Turnips. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, we all know the familiar purple-tinged, cruciferous root veggie. Its bland taste and earthy tones have been described as a blend between a potato and a carrot. While it might be a weird marriage of flavours, turnips are packed with minerals and dietary fiber.
Native to northern Europe, the turnip thrives best in cold weather, and seems to be one of those veggies that can keep for a long while before going bad. It has been used since ancient times, considered a staple food in ancient Greek and Roman diets and even in traditional Asian medicine where it is known to be great for the blood.
In a small town in Spain, there is an annual festival called Jarramplas where they throw turnips at the devil. Yes, you read that right. A volunteer is chosen to dress up in a multicoloured ribbon costume complete with horned devil mask, they then charge through the streets of this small Spanish village beating a drum, while people pelt him with turnips supplied by local farmers. This volunteer (remember, someone chose to do this) walks through the streets like this for as long as they can stand having turnips thrown at them.
OK Spain, that seems a little cruel and unusual. But hey, they do manage to get a volunteer every year, so someone is having fun doing it. I guess this just shows us how versatile turnips can be?
Because turnips have active compounds of goitrogens, which are known to interfere with thyroid function, anyone suffering from any kind of thyroid issue should avoid having them in their diets. But for the rest of us, we can reap its many nutritional benefits by adding turnips to our dietary repertoire.
Reasons you should be eating more turnips:
Vitamin K
This trusty, fat-soluble vitamin is needed for protein synthesis. By getting more turnips in your life you are literally doing your body good. Vitamin K also acts as an anti-inflammatory, lowering your risk of chronic diseases leading to potential circulatory problems.
Fibre
Get your daily dose to keep you regular. Turnips will help you with your dietary fibre intake, better than stuffing yourself with bran cereals and muffins like a chump. Mashed turnips probably never sounded so good, huh?
Vitamin C
With twice the amount of vitamin C than orange juice, turnips will help boost your immune system and keep you on your toes when you need it. I love it when veggies surprise me.
Calcium
Vegans rejoice! There is more than one food group that you can get your calcium from. Turnips are a great way to get yours; your healthy growing bones will thank you.
B vitamins
Turnip greens contain a ton of B vitamins and minerals that your body needs to function properly. As you may or may not know, B vitamins are great for your nervous system, help your body use energy from food and work to make red blood cells. Add turnip greens to your salad, stews, stir-fries or just steam them and add garlic, butter and some herbs/spices and feast.
Recipe: Sage turnips and yams
Ingredients:
1 pound of yams, peeled and diced
2 medium turnips, peeled and diced
3 large crushed cloves garlic
30 fresh sage leaves, divided (half left whole, the rest cut into strips)
2 tbsp butter
½ tsp fresh Thyme
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp coarsely cracked pepper
Directions:
• Place yams, turnips, garlic and whole sage leaves in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are tender enough that you can slice them with a fork (12-15 minutes). Drain. Return the vegetables to the pan and keep covered.
• Heat butter in a small pan over medium-high heat. As it melts and turns lightly brown, add the strips of sage and allow them to crackle and flavor the butter for about 1 minute.
• Pour the sage and butter over the vegetables and smash with a potato masher. Stir in salt, thyme and pepper and serve.
