Tag Archives: turnip recipes

Main Dish, Pork, Recipes, Vegetables & Salads, Vegetarian

Turnips and Cauliflower Gratin Side Dish

I’m sure no one really misses potatoes with their meals, right?  Of course not, but, oh, the flavor of a potato with cheese casserole.  Yeah, sometimes it would sure be nice to have that with a steak or roasted chicken, wouldn’t it?

Well, this isn’t quite that potato recipe, but it is a very good substitute.  The truth is that after four years, I have only eaten potatoes twice, and they were baked both times, and I haven’t  missed them that much.  I have found that I honestly like the taste of turnips and the combination of turnips with cauliflower is deliciously good.

Not everyone agrees with that and  they absolutely hate turnips, but I say, at least give them a chance.  You could use kohlrabi  or celery root for the turnips or the cauliflower in this recipe or swap them around however you want.  Any combination equals a side dish that is very tasty and much lower in carbohydrates than using potatoes in the dish.

Turnips and Cauliflower Gratin

Turnips and Cauliflower Gratin

1 1/4 cups Turnips, (about 2 medium), sliced thinly
1 cup Cauliflower,sliced thinly
1/2 Onions, sliced thinly
1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream,
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1/2 teaspoon Thyme, ground or 1 tablespoon fresh
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 cloves Garlic, smashed
1 tablespoon Fresh Chives or 1 teaspoon dried
3/4 cup Mozzarella Cheese or Parmesan Cheese, shredded
3 tablespoon Butter

Put the cream and seasonings, except chives, into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and taste to check the seasonings. Adjust, if needed. Let the mixture sit for 15 to 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F.) Lightly spray a 9×9″ baking dish with cooking spray or butter the bottom and sides.

Peel turnips and boil them for 20 minutes. Cut into thin slices as evenly as possible. If you use a mandolin to cut, then cut the slices before cooking and only cook about 5 minutes to soften them. Drain. Cut 1/4 head of cauliflower into slices, put in a bowl and microwave for 4 minutes to partially cook. Cut a small onion into thin slices. You should have about 1/2 cup.

Layer 1/2 of the turnips on the bottom of the pan and dot with 1 tablespoon of butter. Remove the garlic from the sauce and spoon about 1/3 of the sauce over the turnips. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese. Layer the cauliflower and onions on top of the first layer, dot with butter and spoon 1/3 of the sauce over the top and sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese.. Layer the rest of the turnips over the top layer, dot with the remaining butter, pour the rest of the sauce over the top, and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Sprinkle a little paprika over the top if you would like.

Cook at 375 degrees (F) for 35 minutes. Remove cover and bake another 15 minutes until golden brown.

Makes 6 servings

Nutrition Info per serving:
Calories: 195 Fat: 17.4 g Net Carbs: 4.2 g Protein: 5.1 g

As this stands, this is a nice vegetarian dish.  Want to make a main dish out of this?  Add about 6 to 8 slices of bacon torn into pieces or 1 1/2 cups of ham cut into cubes.  Just add them to the middle layer, then put on the top layer of turnips.

Recipes, Vegetables & Salads

Quick Roasted Turnips and Kohlrabi

I may be one of the few people who really finds the taste of turnips to be pretty darn good. As a substitute for potatoes, most people probably wouldn’t think it works too well, but as a really good vegetable with similar taste and a lot fewer carbohydrates, I think it’s a good choice. If you combine it with kohlrabi, it’s even better. You can also use celery root in this roast and it makes a great combination of similar flavors and textures. They roast very well and the seasoning I used is simply a half a packet of Lipton’s Onion Soup mix with Olive Oil.

Roasted Turnips and Kohlrabi

1 1/2 cups Kohlrabi (about 2 medium or 4 small)
1 1/2 cups Turnips (about 2 medium)
1/2 package Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix or any other onion soup mix
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Sugar Substitute

Begin preheating oven to 425 degrees (F.)

Peel the turnips and kohlrabi and cut into about 3/4″ cubes. Bring a pan of water with enough water to cover the vegetables to a boil. Add the vegetables and sugar substitute and boil for about 8 to 10 minutes until the vegetables are just fork tender.

Drain the vegetables well, getting as much water off as possible and spread on a paper towel and blot to remove more. In a roasting pan or cake pan, spread the vegetables into one layer and sprinkle the soup mix over the top. Drizzle the oil over the mix and use a spoon to mix it together well so that all the pieces of vegetables have oil and mix on them. Spread them back to a single layer and cook in the oven for 20 minutes. Stir them around mid-way through, flipping them over if needed. Check at 20 minutes to make sure they are fork tender and lightly browned. If not, give them another 5 or 10 minutes until they are done.

Serves 4.

Nutrition Info per serving:
Calories: 49.5 Fat: .2 g Net Carbs: 5.9 g Protein: 1.7 g

Posted on 2/20/2014 4:35 PM

Recipes, Vegetables & Salads

Another Potato Substitute – Veggies O’Brien

If you’re anything like me, potatoes were a mainstay of your life. But they become a big starchy vegetable with more carbs than you want in your body when you try to maintain a low carb lifestyle. From the time I started in earnest on this eating plan two years ago, I began looking for acceptable substitutions for potatoes and bread. I’d grown up with them in one form or another at just about every meal. In high school lunch had consisted of french fries and a large hot roll with butter. (They were the least expensive and most filling thing that the school cafeteria offered. Any wonder that I had a weight problem?)

