What to do with a turnip? - polite answers only please!

peppery taste.
My grandfather liked turnip tops fried/sauteied with bacon pieces, you can do the same with the turnip thinly sliced or use in soup. The turnip should be white and quite small. Swedes are orange and large and smell horrid

LTB

A bit off topic, I know, but a BiL who spends much of the year in Paris, turned up at another BiL’s French house back in March, with some very small baby turnips he’d bought in Paris. He fried them briefly in a very little oil - they were delicious.

I have recently seen plenty of turnips (not swedes) in French supermarkets. Apparently they were for decades after WW2 eschewed by the French, since during the Nazi occupation they were one of the few foods left to them by the Germans. But they are now in favour again.

I don't like turnips much (sweetest is delicious) but would use them in a stew or curry.

Here's what the BBC suggests.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/turnip-recipes

Stir fry with other vegetables cut into thin strips.

I love turnips. Easy to chop. My idea of a kitchen gadget is a very sharp knife and a very thick wooden chopping board. Think James Martin. I use them in two things. Madhur Jaffreys turnip and mint vegetable side dish. The other use is Middle Eastern coubah cooked in tomato sauce with turnip wedges. A winter soup. Make sure to add squeezed lemon juice. I will definitely try out Madhur’s lamb and turnip recipe mentioned up thread.

Turnips are small and white, swedes are lager and orange. Having said that I grew up in Yorkshire and my Mum called a swede a turnip! My Dad helped us make turnip lanterns ( no pumpkins then! ) for bonfire night or as we called it plot night! We were in fact using swedes!! Apologies for digressing, add your turnip to other root vegetables brush with olive oil , add a few twists of black pepper / salt then roast and whizz up add either beef or veg. stock then add anything else you have and make a tasty soup.

Marg75

Very true, the turnips I put in my pasties are orange and obviously swedes but I have always called them turnips being in Cornwall.

😁

I made that mistake when I moved to Devon.

It's definitely a turnip!!!
I like swedes and know them well.

Where I come from, Northants, the orange ones are swedes and the off white ones with a bit of purple on the top are turnips.
Turnips chop up easy. Swedes, orange ones. are a devil to peel and chop.
I use both in a stew.

Very true, the turnips I put in my pasties are orange and obviously swedes but I have always called them turnips being in Cornwall.

Dice it and freeze it then get it out when the weather gets cooler and put n a nice beef stew with a carrot and leek.

Allira

Yes, neeps are swede.

Good in a pasty. But, just to confuse the issue, in Devon and Cornwall, where the best pasties are made, swedes are known as turnips 😁

OH is from Yorkshire and calls them the wrong names!

Yes, neeps are swede.

Good in a pasty. But, just to confuse the issue, in Devon and Cornwall, where the best pasties are made, swedes are known as turnips 😁

Turnips go well in beef stew as they absorb the beefy flavour and add bulk.

Or, apparently they are a traditional accompaniment to duck.

Turnips are small and white,
Swedes are big and orange.

If it's the size and colour and shape of a golf ball. It is a golf ball. Send it back and ask for a vegetable you like.

White turnips are the small ones. Neeps sneap in Gaelic are large, orange and good for carving at Halloween not ever to be confused with pumpkins.

Oh you Gransnetters on here do make me laugh. What a lot of fun over a blooming turnip!

Luckygirl3

It's about the size of a bowls ball. And looks a bit like it.

If it looks like a golf ball, tastes like a golf ball - it's a turnip, not a swede.

If it's the size of a bowls ball then it's a monster turnip!

Are you confusing turnips with swedes, as I believe all of Scotland does? Turnips are golf ball to tennis ball in size and easy enough to chop up.

Luckygirl3

How long would you microwave it for to get it to a choppable state?

I’ve never had the slightest trouble chopping turnips, and I use them quite a bit in autumn/winter. Is it a monster one that’s been allowed to get very woody?

I’d chop it small and add it to a multi-veg soup. Freeze it if it’s too hot for soup at the moment.

Turnip IMO goes really well with a lamb stew, but admittedly it’s rather too hot for that now.

Never heard of that before - I'm well aware of the confusion between turnips and swedes, but I'm not sure how anyone could mistake a parsnip for a turnip. They're totally different shapes, for one thing.

ViceVersa

Astitchintime

If it is of the parsnip variety I would put it in the compost bin.

A parsnip is totally different from a turnip!

Well, I do beg your pardon ViceVersa but in some areas of the UK, the word turnip is used as a general term to define any root vegetables that aren’t carrots or potatoes.

It's about the size of a bowls ball. And looks a bit like it.

Luckygirl3

How long would you microwave it for to get it to a choppable state?

How long is a piece of string? Depends on the size of the turnip - I'd give it 3 minutes then try to see if it's choppable. If not, bung it in for another minute.