12 Best Kohlrabi Salad Substitutes to Impress Your Gf

When you have a sudden need for salad or slaw, or just wish to roast some kohlrabi, it should be accessible all year at American grocery shops. This unpopular vegetable may be seen on market shelves among other cruciferous veggies.

Kohlrabi is cousin to broccoli and cabbage, and you can see their similarities from their leaves. This vegetable is edible from the leaves to the roots.

Kohlrabi is so adaptable that its taste shows through regardless of the dish. When eaten raw, this turnip-like vegetable has a mild, peppery, earthy taste with a crispy texture with a pungent smell that you can remove by blanching.

But what if you can’t locate it in its customary spot on the market shelf? Fortunately, we have a lengthy selection of kohlrabi bulb and leaf alternatives that you may use in your favorite kohlrabi dish.

Finding The Best Substitute For Kohlrabi 

It should fit in the recipe as a kohlrabi alternative. You want a vegetable that is crisp on the outside and soft on the inside when cooked, but it does not have to be cruciferous.

while cooked, you want it to have a tinge of sweetness, and while raw, you want it to mix well with cucumber or zucchini. Additionally, you want the substitute to be as versatile as kohlrabi as you can eat it cooked and raw.

We discovered the best three kohlrabi replacements while skimming through this list of qualities. That would be broccoli stems, radishes, and green turnips. That’s just three of them, and there are many more on this list. As a bonus, wed also include substitutes for kohlrabi leaves.

Broccoli Stems

Broccoli stems have a flavor and texture that is quite similar to kohlrabi. They have thick skin that is crunchy to the touch yet soft, sensitive, and juicy on the inside.

Even if the broccoli stems aren’t very spicy or sweet, they’re nevertheless suitable for stir-frying, steaming, or roasting. Broccoli stems may be eaten raw or cooked, and their mild taste complements any kohlrabi salad or creamy soup.

Alternatively, if you like the simplicity of raw kohlrabi, take off the rough skin and cut it into strips. Drizzle it with olive oil and season with salt, and you’ll get that kohlrabi-like flavor in your tongue in a matter of minutes.

Turnips

Turnip and kohlrabi are both members of the brassica vegetable family, and they like exchanging recipes. Although kohlrabi is softer than turnips and does not taste as sharp, they have a comparable flavor, and you may use turnips in any kohlrabi dish.

Turnips are crisp and take longer to soften when cooked, but they make an excellent replacement for chunky and creamy kohlrabi soups. As kohlrabi, it softens and fits into any buttery dish.

And, like kohlrabi, you can use them as a side dish or salad ingredient because of their sharpness. Grate them over your kohlrabi dishes for sharp-tasting garnishes. Kohlrabi and turnips are also delicious cooked, boiled, or sautéed.

Radish

What distinguishes radish from kohlrabi is that the latter transforms sweetness into a more radish-bitter flavor. Kohlrabi turns bitter due to chemical changes that occur when it ages.

You may substitute radish for kohlrabi in salads and pickles since they both taste fantastic when thinly sliced and sprinkled with salt. You can have that crunchy snack later if you add some butter.

You may replace the radish with cabbage-carrot slaw in miso dressing and it will still taste similar to kohlrabi. The similarities between the two include their crisp-crunchy texture when fresh and soft bite when cooked.

Rutabaga

The taste of rutabaga sits in between kohlrabi and turnip. It has a crisp-crunchy bite, and you can compare its sweetness to the sweetness of kohlrabi.

And just like turnips and kohlrabi, rutabaga is great for grated toppings or thinly-sliced for coleslaws. What makes it even more similar to kohlrabi is the earthy, peppery, buttery sweet flavor that you would love for creamy kohlrabi soups or stews.

If there is a flavor difference, rutabaga is significantly bitterer than kohlrabi, which makes it ideal for salads or pickled kohlrabi dishes. If you still can’t get enough of it, its leaves may be used in recipes that call for kohlrabi leaves. Use it as a garnish, or just toss additional rutabaga leaves into your salad with grated zest to amp up the flavor of your kohlrabi dish.

Celeriac

Celeriac is the celery plant’s bulb root. It has a peculiar appearance, with rough and thick skin borders that conceal its white meat, which is soft and chewy when cooked.

We like how it tastes similar to kohlrabi, but turnips taste much more like celeriac. It tastes earthy and peppery, as predicted, and it goes nicely with creamy flavor kohlrabi soups. It’s comparable to potatoes. Celeriac, on the other hand, is less starchy.

Another feature of celeriac that is similar to kohlrabi is its crispy, crunchy, cabbage-raw flavor. Furthermore, celeriac is a great alternative for kohlrabi recipes including stews, blanches, salad shreds, and kohlrabi roasts.

