Don’t turn up your nose to the lowly turnip

Oh, the lowly turnip, the Rodney Dangerfield of vegetables: it “can’t get no respect.”

That’s probably because this humble root vegetable, once a winter staple of many a farm table because it could be stored in the root cellar throughout the cold months, has far too often been served in the least palatable way possible: boiled and served plain.

But take note, that farmers with cattle, cows or pigs sometimes dump turnips in their winter feeding troughs. Vineyardists in Europe plant turnips as a cover crop between rows, unceremoniously ploughing them down to enrich the soil and feed the vines.

This should give us a clue as to the value of turnips. They’re full of nutrients that feed not only crops and farm animals, but us humans, too.

Although not the sexiest vegetable on the table, a cup of cooked turnips supplies us with from 10 to 20 percent of our daily need for vitamin C, is high in calcium and potassium, high in the folic acid so crucial for proper fetal growth, and is an excellent source of dietary fiber and cancer-fighting glucosinolates. The fiber, by the way, feeds our gut bacteria the same way it feeds soil bacteria, enriching it and supporting good health.

Because cool weather makes them grow quickly, turnips are at their absolute peak through February, with mild-flavored, tender, sweet flesh.

These young, fresh, winter turnips should not be missed. They, along with daikon radishes and carrots, excel as crudités when julienned. The best fall turnips will most likely have their greens still attached.

If the greens look healthy and fresh, you can make two dishes from the same vegetable: greens steamed and drizzled with a little olive oil and turnip roots boiled with potatoes in lightly salted water until soft and then mashed together as you would make ordinary mashed potatoes, with two parts potatoes for one part turnips. Avoid using garlic in this mix. The flavors of garlic and turnips do not make a good match.

This potato-turnip mashup is especially delicious using pure white Tokyo Cross turnips whose swollen roots are about the size of ping pong balls.

To cook older, stored turnips, add a little sugar and baking soda to the water. This sweetens the flavor and reduces the phenolics in the roots that can make older turnips unpleasant smelling or tasting. Young fall turnips don’t need peeling, but the older ones from storage do.

Turnips add a special delicate, earthy-sweet note to mixtures of other root crops, such as celery root, rutabagas, carrots, yellow beets, and parsnips. Dice a mixture of these roots and toss with a little olive oil and salt, then roast or sauté until fork tender and slightly browned. They make a perfect bed and delicious accompaniment for braised lamb shanks.

Save your best young turnips to sauté until browned and add to the roasting pan for the last 15-20 minutes of roasting a whole duck.

By combining them with ingredients that give them a lively flavor, such as bacon, apples, cheese, mustard, onions, sherry, or vinegar, turnips sing harmony rather than solo.

An easy way to do that is in a simple cole slaw, like the one below. And before you doubt their ability to work in a slaw, it helps to know that turnips are in the same family as cabbage, broccoli, and kohlrabi — also known as “cole” vegetables, which lends it’s name to this classic side dish, a fun fact you can pull out at your next picnic when it hits the table.