So, I have tried several options to substitute a potato, mostly successful in their own right if not matching the potato taste. Among the choices are cauliflower, turnips, daikon radishes and now kohlrabi. If anyone has other suggestions, please let me know. (Rutabagas and parsnips are higher carb’d than I want to go, but also good options.) I am having a ball tasting all these different flavors prepared like potatoes. My offering today is a combination of the potato substitutes prepared like Potatoes O’Brien. They make a very tasty dish that is very close to the starchy version and yet have their own character, The flavors meld well together and I really am not missing the potato in this.

If your body can use more carbohydrates than mine does, then you can actually add potatoes to the mix and it would still cut out some of the carbs and leave you with a lower carb’d version.

As a bonus, if you add bacon or sausage or ham and cheese to this, you can make it as a nice one dish meal without adding too many carbs.

Home-style Veggies O’Brien

A tasty mix of several root vegetables with cauliflower to make a dish similar to Potatoes O’Brien, without the high carbs! Don’t like daikon? Just sub in more kohlrabi or turnip.  Don’t like turnip or cauliflower? Use just the kohlrabi. It’s very flexible.

1/2 cup Cauliflower, cut into pieces
1/2 cup Kohlrabi,, cut into 1/4″ cubes
1/2 cup Turnips, .5 cut into 1/4″ cubes
1/2 cup Daikon Radish, cut into 1/4″ cubes
1/2 cup Onions, chopped
1/4 cup Sweet Peppers, sliced
1 tablespoon Olive oil or Bacon fat
1 teaspoon Seasoning Salt or Garlic Pepper seasoning
3 strips of Bacon, broken into pieces (optional)
1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese (optional)

Put cauliflower, kohlrabi, turnips and daikon in a pot, cover with water, add a pinch of salt and boil for about 15 minutes. Drain. In a skillet, heat olive oil, add onions and peppers and stir fry until tender. Add vegetables and stir together. Cook, stirring often, until veggies are lightly browned. Add seasoning and serve.

Makes about four 1/2 cup servings.

Tip: You can cook up the vegetables ahead of time, drain well and store in the refrigerator in a plastic bag for about a week or freeze to store longer. Just pull them out when you’re ready to make your hash browns.
Also, when putting the veggies in the bag, squeeze as much air out of the bag as you can before sealing it, then fold it over to save storage space and help keep the food fresher.

Nutrition Info per 1/2 cup serving (without optional items):
Calories: 24.8 Net Carbs: 3.4 g Protein: 1 g

Substituting all kohlrabi for the vegetables:
Calories: 27.6 Net Carbs: 3.2g Protein: 1.3 g

Adding optional items:
Calories: 112 Net Carbs: 3.4 g Protein: 6.3 g

Posted on  1/23/2013

Recipes, Vegetables & Salads

Butternut Turnip Mash is a Treat

While looking for a yummy side dish to go with my sirloin pot roast left over, which I reheated on my Foreman grill, I found a recipe for a Sweet Potato Turnip Swirl on AllRecipes.com. It sounded great, but sweet potatoes have a pretty high carb count. This is an adaptation of that recipe from Robyn Webb. I replaced the sweet potato with butternut squash and just mashed them instead of doing a puree. The result is a delicious alternative to mashed potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes.

2 medium Turnips, peeled and cubed, about 2 cups
1 cup Butternut Squash, peeled and cubed
1 teaspoon minced fresh Ginger Root
1 tablespoon Butter
1 tablespoon Sugar Substitute
1 teaspoons Orange Extract
1/2 teaspoon grated Orange Zest

Put the turnips and butternut squash in a saucepan over medium high heat, add enough water to just cover. Bring to a boil and cook until soft, about 15 to 20 minutes. Drain and mash in the pan.

Add the ginger, butter, sugar, and orange and mix well. Cook on low heat for a few more minutes to melt the butter and blend the flavors in.

Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition Info per serving: Calories: 46 Net Carbs: 4.9 Protein: .7

Posted on 1/10/2013

Recipes, Vegetables & Salads

Potato Pancake Substitute Is Great!

My last post of 2012… Wow, where did the last year go? When I was a kid, it seemed like time went by way too slowly, especially during the weeks when we were in school, but then the summer seemed to fly by. That’s kind of how it is now, the days just seem to go by so quickly and there is so much undone at the end of the day that I had hoped to do. Work days never seemed to go this quickly.

So, anyway, here’s the last recipe I’m offering for 2012. This is a simple substitute for a potato pancake that is made with left over smashed turnips with leeks. I’ve pictured it with a BBQ beef sandwich on an Oopsie Roll (Your Lighter Side’s web site) and a small salad. The BBQ beef sandwich is easily made from leftover roast beef and sliced onions warmed up in a skillet with Walden Farm’s 0 calorie, 0 carb Honey BBQ Sauce. (Carried at some grocery stores or order from Netrition.com.)

Turnip and Leek Pancakes

1 cup leftover Smashed Turnips with Leeks
1/4 teaspoon Seasoning Salt
1/4 teaspoon Ground Pepper
1/4 cup Carbquick or other low carb flour
1 Egg
1 tablespoon Butter

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until smooth. Heat skillet or griddle until hot and spray cooking spray or melt butter in the pan. Put 1/4 of batter mixture in the pan and spread to about 1/3 to 1/2 inch thickness. Repeat with as many cakes as the pan can hold and still allow you to turn easily. Cook on medium heat for about four minutes then carefully turn. Be sure to slide the pancake turner under the entire cake to support it so it won’t break apart. Cook on the other side about another four minutes. Cakes should be nicely browned.

Makes 2 servings of 2 cakes each.

Nutrition Info: Calories: 209.2 Net carbs: 8.1 g Protein: 7.4 g

POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 12/31/2012 6:54 PM