty the next day. It still stays crunchy. Add a pinch more salt the next day if you need it.
Serve. Plate it up and eat it for lunch or dinner.