— Elise Riepenhoff

Well, you are absolutely right turnips and rutabagas members of the Brassica family along with the Kohlrabi which crows mostly above ground but is still actually a root vegetable. I think because of the role that it plays in the biology of the plant and yes, those are spicy much as brassica's are mustard greens or Nebraska as well. They have that those acids in them and those flavonoids that have that bitterness so turnips. Rutabagas really roasting caramelizing in some way sweetening those natural sugars are bringing them to the fore is really the very best way to do it if you simply boil them in salted water. Yes, it's sweetens them to a degree but I admit yes turnips can be a little bit Brash. They can be a little bit like an adolescent, you know teenager. Just a little bit attitude. Right and not really kind of playing well with others in their family. I haven't gotten there yet. My boys are. Year and a half and five and a half. So anyway, they're just gems right now, but no turnips in the family. So with those I like to roast them and what that does is it draws out some of that moisture we obviously by drawing them out desiccating them that concentrates the sweetness thus bringing it to the floor a little bit more. Also it caramelizes it a little bit my yard reaction. And so it changes the nature of those sugars in the way that we perceived them giving us that sort of satisfying Rich Elegance that we love about roasted anything whether you're talking about roasted bananas or turnips. It's all the same. And things that add sweetness are of course a really great way to go about doing this as well and maple syrup added as part of a glaze with maybe a little bit of butter adding cream to a mashed turnip or rutabaga, of course is going to swing this any form of dairy would do that. If you're in the Forks Over Knives and Whole Food plant-based stuff. There's all sorts of different ways. I mean pair it with oranges if you're boiling turnips turnips and orange work really well together. So just a little bit of orange juice. In the water and not really to sweeten it so much as to add the perception of sweetness even orange zest taken off in simmered in the water with it to aromatize it I found offers that like we know that orange juice is sweet. Right and so the taste memory of it You sort of pulls us there herbs can go either way as well. They can sometimes add a little bit of bitterness. If you're not careful so basil and turnips, which is kind of, you know, February meets August. Anyway, I found doesn't really work very well because it does draw out that bitterness. So those are a couple ways that I would recommend so spices is another I just saw in your question again, so sweeter spices and not saying sweet but like baking spices cinnamon nutmeg mace, I think have a tendency to draw out I think somewhat by perception and taste memory, but also just by virtue of how they work. Turmeric would be a really great one as well to help draw that out and I'm not talking about it much. You know, it doesn't have to be a cinnamon-flavored dish but just a little bit even sweet smoked sweet paprika adding that Smoky flavor in the spice in the background. And the way that I would incorporate these is take your root veg. If you use oil toss it with oil maybe some grated garlic a bunch of salt and some pepper. If you're if you like pepper, I would leave the pepper off until the very end. I like I don't like to really roast pepper. I like to if I'm using it add it fresh on at the very end. So you get the most out of it. But roast the veg still they're almost fully done. If not all the way done and then make a sort of slurry with a little bit of oil and whatever spices you're using just a pinch of cinnamon that black pepper smoked paprika make a paste out of that a slurry toss the vegetables in that put them back in the oven for a minute just to toast those spices and kind of Bloom their flavors and you find that it radically Alters the flavor of what you're eating. So that's actually going to turn me back because I'm talking about all this so I had to grab a towel there. to one of the dishes that I'm don't take things out of an oven with a wet tail. There's my advice for you today. So I have I have this really fun steam oven back here. It's a countertop one. So I've been steam roasting this turnip for a little while. And this is the same kind of turnip that I bought right. Oh. Should stop doing that shouldn't I and all I've done is I cut just the very top off cut the bottom off the base of that of the stems there for the for the plant and then I just made these. lines coming down and I just carved it in like I keep touching the pen and you see I've got this beautiful sort of globe right with and it's really what it looks like and I left the skin on there. And what I'm going to do is I've got a glaze of maple syrup and mustard and you know, I'm gonna add some salt to this. and I've been baking this for It was at 300 350 and then I turned it down because I didn't want to overcook it while I was talking to you but what you can smell now though is the sweetness of this turnip is coming out incredibly strong. I've used a knife just to poke a little preparing knife. And as soon as it feels, you know, it gives gives way easily. excuse me, and the reason that I put those Little lines in there is because I was planning on glazing it and I'm what I'm adding here is whole grain mustard. and maple syrup And I'm just basting that over the top. To see what I've got here. right and just let's throw that back in the oven just until that maple syrup kind of bubbles a little bit and that's it. And there's your dish. It's sort of this beautiful wonderful, you know root vegetable instead of being mixed with other root vegetables and relegated to a side dish all of a sudden. It's this sort of Center piece. You know, I didn't make it. I'm not trying to make it mimic meat here, but that's gonna be a very very satisfying dish especially if you put Like a wonderful herb pesto or just herb salad around it. I mean think about leaves of fresh mint picked and lightly bruised by the action of picking parsley leaves some dill which goes really nicely with turnips some thinly shaved fresh shallot all tossed together maybe with some almonds or walnuts and sort of served as a salad around the side just a drizzle lemon juice. Over top. Oh my God. This is gonna be super super tasty and a really fun dish. You got a fork and knife, you know, I mean, there you go fun way to cook it. So There you go. That was a long answer release, but sort of the heart of what we're talking about today if you will, so I'm gonna let that cook a little bit longer and then I'm going to I'm actually going to turn this on. And get that nice and hot we'll take another couple questions here and then keep going with some of those dishes.