Food With A Point

As a marketing student, I know that there is nothing worse than having a brand that people don’t know about. Awareness is the first step to recall and then hopefully purchase. Unfortunately, there are numerous vegetables that suffer such a fate and I feel that I should be using this space to rectify the situation and to encourage you to add them to your consideration set. One such vegetable is the turnip.

The turnip is a small to medium sized root vegetable that is available year round and has it’s peak between October and March. However, during the Spring is when you can procure baby turnips and those are worth the extra pennies for the short season we have them around. Contrary to the rutabaga which is bigger and have a yellow-tinged flesh, the turnip is generally white with a touch of purple near the stem. Because it’s part of the cabbage family, it has a mild mustard bite but the small Spring turnips also have a sweetness to them. The smaller they are, the easier they are to prepare because they don’t need to be peeled. You can eat them raw, sauté them or toss them in stews and soups. I like to braise them and towards the end, throw in fresh peas, asparagus, green onions, parsley and a touch of mint for a side dish that screams Spring!

Here are some other flavour affinities for turnips to consider:

• Curry, marjoram, thyme, ginger, paprika
• Duck, lamb, pork, bacon
• Lemon, vinegar, cream
• Onions, potatoes, garlic, parsnips, tomatoes