Turnip Greens
/It’s harvest time…Time to Turn-IP….
I try when I can to use produce from my local farmer’s market and this week I put my $3.00 down and walked away with a bunch of turnips, beautiful greens attached! Turnips were not part of my menu during childhood, and I often find there’s a world of root vegetables I had to discover as a grownup. Parsnips, Celeriac, and yes, Cohlrabi have made appearances on this blog and how it is the turn of the turnip…
Soul Food, good soul food, is something which tugs at your heart and it’s probably because so much of it involves time spent cooking and coaxing flavors from ingredients which need some, well, coaxing. I remember being in a place where lunch was served to me without my input about what was on my tray, and the days they served collard greens seemed a little brighter. With this in mind I chopped the tops of my turnips and set about trying to master the art of turnip greens.
Every recipe I found on the internet seemed to vary slightly but there were several basic ways suggested to remove the bitterness of the turnip green – baking soda, sugar, blanching with water, or cooking in salty savory broth. Since I’m a sucker for some serious chicken stock I took the internet’s advice and added some liberally to my greens and was rewarded. My only sadness about my journey into journey into “Turnip Greens Land” was the fact they cooked down so much I quickly ate through them, and was left looking for more. This recipe calls for using bacon and bacon drippings, which I joyfully did, and was handsomely rewarded because the bacon rendered down added texture and the breakfastumami-goodness which comes honestly from bacon drippings and aromatics cooked low and slow.
Ingredients
lb of turnips greens
cup of chicken stock
medium onion,, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, diced
3 slices of bacon
tsp of granulated sugar
Plan of Attack
Dice your bacon and add it to your dutch oven, on medium low heat.
When the bacon has rendered drippings, add the onions and garlic and cook until aromatic
After the onions are clear and aromatic, add the turnip greens, chicken stock and sugar. Place the top on the dutch oven (or sturdy pot) and cook for 60-70 minutes on medium low.
Yum…my only complaint is they were done so quickly!