This is what I do with turnips, too. If you want to make them more sweet than savory, you can also substitute sweet potato for potato and include some carrots and a drizzle of honey with tarragon and a pinch of salt.
Tangent: I’m always surprised how necessary salt is when making sweet things. Even oatmeal with brown sugar tastes much better with a small pinch of salt.
My absolute favorite turnips are Lebanese Pickled Turnips (Torshi Left). They have a very mild and sweet flavor after pickling and a great crunch, not at all what you would expect. Very tasty snacks and they go great with hummus and other vegetables.
Pickled Turnips
1 lrg Beet
4 sm Turnips or 3 medium-size turnips
3 x Garlic cloves, peeled and sliced, up to 5
Young celery leaves
1/2 cup Each white vinegar and water
Instructions:
Instructions: Boil in beet water until tender; peel, cool, slice and set
aside. Drop turnips into boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes, take out and peel.
Cut into french-fry size sticks.
Sterilize a 1-pint wide-mouth jar, layer turnips, beets, a few slices of
garlic and celery leaves.
Combine water, vinegar and salt and bring to a boil. Fill jar with vinegar
mixture, seal and store in warm place 10 days. (Here in Texas the porch
works good, especially since the jar tends to leak through the seal, so put
it inside a plastic container or bag to avoid staining.) After opening store
in the refrigerator. These get better the longer they sit - which usually
doesnt happen! Makes 1 pint.
Aside- The recipe that I gave there for pickled beets mentions salt for the brine but left it out in the ingredient list. I’d add about a 1/2 tablespoon to this small of a brine recipe. But the brine definitely needs salt.
I can’t recall ever eating a turnip, but the recipe upthread reminded me of a recipe I make often with rooty veggies. 1/3 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon rosemary and as much garlic as you like, I put the veggies in that for a few minutes to marinate and then either roast them in the oven or put them in a Romertopf. Tossing a while chicken with it works great.
Feed them to sheep - I think turnips taste disgusting. I’m Scottish so I’m supposed to have them with haggis but I mash sweet potato instead as it looks the same but is edible.
Yes, we cut up the turnips to go in with the greens while they cook. The fatback or thick bacon is used to flavor the turnips (otherwise it’s just the turnips, greens and a big pot of water). When you have made the greens put it in a bowl with a slice of raw purple onion or vidalia and I like to add salt, pepper and salad vinegar.
Yummy.
You could get that book “101 Things to Do With Turnips (or 102 if you eat them)”.
Those small white turnips are very mild and relatively tender. I dice them and sautee them with garlic and butter or olive olive until they are tender and a bit browned and crisp. If they came with greens you can sautee those too and serve them together. (I cook the greens separately so the liquid doesn’t sog the crispy turnip bits.) This is a good side dish with roast or broiled chicken.
Drain Bead: Turnip fries! :smack: Of course! It’s so… simple! I am trying that right now.
Aunt Beast: It does my heart good to know that somebody remembers Romerkopf besides me. I worked at Macy’s in housewares when those came out, & I loved them! Nothing makes a more succulent chicken than those clay cookers.
devilsknew: I may have to forego the forswearing for those. I love exotic international pickles, like East Indian pickled mangoes.
I am so impressed at the number of responses. I always tell people, you can get a serious answer to any kind of question at all on the SDMB. (and six one-liners.)
(**LittleNemo:**har har!)
I confess I stole it from Alexei Sayle.
Curse you devilsknew! I wanted to be the first to suggest turnip pickles!
I make mine with vinegar and salt and the same spices as bread and butter pickles.
We love turnips. Mostly served around here are part of Roasted Roots - pretty much the same recipe as WhyNot’s. I also have been known to dice them into stews and mash them with potatoes. A very versatile little root.
Hijack: where did I go wrong? I cut up a turnip and put it in with a pot roast along with onions, carrots, and potatoes. The turnip tasted very bitter. We could not eat it. The rest of the pot roast was fine. Are you always supposed to peel turnips before cooking? This turnip started out purple, if that makes a difference.
Yes, IMHO, I feel one should generally peel turnips, unless you’re just going to toss them whole in a morning fire’s hot ashes and eat them later for supper.
Sometimes chefs might par boil or blanche the quartered turnips in salted water before roasting to leach their acrid earthieness and sweeten them a bit. Also, not all beeets are created equal, this is one vegetable that is best to eat new.Older, bigger turnips can tend to be inedible.
Not beeets. Turnups. The big one’s get tough and mealy.
Sorry.
Really, I’ve found that Lift Tarshi are especially delicious because of their reddish pink tinge that the beets tincture.
(Hammer Roll, Mutherfuckah!)
Cornish pasty! om nom nom.
Himmel und Erde. Potatoes, turnips and apples, peeled, cut up, boiled and mashed together. I add sour cream, too. A touch of horseradish is a fine addition. Excellent with roast pork. NOM NOM NOM
Wow, okay, I am here to tell you that those turnip fries rocked! Thanks, DrainBead!
Does anybody else find it a little weird that G. Odoreida eats turnips with haggis… and thinks the turnips taste bad?