What’s coming up: Turnips

The Free Lance-Star food section and the Front Burner blog are reviving a popular feature from years past. Each week we will feature a vegetable or fruit that is in season in our area and offer tips on selection and cooking. Here on the blog, please feel free to offer your own serving suggestions for these seasonal delights!

This week’s feature: Turnips

When it’s fresh here: Fall and winter

Fun fact: Turnips are a member of the mustard family, related to both radishes and arugula.

Pick and choose: If possible, buy turnips with greens attached. If buying turnips from storage in winter, this won’t be possible.

Quick serving ideas:

• Boil peeled and trimmed turnips in a large quantity of salted water until tender. Mash or slice the cooked vegetable and season with butter or bacon fat, salt and pepper.
• Turnips are a strong flavored vegetable, and do have an odor when cooking. Adding a teaspoon of sugar or a slice of stale bread to the cooking water has been said to reduce this odor.
• Boiling a peeled and sliced apple along with the turnips, or adding applesauce to mashed turnips, can help temper their strong flavor.