Small, it’s been said, is beautiful, and that’s particularly true when it comes to turnips. While baby turnips still have the root’s trademark horseradishlike kick, they’re far sweeter and juicier than their more mature counterparts.

“When you think of a turnip, you think of a big, gnarly baseball for feeding a horse,” says Joe Schirmer of Dirty Girl Produce. “The little ones are unexpected. You can prepare them like any other turnip—roast them, purée them, add them to mashed potatoes—but you can also eat them raw.”

Many local chefs are so taken with the taste, versatility, and cute factor of the little guys that they’ve sworn off the larger ones: “Golf ball size is as big as we go,” says Laurence Jossel, Nopa’s executive chef.

AT THE MARKET
Turnips are grown year-round in the Bay Area, but sales pick up in the fall. The purple-topped turnip (pictured) is the quintessential American variety, and the Milan is shaped like a cipollini onion. The snow-white Tokyo (also pictured) is the industry darling—it’s the sweetest and has the texture of a water chestnut—while the Japanese scarlet turnip is almost identical to the Tokyo but has a brilliant red skin. (These two are great for pickling.) But the most unusual is the gold turnip, which is denser and requires longer cooking.

Don’t waste your time foraging through the bin looking for the perfect turnip: “As long as it’s not rotting, it’s good to eat,” says Grant Bryant of Heirloom Organic Gardens.

If the greens are still attached, then the turnip was picked within the last week. These extremely nutritious leaves are edible, but you’ll want to use them up quickly, as their shelf life is just a few days. Turnips without greens can be refrigerated in a container with a dry cloth on the bottom and a wet cloth on top. Like potatoes, they’ll keep for weeks and are good to eat as long as they haven’t turned mushy.

San Francisco Magazine

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Uncategorized by Wendy Van Wagner