If there's two things that remind me of my German Nana, it's kohl rabi and parsley. She used tons of parsley - fresh and luscious, not like the dried sprinkles my English grandmother used sparingly. I loved eating it straight from her garden, and all my life my body knows to eat tons of fresh parsley when I'm feeling low on iron. As for kohl rabi, no one I knew had ever heard of it, and still people don't know what to do with this lovely, crispy, delicious vegetable. Salads! I squeal. And GRATIN!

And so, I slice - swede from the garden, and also potatoes - something that seems a theme on #gardenjournal posts this month (@proto26 and @edprivat!). I cheat at gratin - I don't do thin mandolin slices but a little chunkier and thicker, and I steam them first til they are poke-through-with-a-knife tender. They are layered in a dish and wait hungrily for the cheesey sauce. Today I'm doing it with a vegan 'cheese' sauce.

Now, the trick with vegan cheese sauce for me is a pinch of stock, a tsp of mustard, and lots and lots of vegan butter in my roux. Then I add tons and tons of herbs - fresh garlic leaves, handfuls of parsley, and calendula flowers. I listened to a podcast a while back where the woman was waxing lyrical on different ways to get herbs into your diet and I felt rather smug. I've always thought herbs should be a massive feature of many of the dishes we make, and they find their way into my meals often. Add a couple of tablespoons of nutritional yeast and, if you have it, vegan cheese, but it's not necessary. If you're a cheese eater, add a handful of parmesan.

Then it's simply a matter of layering the vegetables with the 'cheese' sauce. You can then add some garlicky breadcrumbs, or alternatively, some vegan cheese (or cheese, if you're a dairy lover) and then tear a heap more herbs on top - I had fennel tops, oregano, calendula and parsley. Lots of. Like herb-o-rama.

Then, you bake it for about twenty minutes to half an hour with a layer of foil, a lid, or a layer of baking paper (I use compostable baking paper). For the last ten minutes remove the 'lid' and allow to brown. Oh. My. Goddess. This stuff is the stuff dreams are made of. Enjoy - we enjoyed ours with some vegetarian sausages and steamed broccoli, but it could be eaten just on it's own.

Do you like kohlrabi? What's your cheese sauce trick, vegan or not? How do YOU make gratin?

Oh, and another thing - there's been some BIG changes this week in terms of LOTUS and alternative health. AS of this weekend, the usual LOTUS crew won't be curating over at Natural Medicine. However, The Herbal Hive and Plant Power are two communities you can join to earn LOTUS and post about #vegan and #herbalmedicine content. Yep, that includes medicinal cannabis and mushrooms too! Check out the links on the banners below! Oh, and to earn LOTUS, you need to use the tag #lotus on your alternative health content from now on!