So, uh... turnips and radishes?

[conuly]

How do I cook them, what recipes do you favor, heeeeeeelp?

Comments

[ratcreature]

Randomly here via network: Turnips are good in stews, or mashed as a side dish, or a main dish when you mash some potatoes with them. You can also roast them. Radishes aren't cooked, afaik, just eaten raw.

[conuly]

You can cook radishes, but I've yet to find a radish recipe that everybody will eat! I've made radish curry and roasted radishes and no more than half the family likes them. Raw radishes are right out.

[ratcreature]

I'm with your family. I don't really like radishes. They are not quite as horrible a vegetable as fennel, but not something I'd eat voluntarily in greater quantity than as sharp condiment.

[conuly]

Oooh, I love fennel! Mmm.

At any rate, whether they like them or not, I feel I should keep trying. Part of the problem is that I haven't tried many radish options. Sooner or later I'll find one that they can tolerate. Radishes are easy to grow, and they're inexpensive, so... yeah.

(Plus, they hate them less than they hate sweet potatoes!)

[redbird]

Turnips I throw into stews (and therefore tend to buy one or two at a time, depending on the size of the turnip and of the stew).

I only use radishes raw, as a salad vegetable, but I know some people pickle daikon, which is a kind of radish.

[siderea]

The true purpose of turnips is armored turnips. Yum. :9

[sayga.livejournal.com]

I don't know but I've read that turnips are awesome and are super nutritious and I've been wanting to make something with them. So I'll be watching to see if someone has a great recipe. My sister just recently taught me to steam beets whole, in their skins, then slice them and eat them with butter and salt. And it's SO good! I also think the red poo and orange pee is fun, so now it's a part of our semi-regular diet.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Radishes are excellent when scrubbed, cut in half, tossed with oil & salt & pepper, and roasted at 425 till browned and tender. Or shred them with other vegetbles, wring the mixture dry, add eggs and cracker meal or matzoh meal, and make flat savory pancakes out of them.

Turnips... I wish you luck. :)

[eofs.livejournal.com]

So, having first checked that by turnip you mean the same thing as I mean by turnip (there's a north south divide on this island, over which is a swede and which is a turnip, so I thought I should make sure) I can say that I've never cooked with turnips.

However. My mulligatawny soup recipe can be adapted to make use of whatever non-potato root vegetables you have to hand, so I don't see why you couldn't use turnips instead of the swede (rutabaga to you?) If you're interested, I could write out the recipe. It's terribly easy and very tasty. (It's basically a lot of root veg sauted with an apple, stock, herbs and spices and a few other bits for flavour, simmer until everything's soft, puree, add rice, cook rice, stir in dairy product if desired, serve.)

[erisiansaint]

Assuming it's a turnip and not a rutabaga, you can peel them, cut them into thin slices, and eat them with a little bit of salt, raw. They're lovely that way.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

I've never yet found anything inspiring to do with a turnip either. Boil and mash, or roast, they still end up boring.
I suppose you could come over terribly traditional and carve them out to put candles inside, as was done before those huge garish orange things got imported, but that isn't terribly edible.

There's a famous (infamous?) medieval recipe for turnips with cheese (or possibly cheese with turnips). A quick C&P of one version....

Source [The Neapolitan Recipe Collection, Terence Scully (trans.)]: [27.] Rappe Armate. Fa cocere le rape soto la braxa, ho vero falle allessare integre; poi tagliale in fette grosse como la costa d'un cortelo; he haverai caso permesano, ho altro bono caso grasso, tagliato in fette large como quelle de le rappe, ma piu sutile ; he habi zucaro, pipero he specie dolce miscolateinsieme; he aconzarai queste fette in una padella da torta per ordine, suso el fondo queste fette de caso, ponendo de sopra bono butiro fresco, he poi le fette de le rappe, he cusi de grado in grado agiongendo sempre per tuto de quelle miscolate specie; he cusi farai cocere in la dita padella cum del butiro assai per spacio de uno quarto de hora ho piu al modo de una torta; et questa imbandisone se da da poi ale altra.

27. Garnished Turnips. Cook the turnips under the coals, or else boil them whole, then cut them into slices the thickness of a knife blade; get Parmesan cheese or some other good fat cheese cut into slices as broad as the turnip slices but thinner; and get sugar, pepper, and mild spices mixed together; lay out these slices in a torte pan in layers - on the bottom the slices of cheese with good fresh butter on top, and then the slices of turnip, and so on from layer to layer always adding the spice mixture everywhere; you cook it like that in the pan, with a good amount of butter, for a quarter of an hour or more as you would a torte. This banquet dish is served after the others.

Yes, they mean it about the sugar. As far as I'm concerned this is a dietary disaster, but others like it a lot. "Armoured turnips" is another name for it.


Radishes I just use as a salad vegetable. I've started adding them to my home-made coleslaw recently and they add a nice bite to that, and also seem to work well mixed with apples.

[conuly]

Carving pumpkins is bound to be easier than carving turnips. Is it any wonder people moved wholesale to the easier jack-o-lantern?

We have too many radishes to use as salad, and I promised the nieces never to make salad more than twice a week, as they don't like it all that much.

[ihcoyc.livejournal.com]

Turnips, I peel, cut into sticks or chips, and put in brine, and let sit for a week. The brine is 1/2 cider vinegar, with 1 tablespoon salt and 1 tablespoon sugar, with red pepper flakes to taste.

[conuly]

Oooh, pickles!