Turnip greens: not as boring as I thought
“For the love of God! No more greens!”
That was my first thought when I picked up our CSA box yesterday. This week brought us lettuce, arugula, stir-fry mix and chard, but we’re still wading through last week’s head of cabbage and an impulse bag of Brussels sprouts that I picked up to supplement our already-bursting vegetable drawer.
A generous bundle of Tokyo turnips, greens attached, lay heavily at the bottom of our vegetable menagerie. Typically I twist their tops off and into the compost they go …except that we don’t have compost anymore. And it makes me feel sad to put a huge pile of edible greens in the trash, when they came all the way from Dixon just for me. I decided to see what I could do with them.
I’ve been wary of cooking up just any old greens ever since I volunteered for an organic farmer a few summers ago in Illinois. At the farmer’s market one day, a couple holding a baby asked me whether carrot greens were edible. “I don’t see why not!” I said, and merrily sent them on their way. Later I found out that carrot tops are a controversial ingredient; some people eat them with reckless abandon, while others insist they’re toxic. Oh, my. I dearly hope they didn't grind up a bunch of toxic carrot tops for baby that night after I gave them the green light. So to speak.
I’d never cooked turnip greens before, so I had to do a little research first. The leaves are studded with tiny pricklies that seemed to require a bit more than a quick sauté. I ended up using this recipe, more or less, but I boiled the greens for about five minutes before proceeding through the other steps.
The results were great! Turnip greens have a natural spiciness to them but lack that stringiness you sometimes find in spinach and chard. Mine came out very tender, and the smokiness of the bacon and the creamy egg complemented them well; it brought to mind that great culinary classic, the spinach salad with warm bacon dressing.
With my foray into the land of turnip tops, I guess I just set us up with even MORE greens to eat each week. But that’s hardly a bad thing, especially when bacon is involved.
That was my first thought when I picked up our CSA box yesterday. This week brought us lettuce, arugula, stir-fry mix and chard, but we’re still wading through last week’s head of cabbage and an impulse bag of Brussels sprouts that I picked up to supplement our already-bursting vegetable drawer.
A generous bundle of Tokyo turnips, greens attached, lay heavily at the bottom of our vegetable menagerie. Typically I twist their tops off and into the compost they go …except that we don’t have compost anymore. And it makes me feel sad to put a huge pile of edible greens in the trash, when they came all the way from Dixon just for me. I decided to see what I could do with them.
I’ve been wary of cooking up just any old greens ever since I volunteered for an organic farmer a few summers ago in Illinois. At the farmer’s market one day, a couple holding a baby asked me whether carrot greens were edible. “I don’t see why not!” I said, and merrily sent them on their way. Later I found out that carrot tops are a controversial ingredient; some people eat them with reckless abandon, while others insist they’re toxic. Oh, my. I dearly hope they didn't grind up a bunch of toxic carrot tops for baby that night after I gave them the green light. So to speak.
I’d never cooked turnip greens before, so I had to do a little research first. The leaves are studded with tiny pricklies that seemed to require a bit more than a quick sauté. I ended up using this recipe, more or less, but I boiled the greens for about five minutes before proceeding through the other steps.
The results were great! Turnip greens have a natural spiciness to them but lack that stringiness you sometimes find in spinach and chard. Mine came out very tender, and the smokiness of the bacon and the creamy egg complemented them well; it brought to mind that great culinary classic, the spinach salad with warm bacon dressing.
With my foray into the land of turnip tops, I guess I just set us up with even MORE greens to eat each week. But that’s hardly a bad thing, especially when bacon is involved.
Labels: vegetables
posted by cindym at 3:04 PM
3 Comments:
Cindy, I'm impressed with your commitment to using up all your veggies--I know how those CSA boxes can overwhelm you at times. And I LOVE that you put bacon and eggs on your turnip greens. I know its more reminiscent of the spinach salad thing, but it's funnier if I imagine that this was some kind of a protest against the overdose of healthy greens you are getting ;)
Hello!
I would like to know how you got your midnight shots in Princeville?
I could not find an email address so I am posting, hope your ok with that? Thank you so much, it will really help.
I am enjoying your blog as well. I just discovered it, thanks!
Hi Michele -
man, i didn't even realize i was smearing my healthy greens with lard and fat. No wonder they taste good! Haha.
Junglegirl - There was a huge storm in the middle of the night, so I just set up my camera on the deck of our condo, and tried my best to keep it steady by holding it on the railing, then took tons of shots with a pretty slow shutter speed. That's it! On some of them, the sky was lit up because lightning had just struck or was striking in the shot.
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