Ingredient

Turnip

Turnips have a bad reputation earned almost entirely by large old ones. A young turnip the size of a golf ball is sweet, juicy and mild enough to eat raw; a large woody one is peppery, fibrous and coarse. They are the same vegetable at two very different stages and they are not used the same way.

Small against large, and the swede question

Baby turnips

Golf-ball sized, often sold in bunches with their leaves. Sweet, crisp, mild, thin-skinned. Eat raw, glaze whole, or roast. No peeling needed.

Medium turnips

Tennis-ball sized, white with a purple shoulder. The standard. Peppery but manageable. Roast, mash or put in a stew.

Large old turnips

Coarse, fibrous, strongly peppery, sometimes woody at the centre. For long cooking in a stew or a broth, if at all.

Swede

A different vegetable — larger, yellow-fleshed, sweeter and denser, a cross between turnip and cabbage. Not interchangeable.

The Scottish complication

In Scotland "neeps" means swede, and what the English call a swede is often called a turnip. A recipe for neeps and tatties wants the yellow one.

Turnip tops

The leaves, sold on bunched baby turnips and separately as cima di rapa in Italy. Peppery and excellent, cooked like any robust green.

How to cook them

• Glazed whole, baby turnips in butter, a little sugar and stock, cooked until the liquid reduces to a shiny coating. A classic French treatment and the best thing you can do with small ones.
• Roasted in wedges, with oil and salt, which sweetens them considerably and takes the pepper off.
• Raw, thinly sliced, in a salad — baby turnips only, and it surprises people.
• Mashed, alone or with potato, with plenty of butter and black pepper.
• In a stew or a broth, where they absorb flavour and hold their shape better than potato.
• Pickled, which is common across the Middle East — turnip pickled with beetroot goes bright pink and is a standard mezze.
• The tops, wilted with garlic, chilli and oil, or in orecchiette with sausage.
• Not boiled to death, which is where the reputation came from.

Why they are peppery

Turnips are brassicas, related to cabbage, mustard and radish, and they carry the same glucosinolates. Cut or chew one and enzymes convert those into pungent compounds, which is where the peppery bite comes from.

The concentration rises as the root gets older and larger, which is the whole reason a big turnip is fierce and a small one is not. It also rises with stress during growing — drought, heat — so a turnip from a hard summer will be stronger than one from a wet one.

Cooking reduces it, because the compounds are volatile and heat-sensitive. Roasting reduces it most, since dry heat drives them off while also caramelising the sugars, which is why a roasted turnip is sweet and a boiled one is not. Fat and acid both blunt what remains.

Glazed baby turnips

The dish that converts people, and it takes about fifteen minutes.

1. Trim the tops off small turnips, leaving a short stub of stalk, and scrub them. Do not peel them.
2. Halve any that are larger than a walnut so everything cooks at the same rate.
3. Put them in a wide pan in a single layer with a good knob of butter, a pinch of sugar, a pinch of salt, and enough water or stock to come about halfway up.
4. Bring to a simmer, cover loosely, and cook until the turnips are tender to the point of a knife — around ten minutes depending on size.
5. Take the lid off and turn the heat up. The liquid reduces to a syrupy glaze that coats the turnips, and they take on a shine and a little colour.
6. Shake the pan rather than stirring, so they do not break up. Finish with black pepper and chopped parsley or the chopped turnip tops.

Common questions