Creamy Roasted Kohlrabi Soup with Bacon ♥ A New Ingredient for the New Year - Recipe Redux Challenge January 2016

What exactly is kohlrabi?
I didn't even know what it was so I hit Wikipedia and found out that it is a root vegetable that has the same texture and taste of a broccoli stem. From the cabbage family, just like broccoli but looks more like celery root.

Why would I care?
The Recipe ReDux challenge for this month was to cook with an unfamiliar ingredient. Self explanatory, don't you think?

"A New Ingredient for the New Year
Pick a new ingredient that you’ve been wanting to try… and cook or bake up a new recipe in the new year. Are you curious about nutritional yeast, fish sauce, matcha, teff – or maybe even ugli fruit? Show us how you’re cooking with something new (to you!) in 2016."

Why should you care?
It's low in calories (37 calories per cup), has HUGE fiber, a ton of Vitamin C & Magnesium, can be found in the cold months and it's very inexpensive (stress on the very).

Why choose this vegetable over broccoli?
When I was young, my Mom cooked boxed frozen broccoli spears. You know the ones.
Me & my sister would trade stems for florets. Guess who wanted the stems?

A match made in Heaven, don't you think? Well, I needed to eat this veggie.
The best way to prepare kohlrabi (according to the experts) was to grate into a salad or make fritters.

So what did I do with the bunch of three sitting on my counter?
I peeled, sliced and roasted them.
Then I made a big batch of soup, in my slow cooker. Yup, I dumped everything in and let it do it's thing. I used coconut milk instead of cream to keep it dairy free.

Would I make it again?
I think next time I will either make fritters or roast big slices and use them as noodles in a vegetable lasagna (just like you would with butternut squash). It actually tasted like a broccoli and potato soup and since I am not a fan of potato soups...you can see where I'm going, but if you like soups with potatoes, you will enjoy this one.

Let's get cooking....

Creamy Roasted Kohlrabi Soup with Bacon
makes 10 cups

* 2 tablespoons coconut oil
* 1 onion, chopped
* 4 cloves of garlic
* 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of peeled and sliced kohlrabi
* 2 large carrots, chopped
* 15oz broth and 15oz water
* 1 can lite coconut milk
* 1 teaspoon salt & pepper
* 6 slices of bacon, cut into lardons and microwaved until crisp

* optional garnishes - toasted Pepita seeds, walnut or seed oil

Preheat the oven to 425°.
Place the kohlrabi, onion, garlic and carrots on a large sheet pan. Toss with the coconut oil, salt & pepper.
Roast for 45 minutes.

Add the roasted vegetables and all the other ingredients to the insert of your slow cooker (a Dutch oven can also be used).
Set the cooker on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 8 hours.

Stove top: simmer (low) until the vegetables are tender, about 2 hours.

Puree using a stick blender or stand blender. Do not use a processor, you want a completely smooth soup. If the soup is thinner than you want, you can add a few teaspoons of corn starch dissolved in water until you achieve the consistency you desire. I found that I actually had to add water to thin it out.

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