Turnips for Thanksgiving?
Oh Yeah! You heard me alright, WE are having turnips for Thanksgiving!
If your Thanksgiving celebration next week is much smaller than in years past, consider using baby vegetables to provide the familiar fall flavors you crave, without producing an overwhelming amount of leftovers.
Like many of you, I’m reluctant to just “scale down” the dishes I usually take to our extended family Thanksgivings pre-Covid. The normal drill is that each of us brings a couple of signature dishes and we all have smallish portions of those sides to accompany the turkey (or in my case, whatever I’ve brought as my non-meat alternative that year).
If You are looking for a healthy alternative to Turkey this Thanksgiving, why don’t you try this Tofurky Roast!
In addition to my killer mashed potatoes, I usually bring cranberry sauce and some kind of healthy green veggie. Some years it is asparagus or brussels sprouts, but often it is collards or greens. When I make collards or greens for the family, I buy 6-8 pounds and cook them down in my slow cooker for hours to make them soft and tender for Southern palates.
Many people shy away from turnips or turnip greens because they have memories of bitter, mushy, waterlogged dishes from Thanksgivings past. That may be because the person who brought that dish started with large mature turnips. If the turnips were wrinkled or soft, the cook needed to peel them and boiled them to death (which is the Southern way). Or if greens were large and had a sharp smell, all the cooking in the world isn’t going to take away that bitterness and make them sweet.
I loved the idea of these sweet baby turnips because they don’t take a lot of prep and cook in a flash. I also liked that they provide a taste of cooked greens in a prettier package, without overwhelming you with quantities that aren’t appropriate for your smaller celebration this year.
If you can find tiny beauties like these in the farmers market, try to make them pronto. Even a couple of days in the fridge, will begin yellowing some of the leaves. A bunch will be about 16 baby turnips, each of which should be anywhere from a bit bigger than a marble to the size of a small radish.
They are easy to scrub and prepare.
Cook them in a large pot of boiling salted water for about 4 minutes.
Drain them in a colander and add ice cubes to cool them off quickly to preserve the bright color of the greens.
Sauté them in about a tablespoon of butter, stir in a teaspoon or so of honey, and season with salt and pepper. Isn’t that simple and easy!
The second time in the past week that I’ve made them, I gussied up the recipe a bit by adding the juice of a fresh squeezed orange, thyme, a pinch of cayenne, and orange, lemon, and lime zest. Let the sauce cook down for a few minutes, and you have a lovely simple sauce to accompany your sweet baby turnips and their greens.
- Bunch of baby turnips, with greens still attached
- 1-2 tablespoons butter (or use vegan butter to make this dish vegan)
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 orange, juiced and zested
- Zest from one lemon and one lime
- ¼ teaspoon thyme
- Pinch of cayenne
- Freshly ground sea salt and glack pepper to taste
- Choose a nice bunch of babby turnips with leaves attached. Remove any yellowing or wilted leaves, wash well, and gently scrub the baby turnips.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add a tablespoon of salt. Using a steamer basket, steam the baby turnips for 4 minutes.
- Remove the steamer basket over the sink and place in a colander. Add several cups of ice cubes to stop the turnips from cooking.
- In a large skillet, melt the butter, and add the honey. Add the turnips and cook for just a couple of minutes. Remove the baby turnips from the skillet and add the orange juice, the three types of zest, thyme, cayenne, salt, and pepper.. Cook for about 4-5 minutes to reduce the volume, and then add the baby turnips. Cook for a minute or two so that the sauce coats the baby turnips. Taste and correct seasoning.
- Plate and serve about 4-5 baby turnips per person, along with some of the delicious orange sauce.
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Unfortunately, this will be a Thanksgiving unlike any we have ever known. With fewer family members around the table, this may be a time to explore some new recipes, rather than trying to scale down your old holiday traditions.
Let’s all take time to be thankful for the small blessings in life. I pray that you are staying healthy, and will have a safe socially distant celebration with your immediate family.
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