Do turnips get enough respect?

According to a pal in the UK, when I mentioned my wonderful high cholesterol diet, he said eat turnips, although he did add "the idea of three days of this root vegetable alone is akin to eternity in purgatory!".
Not many turnip ideas doing a search here, so tongue-in-check what to do with a turnip after you have feed the greens and the skin to the pigs out back?

To this day, one of my most memorable Thanksgiving dinners was as a teenager with a friend at the house of his relatives a daylong roadtrip away. All the traditional foods were served and along with the mashed potatoes were mashed turnips. This was an interesting departure from familiar foods for me and I remember them having an orange color. Buttery and creamy and kind of cabbagey but sweeter though not sweet.

I don't remember having had them since and if I have I guess they didn't impress me like before. Just did a quick search for recipes and saw one with pan-fried crisped shallots for garnish. Hmmm... maybe this year!

Whilst not racing out to buy turnips every other day they are nice for a change. They can be treated pretty much as the
common root vegetables, roasted, mashed, chopped up in soups and stew.

I have to say that I'm just not a huge fan of turnips. I don't hate the flavor, but I have yet to find anything I really like them in.

I've attended several Robert Burns dinners on his birthday in January.

Along with bagpipers and haggis and lots of single malt Scotch -- there are "neeps and tatties."

Neeps are turnips, and tatties are potatoes.

In that context -- it is as good a dish as one could wish for!

When I went to England for IBM in '74 (coal strikes and all), there was a heap of stuff in the cafeteria that I didn't recognize, and I asked the server what it was. She said, "That's Swede, luv! Why don't you try it?"
So I did, and got introduced to mashed rutabaga. Which tastes a lot like mashed turnip, which used to be part of my grandmother's Thanksgiving set-out.
I don't much like turnips all by themselves, but a turnip really makes a difference in beef stew. And small ones, hardball size or smaller, aren't nearly as strong as big ones. I cut them into ice-cube size pieces and put them in when I put in the carrots. Sometimes I leave them as-is for serving, and (especially if the gravy needs a bit of help) I'll mash them up and stir them into the gravy.
These days, stew meat is way too lean! <sigh>

John

Wow, this all sounds delicious. I am hooked, thanks for all the imput eh.

They don't deserve respect!....they're turnups, damnit!

Tremendous confusion in UK about Swedes and Turnips. The names for the vegetable swtich around depending on what part of the country you are in.

Neeps are what the Scots call turnips and what is known in southern England (where I am) as swedes.

I have only encountered the word rutabaga on the label of Branston Pickle where it is listed as an ingredient and I looked it up and learned about the naming confusion.

(When I was in the Cubs we used turnips to make our halloween lanterns -- thats before we had ever seen a pumpkin; now even my local corner shop sells them for halloween.)

Bob,
How about the Normandy dish caneton aux navets? (Duckling braised with turnips) Pretty yummy if I do say do myself. Not sure how much it'll help your cholesterol issues, though.

Mark Lipton

While I mentioned the Scottish "neeps" which are basically turnips cooked and mashed, really the best way is in soup. I suppose especially beef or lamb. When you pick up a chunk of something white thinking "potato" and put it in your mouth, and it is sweet, you know it was a bite of turnip, and it is just a pleasure to come across. All the cruciferous stinkiness cooks out in a soup, you are just left with tender sweetness and it's a pleasure.

Someone asked about carrots and I feel the same way, except you know what you are getting when it's orange. In soups they can just be so tender and sweet...

Parsnips too, but their flavor is sometimes distractingly strong.

[Jenise]

Fred, that orange color you report likely means that rutabega was used, all or in part, in the dish you had.

Bob, I love turnips peeled and sliced with just salt on them. It's a great snack. And baby turnips are lovely just lightly browned in butter. Somewhere here I have a recipe for a turnip gratin--I've long wondered how that would turn out. I've never cooked large/mature turnips.

Fred, that orange color you report likely means that rutabega was used, all or in part, in the dish you had.

Bob, I love turnips peeled and sliced with just salt on them. It's a great snack. And baby turnips are lovely just lightly browned in butter. Somewhere here I have a recipe for a turnip gratin--I've long wondered how that would turn out. I've never cooked large/mature turnips.

I wondered about that and after I posted I figured it must have had some rutabaga in it.

I like kohlrabi sliced and salted with my beers!

Saying turnips is like saying potatoes, melons, etc; only more so. They come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. We enjoy the smaller ones if they are fresh from the farm or garden. Even enjoy a rutabaga once in a while. You cook it, mash it, and season it as you would a butternut or hubbard squash.

According to a pal in the UK, when I mentioned my wonderful high cholesterol diet, he said eat turnips, although he did add "the idea of three days of this root vegetable alone is akin to eternity in purgatory!".
Not many turnip ideas doing a search here, so tongue-in-check what to do with a turnip after you have feed the greens and the skin to the pigs out back?

Feed the turnip to the pigs for dessert?
I had to eat way too many turnips and turnip greens as a child, and I haven't eaten one in 3 decades.

I had to eat way too many turnips and turnip greens as a child, and I haven't eaten one in 3 decades.

Mmmm.... me loves me some smothered turnip greens... almost as much as smothered mustard greens!

Mark Lipton
(Former resident of Dixie-by-the-Bay)

[Jenise]

Mark, what makes a green 'smothered'?

Mark, what makes a green 'smothered'?

It's a preparation unique (AFAIK) to the Deep South: bacon is cooked in a pan until soft, at which point the greens, chopped onion, water and vinegar are added. The mixture is brought to a boil, the temperature lowered and the mixture cooked in a covered pan for 1-2 hours.

Mark Lipton

OMIGAWD!!!

According to a pal in the UK, when I mentioned my wonderful high cholesterol diet, he said eat turnips, although he did add "the idea of three days of this root vegetable alone is akin to eternity in purgatory!".
Not many turnip ideas doing a search here, so tongue-in-check what to do with a turnip after you have feed the greens and the skin to the pigs out back?

Eat the pigs? Actually I like turnip tops as greens, or mixed with other types of greens. Also, I love raw turnips with a sprinkle of salt, quite good. I remember sometimes my Mom would mash them like potatoes and serve them the same. I have found they work well in soups and they also do well in roasted winter/root veggies. (for the soup I cube them and drop them kind of late in the cooking.

I was invited to cook collards for the Thanksgiving dinner we attended. I had to make it vegetarian so no hamhocks.

To give them a more complex flavor I used some sliced onions and garlic, Sauternes, balsamic vinegar, and something that turned out very well, I peeled and cut up a couple of small turnips which added some nice flavor to the dish. I also put in some veg broth and red pepper flakes..

There were 12 at table -- I got an enormous bunch of collards but when they cooked down they looked completely inadequate. So I went back and bought an even huger bunch of collards and started from scratch. They went nicely, everyone had as much as they wanted, and everyone enjoyed them.

I have to say that I'm just not a huge fan of turnips. I don't hate the flavor, but I have yet to find anything I really like them in.

Mike, try roasting them along with other root veggies. I use turnips, parsnips, potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, leeks and beets (sometimes), and any other root vegetable I happen to have on hand at the time. The turnips go through a transformation while roasting you almost can't believe.

I bake them. parsnips & carrots with brown butter and thyme as a side dish. I also use them in my bear stew along with rutabagas, carrots and other vegetables. I also mashed them and mixed them with mashed potatoes to top my wild game shepherds pie.

Not sure root vegetables in general get as much respect as they ought to. Parsnips are another example. With a bit of thought and technique, you can enhance just about anything!