Put a Twist on Tradition With Mashed Turnips (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.

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.

In fact, I'd go so far as to claim that turnips, when mashed, are better than their potato counterparts, and a far more interesting vehicle for gravy. Cooked turnips are firm yet velvety, slightly nutty, and bring a bit more oomph to your holiday spread.

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.

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.

Turnips and other cruciferous vegetables that are high in fiber help make people feel fuller for longer, and they are low in calories. Eating high fiber meals also helps keep blood sugar levels stable. The fiber content in turnips may also prevent constipation and promote regularity for a healthy digestive tract.

Yes, people living with diabetes can eat turnip as it is a low glycemic index vegetable that can help regulate blood sugar levels. However, it is important to monitor portion sizes and overall carbohydrate intake.

In terms of their flavor, rutabagas are slightly sweeter-tasting than turnips whereas turnips have a slightly more radishy flavor. The most obvious visible difference between the two root vegetables is their size. Turnips are best when small and tender, like around the size of a tennis ball.

Yes. Turnips can be frozen in any form: diced and blanched, cooked and mashed, or roasted. Their texture will turn mushy when defrosted, but flavour and nutrients will remain the same.

Storage and food safety

Turnips can be stored two weeks in refrigerator or 8 to 10 months in freezer. To prevent cross-contamination, keep turnips away from raw meat and meat juices. Wash hands before and after handling fresh produce.

Do turnips take longer to cook than potatoes? ›

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.

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.

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.

We got some surprising results. Baking soda does help green vegetables retain color, but it causes undesirable color changes in red cabbage—it turned blue. The science can be distilled to this: Adding baking soda to cooking water makes it slightly alkaline, which stabilizes the green color of chlorophyll.