Quick Turnip Greens
June 3rd, 2010 · 2 Comments · Posted in garden, Recipes
Behold, turnip greens
It’s about this time of year I start wondering if we can actually manage to eat everything that’s growing in our garden. The turnip greens, for instance, planted from seed March 21, are about knee-high already and still tender. So last night as I contemplated frying some liver and onions, I thought some of those turnip greens would work nicely on the side.
Normally, I would first make a stock with a pot of water, a couple of smoked ham hocks and maybe an onion split in two. But time was short. After I cleaned a big bowl full of greens in the sink, and removed as many of the stems as practical, I simply dumped them in a pot of boiling, salted water and added a half-cup or so of apple cider vinegar. Instead of cooking them an hour or more, I gave them 30 minutes. They turned out fine–turnip greens are very benign, unlike their more fiery cousin, the mustard green.
“Did they make turnips?” my wife asked.
I explained that these turnips–brassica napa var.rapifera–are bred for the leaves, not the root. The root, in fact, looks like a tiny radish, nothing you’d want to eat. The cooked greens are fine with a dash of hot sauce, or another sprinkle of cider vinegar. Were it not for our friend Tomeika, who loves liver and greens, I would have been eating this meal all by myself. Nobody else in the family will go near liver.
For the tougher greens like collards and kale I often saute a chopped onion in bacon grease before adding the washed and sliced greens and some water. Sort of half way between your two methods but it gives a subtle bacon flavor. And I love liver and onion, too.
Can’t go wrong with bacon and onion, Diane. Glad to meet another liver and onion fan.