{"id":212,"date":"2010-02-26T09:18:01","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T14:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/?p=212"},"modified":"2010-02-26T09:18:01","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T14:18:01","slug":"bitter-gets-sweet-i-swear-a-recipe-for-caramelizing-turnips-in-a-cast-iron-skillet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/2010\/02\/bitter-gets-sweet-i-swear-a-recipe-for-caramelizing-turnips-in-a-cast-iron-skillet\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitter Gets Sweet (I Swear!): A Recipe for Caramelizing Turnips In a Cast Iron Skillet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I know you are thinking I have lost my mind. Last week it was celery root; this week it\u2019s turnips. \u201cCan\u2019t she write about something delicious\u2014or something my family will actually eat?\u201d I hear you asking. I\u2019m sorry, but I just couldn\u2019t pass up the chance to tell you about this\u2014the absolutely most delicious way to cook turnips.<\/p>\n

In fact, I\u2019ve already written about this technique\u2014slow-saut\u00e9ing in a cast-iron skillet\u2014once this week. I moonlight as an occasional blogger over at the Huffington Post\u2019s Green Page, and this week I\u2019ve been participating in their latest challenge\u2014The Week of Eating In.<\/a> At first I felt a little silly saying, \u201cSure, I\u2019ll eat in for a week,\u201d since I already cook and eat most of my meals at home. (Plus I just recently posted my opinion<\/a> on why I think everyone else should cook at home more, too!) But then I realized I could help other people in the challenge by posting tasty ideas for cooking veggies at home.\u00a0 And since I had just made my slow-saut\u00e9ed turnips, potatoes, carrots, and onions for like the 12th<\/sup> time this winter, I figured I\u2019d share that yummy idea on Huff Post.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Over here, I wanted to post the whole recipe (and a few more photos), and to also let you know that there are many more \u201cslow-saut\u00e9s\u201d coming in my cookbook, Fast, Fresh, & Green.<\/em> <\/a>The recipes in the book were developed for a straight-sided stainless steel saut\u00e9 pan, since I think more people own them than cast-iron pans. But cast-iron is so perfect for this kind of dish, because it captures and distributes heat so evenly, that I wanted you to be able to try it if you can. (You can get a pre-seasoned Lodge cast iron skillet for about $15.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I start this kind of saut\u00e9 by dicing (pretty small but not too fussy) whatever roots I\u2019ve got on hand and piling them into the skillet with lots of olive oil and herb sprigs. The pan will be really crowded at first\u2014that\u2019s okay. As the vegetables cook, they brown and steam at the same time (and they shrink quite a bit). I always add some aromatic allium\u2014onion, leeks, or shallots\u2014about halfway through cooking for added moisture and flavor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But the most important thing I do is to keep my ears tuned to the sizzling in the pan. It should be a steady, perky sizzle\u2014but nothing too explosive sounding. The sizzle\u2019s your cue to how fast the veggies are cooking. You want them to brown and steam at about the same rate, because your ultimate goal is deeply browned (yes, caramelized) vegetables that are cooked through, too. This is much easier than I\u2019m making it sound. All you need to do is stir every once in awhile and maybe adjust the heat once or twice. The veggies will be done in about 35 to 40 minutes\u2014but you\u2019ll have plenty of time to make whatever else you\u2019re having for dinner while they\u2019re cooking. (By the way, for vegetarians, these saut\u00e9s are hearty enough to plunk in the middle of the plate.)<\/p>\n

Caramelized Turnips, Potatoes, & Carrots with Onions & Thyme<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you don\u2019t have a cast iron pan, you can make this recipe in a 10-inch straight-sided saut\u00e9 pan (stainless interior). The browning won\u2019t be quite as even, and you might need to add a bit more oil, but the results are still very tasty.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, more if needed<\/p>\n

\u00bd pound purple-topped turnips, trimmed but not peeled, cut into \u00bd-inch dice<\/p>\n

\u00bd pound Yukon Gold potatoes, unpeeled, cut into \u00bd-inch dice<\/p>\n

\u00bd pound carrots, trimmed and peeled, cut into \u00bd-inch dice<\/p>\n

\u00bd teaspoon kosher salt, more if needed<\/p>\n

5 to 6 thyme sprigs<\/p>\n

1 medium onion (about 5 ounces), cut into medium dice<\/p>\n

___________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

In a 10 or 11-inch cast iron skillet, heat the 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the turnips, potatoes, carrots, salt, and herb sprigs and stir and toss well to combine and to coat with the oil. (The pan will look crowded.) Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring and flipping occasionally with a metal spatula, for about 20 minutes. (Listen to the pan\u2014you should hear a gentle sizzle, not a loud one. If the vegetables are browning too quickly, reduce the heat a bit to maintain that gentle sizzle. If they seem dry, add a bit more olive oil.) Add the diced onion and continue to cook, stirring and flipping with the spatula, until the vegetables are deeply browned and tender all the way through, about another 15 minutes. Remove the herb sprigs before serving. Taste and season with more salt if you like.<\/p>\n

Serves 3 to 4<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know you are thinking I have lost my mind. Last week it was celery root; this week it\u2019s turnips. \u201cCan\u2019t she write about something delicious\u2014or something my family will actually eat?\u201d I hear you asking. I\u2019m sorry, but I just couldn\u2019t pass up the chance to tell you about this\u2014the absolutely most delicious way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[33,40,29,39],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}