Caramelized Roasted Turnips Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why put baking soda in turnips? ›

Wash greens and roots well. Some suggest soaking the greens in a little salty water. 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.

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.

Adding a little sugar to your turnips after cooking can also help to counteract any bitterness.

Turnips are a healthy alternative to potatoes; they're lower in calories and have fewer carbs. Smaller, sweeter turnips can be sliced into wedges and eaten raw like an apple.

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.

Place the turnips in a pot and cover with about 2 inches of salted water. Bring to a boil, adjust the heat and simmer until the turnips are tender when pierced with a toothpick or the tip of a paring knife, 20 to 30 minutes. Step three: Season and serve. Drain the turnips and season with salt and pepper.

Add a couple of turnips, cubed to stews and soups to add some sweetness to the dish. They take about as long to cook as carrots but do not overcook. Unlike carrots which become sweeter with cooking, turnips lose their sweetness when overcooked.

Larger turnips are best peeled and steamed, boiled or mashed. Chunks of turnip are often added to casseroles or soups. Try sautéing or steaming the leaves in the same way as spinach, or add them to stews and curries.

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.

A small amount of sugar is often added to help smooth out any rough flavour edges, but when working with garden-grown turnips that mature in cool soil, taste before adding sugar. Or here's another idea: add a finely chopped apple to the hot drained vegetables along with a pinch of cinnamon.

What's the best way to eat turnips? ›

Baked, Boiled or Steamed. Use turnips any way you would use a potato, and then some. Try them baked or boiled in stews, soups and stir-fries, or lightly steamed with some butter, salt or lemon juice for flavor. homemade coleslaw.

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.

Good for Your Gut

Like all plant-based whole foods, turnips contain dietary fiber. Fiber is a non-digestible carbohydrate that serves important functions in the body, including maintaining healthy blood sugar and cholesterol levels, promoting regular bowel movements, and supporting weight management, among others.

Turnip may reduce bad cholesterol levels due to its antioxidant activity. The natural antioxidants like quercetin, tocopherols, ascorbic acid and beta-carotene present in turnip may help breakdown the LDL (low-density lipoproteins). This may lead to lower LDL levels in the body.

Because most pesticides aren't stable at an alkaline pH, soaking them in a baking soda solution can break down their compounds, and together with a rinse under tap water, can help to wash them away. Note: The baking soda solution will remove only certain classes of pesticides, and only from the produce's surface.

When applied to plant leaves and stems, baking soda does slow or stop the growth of fungi. However, the benefits are fleeting at best. Studies have shown that while baking soda impacts the growth of fungal spores, the spores and actively growing fungi are not killed.

Keep them in the vegetable crisper drawer to keep them in a more humid environment, which maintains the root's flesh and texture more effectively. If your fridge has the capability, turn the humidity up to 95 percent and the temperature to 32–40 °F (0–4 °C) to create conditions that let turnips last up to 6 months!