Creamy Mashed Turnip

 Here's the thing. My family Thanksgiving gathering, with something like twenty plus people, always has mashed turnip. And I always passed it down the table. They didn't "do" anything to it. They just left it plain. And well, the flavor didn't appeal to me as a kid. So, when I discovered this recipe, with appealing additions (who doesn't love a veggie that has cream cheese?!), I was ready to to try it. *Sigh* To think that all those years, I could have been enjoying cream cheese mashed turnip at Thanksgiving. Ah well, now I can!

One problem. Having never cooked turnip in my life, I grabbed one at the grocery and immediately dropped it. Yeah, dropped it like a hot turnip. Because it felt kinda wierd. I have since learned that turnips are coated with wax to protect them. I don't know, maybe they are fragile? Anyway, I had no idea how to cope with the wax. Do you melt it? Do you rub it off? What, exactly, does one do with a waxed turnip? Thank goodness for Facebook! I just asked my friends, and a couple of them were very happy to describe how to remove the wax and prepare the turnip.

I am happy to report that Creamy Mashed Turnip is a delicious veggie. I did add a little more than the recipe called for in the way of grated parmesan. Basically, I chose to empty the dregs of the jar into the recipe, since there seemed to be so little left. In retrospect, there is a limit to how much parmesan a turnip can handle. It wasn't bad, but just sayin'...don't go overboard on the parmesan.

A shoutout to Ruth, one of my parishioners, who made the cheerful microwave warmer which you see holding the casserole dish that I used for this recipe.



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