I bought a turnip....

Now what?

Someone (smart) suggested that I try one before I grow them...so I bought 3 actually and now I have no clue what to do with it. LOL

I have a bag of gourmet (LOL) baby potatoes and thought about chunking them up, doing the same with the turnip and roasting...would that be good?? Should I peel it?

Help!

No need to peel. We eat them raw in salads, or baked with potatoes. For a hearty meal bake turnips, beets, potatoes, and winter squash all together.

roasted or mashed; both are good...

Peel if they're big and a little woody, otherwise don't worry.

Before you cook all of them, cut a few into sticks or slice and eat raw with salt, or dip into hummus.

The old Southern way to cook turnips is to boil the heck out of them in water with a little salt, bacon grease, and even a spoonful of sugar added. I prefer them raw or roasted but I still occasionally slice a few and boil them, but only just until tender.

Around here they used to boil them until they turned dark and mushy. Ugh! I suspect that is where turnips got their bad reputation.

Yeah I was kinda wondering about their bad rep...I remember my mother (a Yankee) who retold a story often of how when she visited her mother in law (southern GA) she cooked a turnip and it stunk to high heaven. ??? I never have ate them exactly for this reason. Is that normal? Did she have the vegetable name wrong? Do they have a strong smell?

What about a beet? The only way I have ever eaten beets is like a can of pickled beets. Could she have mistaken a turnip for a beet?

I wish my food knowledge was better...I am realizing quickly my palette (palate?) has been highly sheltered. (lol, especially when Ander starts writing... ) Love you Ander!

Jen

They can smell a little funky, in a brassica kind of way, while being prepared/cooked. No more so than any other brassica though, perhaps less than others, especially when they are small.

I grew up in New England and mashed turnips was high on my list of favorite things. My mom bought bags of them frozen and cut up in cubes (not sure why, as we had a huge vegetable garden) and would boil them, not too long, and mash them up with butter and s/p. Then the next day she'd mix leftover mashed turnips with leftover mashed potatoes, and make wonderful potato pancakes! My mashed turnips have never been as good as mom's, and I've never figured out why. And she doesn't remember how she did them. Sigh!

I don't think there's any way to mistake a turnip for a beet, even if it's a golden beet. Turnips and rutabagas, now.... those can be mistaken. The turnips I know are white and purple. Rutas are golden and purple, usually much bigger, and milder, in my opinion.

Jennie, when I first moved out to California, my vegetable palate was pretty darn narrow. And there I was amidst all sorts of crazy veggies I'd never seen or heard of before. I found a neat book that introduced me to the basics of a wide variety of veggies and fruits (sadly, I think it's out of print, now), but there is a REALLY good website that you might like: http://www.foodsubs.com. I have learned a lot from it.

Well I like boiled cabbage so I have no idea what she was talking about then. My grandma always made boiled dinner: Cabbage, potatoes, carrots and some ham of some kind...I always loved that dinner.

Thanks for the info guys!

If you like boiled dinner you will have NO problem with the scent of turnips!

I usually either roast them or steam them. They're yummy either way, although my very favorite is rutabagas, which are sometimes referred to as swedish turnips.

Boiled dinner! We have a "Newfie" version here called "Jiggs Dinner". My mouth is watering for it. It consists of boiled potatoes, carrots, turnips, cabbage and salt beef. If you don't know what salt beef is, it's beef that is preserved in a salty brine.

Named after an Irish Comic Book Character: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bringing_Up_Father

Not good for the blood pressure, but oh so yummy! I may just have to make some soon.

Maybe have to try a rutabaga too

Blackrose is that what everyone eats at St Patty's Day here? Corn Beef?

Jen

I planted some rutabaga seeds, but they barely came up and I didn't get a harvest, although I should probably head out there and dig around and make sure there aren't any hiding underneath I think I planted them at the wrong time.

middlemamma wrote:Blackrose is that what everyone eats at St Patty's Day here? Corn Beef?

No.. Corned Beef is different. There are a bunch of spices in Corned Beef. Salt Beef is just beef brined in plain salt water. It just has a very salty taste, no other flavourings.

oh, gotcha Blackrose.

Ok the verdict is I liked it both ways! Will try mashed next go around:)


Next on my list try a beet and try rutabaga.

Any tips on cooking those!

We rub our beets with olive oil and then bake them until we can stick a fork in them You can prepare any root vegetable in similar ways, actually. I love them in soup, roasted, baked, steamed... it's all good!

We're big fans of Good Eats and my mouth watered when we watched the episode that included Parsnip Muffins. Yummy! I'm going to go post the link in the recipe section too