How Not to Hate Turnips

Sadly, for turnips, people don't hate them, they just ignore them. Other than the occasional turnip (and potato) puree I see every once in a while in magazines, I've never once seen a turnip dish on a real person's table--not even at my grandmother's.  I can't remember when I've seen them on a restaurant menu either (although surely now that I've published this, I'll walk into a restaurant and turnip-laced side dishes will stud every entrée, proving definitively to my family that I really just don't notice anything).

Someone must be buying and then eating them, I assume, or the grocery store wouldn't carry them.* I see them in the produce section all the time,looking battered and forlorn next to their super-sized older siblings, the rutabagas (and who's eating those?).  Are there gangs of little old Southern ladies cooking them up and eating them on the sly, hidden from the prying eyes of their children and grandchildren? 

Root vegetables just don't have the flash of sweet summer corn or pencil-thin asparagus to attract attention to themselves, and they suffer in old-fashioned silence, available and waiting, all year long. Baby turnips, however, demurely shaded by their tender, verdant greens, finally were able to make themselves heard above the general din of kale, collards, and rainbow chard at Amy Hicks' stall at the 17th Street Farmers' Market, last week. 

I thought about a Spanish recipe I used to make, a sort of simplified tortilla that works as both a powerhouse of a side dish (combining both starch and vegetable) or a  straightforward vegetarian main dish.  Turnips weren't included in the original recipe, probably because the greens called for in a more authentic Spanish dish would be grelos, and they aren't grown outside of Spain at all.  Their closest taste equivalent here in the US is broccoli rabe (or rapini), and  in fact, the grelo plant is simply another member of the brassica rapa family--and that includes both rapini and turnips.

Amy's little turnips turned out to be sweetly tender, almost like a tiny new potato without the starchiness, and exploding with the freshness of springtime.  In the recipe below, and simply sliced and sautéed with garlic and olive oil (always my default vegetable preparation), the unjustly overlooked turnip finally captured my imagination and made me think again about the entire spectrum of produce instead of just the seasonal celebrities of the vegetable world I usually chase after.

Recipe after the jump . . .

Garlicky Potatoes, Turnips and Greens (based on a recipe by Penelope Casas)

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil plus 1 tablespoon
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled
• 1 large sweet onion, half chopped and half sliced thinly
• 2 bunches baby turnips and greens
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley
• Coarse salt and pepper
• Pinch of smoked paprika
• 3 eggs, beaten

Thinly slice potatoes and turnips.  Heat 1/4 cup olive oil and add the slices, one at a time, forming one layer.  Top with sliced onions and sprinkle with salt. Repeat layering procedure until all the potatoes, turnips, and onions are used up. Turn heat to medium low, and with a spatula, pick up the potato slices from the very bottom of the pan and flip over.  Cover, and in a few minutes, repeat procedure.  The idea behind this is to keep the potatoes from browning and instead, slowly sauté them in the olive oil.  This does take careful vigilance and repeated flipping, but it's worth it, believe me.  Some of the potatoes will inevitably break up, so try to keep as many of the slices as you can intact.

Wash the turnip greens and blanch in boiling salted water for about five minutes.  Drain and shock with cold water; lay out a clean dish towel, spread the greens on top, and then roll up tightly and squeeze out as much water as you can over the sink.  Transfer to a cutting board and finely chop.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and sauté the reserved chopped onions until translucent.  Add the greens, heat through, and add the garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, a generous pinch of smoked paprika and a tablespoon of water. Cook gently for 2-3 more minutes.

When the potatoes, turnips and onions are done, drain them in a colander set over a bowl in the sink. Add the greens and gently mix, trying not to break up the turnip and potato slices.  Transfer everything to a shallow casserole dish (a cast-iron skillet or a glass pie plate works great if you don't have an authentic Spanish cazuela) and pour the eggs over top.

Broil for about five minutes (keep an eye on it) until the top is nicely browned and the eggs are set.  Serve either hot or room temperature--or my favorite, the next day straight from the pan in the refrigerator into your mouth.

Serves 4 as a side dish or 2 as a main dish with a little bit leftover.

Comments

[veron]

I don't understand why one would hate turnips, they're pretty good.Crunchy and slightly sweet. Uhm...I hope you don't mind but I have tagged you for the thinking blogger meme...not sure if you've been tagged already...

Thinking blogger

[Ann]

We will have to try this! We ate them raw in a salad tonight ...

[Food for Thought]

gorgeous little buggers aren't they ! I didn't even go to 1/2 the trouble that you did. Just boiled for a short spell, and then tossed with butter and fleur de sel. Amy Hicks sure can grow some turnips! Last season I visited the farm at the end of the turnip season (they had gotten big) and brought home enough to pickle a gallon.

[Brandon]

Thank you so much for all of the comments! I just bought some pink turnips from Amy and I'm curious about the difference (if any).

[RVA Foodie]

I've been thinking about turnips a bit since seeing them on the list of last week's Sprout CSA share. Wish I had signed up this year. Maybe next time. One of my handful of raw "cookbooks" lists turnips as a handy potato chip substitute (after you hit them with the mandoline and a touch of sea salt). I tried this with beets, but got my fingers all crimson.

Anyhow, I've been away from the blog for ages due to grad school. However, I tried to return with some crowd-pleasing pop-culture (Flay's Richmond visit). It's generating hits, but no comments. Let me know what you think.

[Deborah Dowd]

I just got a bunch of baby turnips and was wondering what to do with them- Thanks for the inspiration!

[RVA Foodie]

Last night I cooked turnips, but it wasn't very successful. I looked over the recipe here and felt lazy. So, I opened my "Perfect Vegetables" cookbook by the Cooks Illustrated people and followed their master recipe for roasted turnips.

As my wife put it, "They look like home fries, but I'm disappointed when I put it in my mouth and it's not a potato." I felt the same way. They were too sweet, mushy, mealy... Clearly, I did not follow the instructions to not hating turnips.

By the way, check out the recipe that I may have invented over the weekend: Grilled ramen.

[eddie]

Is it better to be ignored or hated? That picture is amazing, by the way. You should consider adding some of your restaurant or food entries to mygrub.net.

[seth]

i was never a turnip fan until i tried some of amy's about a week ago. tried some raw and thought they tasted a little like horseradish, in a good way. then i put them in a veggie stirfry (with a simple tamari-sugar-crushed red pepper sauce) and they were soooo good! apparently just one of many ways to not hate turnips...