A Tasty (Easy) Way to Prepare Turnips

I have had my eye on three big turnips that came up volunteer this year in the garden from seed from last year.  The foliage is huge and lush.  I wasn't the only one looking endearingly at the turnips.  The cows assembled by the garden fence to admire it as well.

The turnip greens are healthy

A quick tug brought the turnip root out of the soft, rich soil, yielding a fine looking turnip root, wider than my foot!

The turnip root is fat!

Now, in what might seem to be sacrilege to some, instead of cooking down the turnip greens and serving them and the pot liquor over hot buttered cornbread, I used my pocketknife to cut the turnip greens off and tossed them over the garden fence to the cows, goat and chickens, who promptly moo'd, baa'd and clucked approvingly of my generous offering.

Sharing the wealth with our animals

I brought the three big turnip roots inside, scrubbed the roots clean, and used Tricia's nifty QVC vegetable chopper to quickly dice the turnips into a uniform size. Those three roots filled the 'catch' container beneath the chopper almost 3/4 of the way.

Chop! Chop!

I poured about half of the bowl of diced turnip roots on a baking pan one layer deep.  Then I drizzled olive oil, salt, and cracked black pepper over the turnip roots and stirred them all up with a wooden spoon to coat the surfaces of the turnips with oil and salt & pepper.  Finally I spread them all out one layer deep and began preheating the oven to 400 degrees.

Olive oil, salt and pepper

Here is the "before" shot.  They look just like potatoes, don't they?  In fact, I toyed around with the idea of telling Benjamin that they were potatoes so that he would try them, but figured that was too deceptive!  Turnips have never been a real favorite of mine.  Probably for the reason that I'm fooled visually into thinking that they are potatoes.  When I eat them, in my opinion, they have a sharp finishing taste that is just too strong for me.  I've been looking for a way to prepare them where I'll like them.

Turnips - Before

When the oven had reached 400 degrees, I put them in.  Every so often, I would stir them.  To tell you the truth, I didn't even time how long I left them in the oven. When they had browned and were soft, I pulled them out and served them as a side dish to some spaghetti and salad.

Turnips - After

Here's the verdict: They were very tasty.  Actually, it is my favorite way (so far) to prepare them.  They were soft with a roasted flavor and the sharp taste that I found unpleasant was gone.  I finished the ones on my plate and brought the leftovers to work today.  This weekend I'll roast the remaining half bowl of diced turnips that I had left.

The two rows of turnips that I planted in the garden for the cows are still small - only about two inches high right now, but I'll harvest a few of those when ready and roast them for sure!