Thursday, January 11, 2007

Turnips

This is what turnips look like. Just because we have been discussin them in the conversation about parsnips. They are not as cool as parsnips.

Turnips are usually not the star of a dish. They're kind of a support, like potatoes only more so.

Ellen, you mentioned that when you went looking for parsnips, there were three vegetables in the bin and you guys figured you could identify two of them as turnips and parsnips.

Maybe the third was rutabaga? That's the little bugger down there to the right. I've never cooked with rutabagas. Poor Bob. More weird veggies.

11 Comments:

Blogger David Moles said...

I can't help but think of all of these as inferior potato substitutes.

January 12, 2007 12:43 AM  
Blogger susan grimm said...

In defense of the turnip, it adds an important and subtle flavor to soups and stews.

January 12, 2007 8:33 AM  
Blogger Erin O'Brien said...

This is not a place where I imagined encountering vegetable bigotry, yet, here were are.

Turnips have purple. Purple is cool.

January 12, 2007 10:23 AM  
Blogger Maureen McHugh said...

I'm sorry, I stand by the parsnip. Turnips are, well, turnips. But the parsnip, now that's a vegetable worth spending a little time in the kitchen for.

Turnips are often mashed like potatoes. But parsnips, they're NOTHING like potatoes. They're more like CARROTS. Except better than carrots when cooked because carrots get kind of mushy while parsnips just get better.

January 12, 2007 10:27 AM  
Blogger Erin O'Brien said...

Now don't get me wrong. I like parsnips. I like them a lot. But parsnips don't got no cool purple no matter what you say.

Come on over to my place if you want a plate of pickled turnips.

January 12, 2007 2:15 PM  
Blogger Steven Gould said...

Back when I was working very briefly on the atkins diet, they're was a recipe for turnip fries. Apparently turnip fries are not as carbohydrate rich.

I liked them, especially with a bit of cayenne and salt, (though they never got crispy) but it was only later, back in the produce department that I discovered I'd made rutabaga fries, instead.

January 12, 2007 2:35 PM  
Blogger Karen Sandstrom said...

Maureen, I'm with you - parsnips are It.
However, Erin astutely points out that turnips have purple, which I'd forgotten (well, and of course then there was my turnip/parsnip confusion issue), so now I have to say that turnips would be more fun to paint. And, whether or not it's possible to get blood from a turnip, I might have to paint one. :-)

January 12, 2007 10:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What's wrong with potatoes? Potatoes are a vegetable.

I think I'm doomed. Thankfully, she doesn't like beets.

January 13, 2007 9:02 AM  
Blogger mary grimm said...

Pickled turnips! Erin--a recipe?
Plus I love beets. I just bookmarked a recipe for brownies with beets in them. Mwah-ha-ha.

January 13, 2007 10:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmm. That's does look familiar Maureen, but the grocery guy didn't id it as a rutabega--maybe some kind of celery root...it was definitely roundish...

I love potatoes in most forms (not boiled) but turnips are delish too--they're totally different in taste from potatoes, although the texture is similar.
Ellen

January 13, 2007 12:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, I believe it was a celery root:
http://tinyurl.com/ufbvt
(I don't know how to embed a photo here)
Ellen

January 13, 2007 12:15 PM  

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