Can you identify these veg?

[NellNorth]

I mentioned to a friend that I was struggling to shop for my large family, as there are so many restrictions on quantities/ shortages at the shops, and she has surprised me with a huge delivery from a farm shop, for which I’m very grateful!
I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know what a lot of the stuff is, and what can I do with it?
All help gratefully received!

Fennel - eatcraw in salads or steam and then put in oven with cheese and breadcrumbs. Aniseedy taste.

Pak choi? It looks like chard. Is that the same? We steam and then toss in a pan with garlic and chilli.

Fennel top left you eat like you’d eat celery
Bok Choi left bottom you put into stif fry. You can also fry it in butter on its own and eat as a side.
The other thing I’ve never seen before

Mmm fennel, sliced in a salad with feta, or roasted in big chunks. Fennel seems to shrivel quickly so use it up. The frilly bits are also tasty in salad. Kohlrabi grated with raisins and a dressing, like a carrot salad. Pak Choi stir fried with garlic and soy sauce mmmmmmmm

Really? Fennel lasts for ages for me. Thinly sliced in salads or braised or roasted - sliced - it's great. Lots of dietary fibre too. I've never tried kohlrabi, but knew what it was.

Oak Choi and kohlrabi

Oh and fennel sorry didn't see the ones at back

Mmmm yum to all of those. Try Abel and Cole website for lots of great recipes to use up kinds of veg. Before we went veggie, my favourite use for fennel was, the day after a roast, slice up leftover chicken, roast potatoes and other veg like broccoli/sprouts, add them to a large frying pan with sliced portobello mushrooms, lemons and the fennel, season and light fry in olive oil. Have in a bowl with a big bit of crusty bread.

How I deal with Fennel

Cut off anything sticking up from the bulb. Separate out the feathery green bits - you can add them right at the end of cooking like a herb. Slice the thick, celery-like bits into circles very thinly as they’re quite dense. Take the bulb and slice off the very bottom horizontally and discard- that’s very tough. Then slice the rest as needed. Very thinly if you want to eat it raw in a salad. You can get away with thicker if you cook it. It’s popular with fish.

I slice it horizontally into discs about half a centimetre thick then roughly slice across those. I put it into an ‘Italiany’ bean stew with chopped onion, garlic, celery, aubergine, cannellini beans and tomatoes.

Sardine and fennel pasta is a classic Italian (Sicilian?) recipe - very healthy and store cupboard friendly. Makes use of the raisins in the back of your larder as well.
Zillions of recipes on line including this one.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pasta-pine-nuts-broccoli-sardines-fennel which also has non-canonical broccoli - feel free to leave that out.

Kolhrabi is delicious peeled and sliced into roughly 5mm slices and served with lemon juice and salt over the top. Fennel is much nicer like this too-I'm not a fan of it cooked.

Pak Choi I use in stir frys. Split the whole Pak Choi into stalks, trim the bottom of each and then slice into horizontal strips. The tougher stem goes into one pile, the leaves into another. You add the stem for 3-4 minutes and the leaf part right at the end (1 minute or so) as it doesn’t need much cooking time at all.

Kohl Rabi makes a really nice soup - blitz in stock with some cooked potato and herbs (I like Thyme with it), top with some soured cream/yoghurt/lemon juice to taste, dunk bread/rolls/with strong or blue cheese.

Or dice and add to vegetable soups. Or cook lightly and top with cheese sauce like cauliflower cheese.

It's a bit like the taste and texture of the stalk in broccoli or cauliflower because it's from the same family - one will easily make loads of soups.

As I also really, really like broccoli or kale, etc, with garlic and chilli flakes, I think it would also work cut into wedges and roasted in a pan with those and some sea salt.

The three bottom left is bok Choi (pak Choi) used in Chinese cookery. The two bulbous greens on the right are kohl rabi, it’s actually very underrated as a vegetable. My mum can make a thick soup with it 😋
Then the prickly thing top left x 2 is fennel. Never cooked with it myself.

My fave recipes for each

sticky salmon Chinese greens

Delia roasted veg and cous cous salad but do not do the harissa dressing, it is dreadful and dated. Just mix harissa with yoghurt instead.

[https://cookieandkate.com/crispy-apple-kohlrabi-salad-recipe/ kohl rabi and Apple salad]]

kohl rabi salad link again