I've never understood the general aversion to turnips?!
I freaking love 'em, and think they go hand in hand with most holiday fare, or just a nice roast of beef or roast pork dinner.
Yet so many wrinkle their nose in disgust.
Turnips. Do you love them or hate them?
Is it a taste issue or a texture issue? Is it both?
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My daughter likes it, as well.
Our state veggie here in Vermont is the Gilfeather Turnip
so I was surprised when I looked online and saw several recipes that were what I make. Basically, I cook down an onion in olive oil and then peel turnips and perhaps a potato and cube them. I toss them in the pot with water and cook them down. When they are ready to be mashed, I use a 'bender wand' - I blend it with blue cheese and some milk. I might add a green (watercress) as well. Or, instead of onion a leek (whatever I have).
And that's it. We love it 
It was a holiday essential in my house. My mother and sisters did the bulk of all the cooking, vast platters of food impending. I helped out when I could. But only my father did the rutabaga. It was served roughly mashed and best smothered in my mother's exquisite turkey gravy and adjacent to her very zippy -- you cannot put in too much sage -- dressing, also absolutely exquisite. Add some turkey dark meat and you'll be in heaven. Don't ignore the other side dishes, though. Mashed potatoes, proper adult recipe candied sweet potatoes (no kiddie's marshmallows in it at my house!), green beans. Lots of pies for dessert. My favorite of the latter was mother's mince meat, but one is inevitably drawn to have a sliver or whole slice of pumpkin, apple, or -- DUN, DUN, DUNNNN! -- my mother's to die for strawberry rhubarb. My father would pour real cream on any of them.
Whoa!
The rutabaga was what set those meals aside as special.
But...I require them far more than a few times a year.
Hell. I get cravings so bad, I'll cook up a pot and have *only* that for dinner. (With sinful amounts of butter, of course.)
One holiday my sister insisted on serving lutefisk. (We are half Norwegian; half Finnish.) Absolutely horrible stuff! Inedible, as far as I can tell. But pickled herring? Yummy!! There was leftover lutefisk, but no leftover rutabaga. Funny, that.
but I probably will now, thanks to your thread. We love turnip greens at my house and grow them in our garden, both 7 tops and purple tops. IMHO, those little purple tops are about the sweetest thing I've ever eaten--better than carrots. They make everything taste better. The purple tops are quite easy to peel. I put them in mashed potatoes and everyone raves about how great they are. Of course, the fact that there's a turnip in the pot is a family secret. I use them in many soup recipes, and cook diced turnip in the pot with turnip greens.
I love strong flavors, like black coffee, herbs, horseradish, beets, kraut, and turnips/rutabaga are at the top of my list.
