Caramelized Roasted Turnips Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Do you have to peel turnips before you roast them? ›

It's not essential to peel turnips before cooking. If this skin appears to be thin enough you can leave it on and cook as is. However if the skin feels thick and leathery, you can peel it off with a sharp knife or vegetable peeler. Both the roots and leaves, also known as turnip greens, are safe to eat.

One turnip website from the United Kingdom notes that if you boil them, add a little sugar to tame the scent and add baking soda to reduce bitterness.

If you want to try a different cooking method, I tend to like turnip boiled and mashed. If the turnip is old (and likely bitter) you can add an apple. I've also read that you can stir in baking soda after the turnips have boiled to remove the bitterness. You would then need to rinse thoroughly.

A variety of herbs and spices can be added to the mashed turnips. Try a tablespoon of finely chopped sage or rosemary, a clove or two of roasted or sautéed garlic, or a pinch of paprika or ground ginger. If your turnips came with the greens, don't throw them away.

How do you get the bitterness out of turnips? Peel the turnip about ¼" down, below the yellow bitterness line you can see when you cut the turnip in half. Boil the turnips in salt water. Add a few potatoes to the boiling water.

This is a bad practice, however, and you should avoid adding baking soda when boiling any type of vegetable. It has various unwelcome effects, such as softening the vegetable, altering the vegetable's flavor, destroying thiamine content, and hastening the loss of vitamin C.

Bitter greens are leafy greens or vegetables that have an intense bitter flavor profile. They include kale, mustard greens, collards, turnip greens, broccoli rabe, radicchio, chicory, and endive. The bitterness comes from chemical compounds called glucosinolates that can be found in the Brassica family.

Rutabagas are also generally much larger than turnips. So for a quick rule of thumb, the brownish-yellowish ones are rutabagas, and the smaller white and purple ones are turnips. In terms of their flavor, rutabagas are slightly sweeter-tasting than turnips whereas turnips have a slightly more radishy flavor.

In the hands of an able cook, a well-cooked turnip tastes heavenly. When roasted, the natural sugars are allowed to caramelize, resulting in a crispy-tender side dish that tastes like a cross between a potato and a carrot.

And if their reputation for bitterness scares you or your kids, fear not. Roasting brings out their natural sweetness. Another secret is how you peel them. Bitter notes lie just under the surface of the skin, but you can eliminate this if you go a little deeper when peeling them.

Why are my turnips tough? ›

Any root crop (potatoes, carrots, radishes, parsnips, turnips) needs a fine- textured, well-drained soil to grow properly. If the soil is too heavy, the crop will rot. If the soil is too lumpy or rocky, the roots will be tough, fibrous and misshapen.

Side-Effects & Allergies of Turnips

If you are suffering from thyroid disorders, it is best to avoid eating turnips as this vegetable contains certain compounds that may affect the thyroid gland and interfere in the functioning of the hormone.

Early turnips – sow March to June, for harvesting throughout summer. Some early varieties, such as 'Atlantic' and 'Purple Top Milan', can also be sown under cloches in February. Maincrop turnips – sow July to mid-August, for harvesting in autumn.

Boil or steam turnips and add them to mashed potatoes for extra vitamins and minerals. Grate them raw into salads or slaws. Roast them with other root vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes, and bring out their natural sweetness.

Turnip peels are safe to eat, but you can peel a turnip using a vegetable peeler if you desire. If you have a larger turnip, bigger than two to three inches, you should peel the turnip—bigger turnips tend to have a more bitter skin.

Mildly spicy when raw, turnips turn sweet, nutty, and earthy when cooked. This goes for texture, too: raw turnips have a crisp, starchy flesh. Cooked turnips turn soft and velvety—a little like another cold-weather favorite, the parsnip.

Add the turnips and potatoes to a large stockpot and fill the pot with water, enough to cover the vegetables. Heat over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, then simmer until the turnips are tender (they may take longer to cook than the potatoes), about 15 minutes.