Parsnips

Even though parsnips are in the carrot family, they are an excellent kohlrabi alternative. After cooking, the elongated root vegetable has an earthy, somewhat nutty, and starchy flavor.

What we like about it as a kohlrabi alternative is that it releases its natural sugar sweetness when cooked or roasted. When you combine the earthy flavor and sweetness, you’ll have an alternative for our favorite pureed, boiled, steamed, and raw kohlrabi meals.

However, preparing parsnips is not that simple. To prevent oxidation, when parsnips react to oxygen, soak it in water with lemon juice and thoroughly clean it with a brush. [Source]

Another thing to keep in mind is that parsnips may have woody insides, so choose young ones by removing the ends and checking to see whether they contain much of the woody flesh. Nonetheless, boiling it will provide a starchy dish that you can blend with your mashed recipe to get a taste of the kohlrabi’s sweet, earthy flavor.

Cabbage

If kohlrabi slaw isn’t available at your local store, you may simply substitute cabbage. Cabbage has the perfect crispy and crunchy texture, and a much richer flavor that you love in any kohlrabi salad.

To serve with sliced red onions and parsley, combine the julienned cabbages with honey, mustard, olive oil, and apple cider. Sprinkle with hazelnuts, and you’ll have your favorite kohlrabi slaw ready in under 15 minutes.

And cabbage not only goes for kohlrabi slaws, but it also goes for kohlrabi stir-fried, salad, and soup recipes. So if it is not around and you have cabbage on the fridge, go ahead and shred, slice, or julienne-chop it for your kohlrabi recipe.

Potatoes

Kohlrabi and potatoes are not the same. In pureed soups, however, they may be used interchangeably. Bake kohlrabi roasted in the oven and boil it to blend later. You can also cook it with potatoes.

However, eating raw potatoes is typically not a smart idea, so you’ll have to make do with roasted, mashed, or chunky veggie kohlrabi soups instead. Raw potatoes are harsh, while cooked potatoes are starchy. [Source]

When you cant find kohlrabi in the grocery, use potatoes and saut it over white onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, and pepper. Bring it to a boil with the veggies, then reduce to a simmer until you can pour it over your immersion blender. Potatoes make nice puree for a creamy soup, which is what we also love with kohlrabi.

Jicama

Jicama has a somewhat sweet, juicy, and nutty flavor that, because to its moisture content, is pleasant to the taste senses. It provides a pleasant crunch that may compensate for kohlrabi slaws.

This root vegetable, also known as Mexican turnip, may be boiled, steamed, fried, or sautéed. However, you would like it even without dipping since it can be eaten raw after being peeled. You may add it to platters and salads by slicing it into strips.

Jicama may be added to your favorite kohlrabi salads. Toss thinly sliced jicamas with cabbage, celery, carrot, and onion, then season with mayonnaise, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Swiss Chard

If youre craving for kohlrabi chips, you can use Swiss chard instead. Kohlrabi greens are often baked till crisp with vegetable oil, salt, and pepper.

But if you cannot find kohlrabi leaves in the market, as they usually remove the leaves before putting them on the market shelves, Swiss chard can satisfy your cravings.

But if you cannot find kohlrabi leaves in the market, as they usually remove the leaves before putting them on the market shelves, Swiss chard can satisfy your cravings.

If you can’t get enough of it, sauté Swiss chards with bacon, garlic, and scallions, then season with vinegar. The soft greens of Swiss chards may then be substituted in a sautéed kohlrabi dish.

Collard Greens

You may use collard greens whether you want crisp-baked kohlrabi leaves, steaming or sautéed. Collard greens, although more difficult to prepare and bitter, are a good substitute for kohlrabi leaves.

Collard greens may be tossed into a creamy soup, cut into thin strips over spaghetti and olive oil, or sautéed like kohlrabi greens. And if you carefully clean it and massage thin pieces of collard greens into it, it makes an incredible complement to your typical kohlrabi greens salad.

Surprisingly, collard greens may be kept in the fridge for five days. Just make sure to store it unwashed inside a plastic bag to keep its freshness and crispness when you are ready to substitute them for kohlrabi leaves. [Source]

Malabar Spinach

Malabar spinach may be used in lieu of kohlrabi in salads. Its leaves are somewhat thick and would be an excellent alternative for kohlrabi leaves in creamy soups and stir-fry dishes, with peppery and citrus undertones.

It has a bit slimy texture and can make a great thickening agent for pureed cream soups. When raw, it adds soft and juicy accents to kohlrabi salads.

Surprisingly, Malabar spinach is not really spinach. Though it tastes like spinach, you may enhance its flavor in salads by thoroughly washing the leaves under running water and tearing the big leaves to slice later.