Best mashed turnips prepared with whole or frozen turnips, all low carb.
Watch how to make mashed turnips with my short video clip and process shots further below.
This is your holiday side dish if you like a healthy, easy to prepare, low-calorie mash.
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📕 What are turnips?
Turnips are round-shaped roots, which average the size of a fist.
Varieties exist, but the most common turnips are white and pink or purple, mainly wherever the roots have grown out of the soil.
Turnips are made of the root and the greens, both can be consumed and used in your cooking.
I like to make a turnip soup greens with the tops, which taste by the way like mustard greens.
The roots can be prepared like most root vegetables and young baby turnips can be even enjoyed raw uncooked.
The turnip vegetable is sometimes associated with little table radish (aka radi), daikon radish, celery root and kohlrabi (aka german turnip).
🔪 How to prepare turnips?
Turnips are harvested with the root and the greens attached.
You can cut off the greens from the roots and use the tops in a soup.
The root vegetable tends to be covered in mud, especially if it rained just before.
Use a vegetable brush to scrub off mud and impurities.
Then move on to peel and cut your turnips.
How do you peel Turnips
Turnips tend to come in various sizes, from small to large.
I found the easiest way to peel a turnip is to use a regular small knife because the turnip skin can be tough.
You can try to peel your turnip too with a quality peeler but I personally found it to be cumbersome compared to peeling the root with a regular small knife.
I peel my turnip as a whole, but if you have a monster turnip to work on, then I recommend you cut it into two and peel it when it's in a manageable size.
How to cut Turnips?
Cutting turnips is the easiest part ever!
Turnip root flesh is rather hard (except baby turnips), so you will need a large knife to cut through clean in one go.
After you have peeled your turnip root, cut it into two and then into smaller cubes.
It's just as you would cut a potato.
To prepare the mash, try to cut the turnip cubes smaller so that they cook faster.
🥄 How to mash it?
You can prepare your mashed turnips once you have peeled your turnip root and cut it into smaller pieces to cook.
I illustrate the process in 3 straight forward easy to follow steps.
Find the complete recipe with instructions and ingredient details at the bottom of this post in the printable recipe card with the how-to video.
Step 1
Place cut turnip root pieces into a pot and cover with water.
Season with salt so that the turnip mash will have flavor.
Don't skip seasoning with salt or else your mashed turnips will turn out boring and bland.
Bring to a boil and cook your turnips soft.
Step 2
Take your cooked turnips from the heat and strain.
Place the turnip pieces back into the pot.
Season with ground black pepper and add thick cream to the cooked roots.
Step 3
Turn the turnip pieces into a mash over medium to low heat with a potato masher or a hand blender.
Root juices tend to come out during the mashing process so that's why you need to mash it over the heat so that the mash gets formed well.
Reduce to the desired mash consistency.
Prepare to serve up your mash when still hot, garnished with chopped fresh chives and a dollop of butter, ghee or cream.
❄️ Freezing
Yes, you can freeze mashed turnips.
Just prepare the mashed turnips as per recipe instructions.
You may want to create batches because smaller portions are quicker to defrost.
Place in an airtight freezer-friendly container.
You can store the turnip mash for about 6 or more months in the freezer if not defrosted in between.
To defrost simply keep in the fridge overnight or place on a thawing tray to help you defrost your mash equally.
Then you are just left with heating up the mashed turnips again so that you can serve it up as a side dish.
🥣 Serving
I love my mashed turnips in a rather unconventional way and it's pretty much the same way that I eat my mashed potatoes.
Mashed potatoes and fried or poached eggs with a little green salad at the side are how I serve up my mashed turnip roots.
That's a balanced, wholesome healthier meal.
However, YOU might enjoy these mashed turnips as a side dish with a roasted turkey, gravy and other delicious holiday side dishes.
The turnip mash makes a great side dish with roasted pork, meatloaf, roasted chicken and grilled fish.
💭 FAQs
The cooking time of your turnips depends on the cut size. Turnips peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes, take about 20 minutes to cook through.
This turnip mash is thickened with cream. A low-calorie option to thicken your mashed turnip if it is too watery would be to use a tablespoon of all-purpose flour instead of cream in the cooking process. The flour helps to thicken the turnip puree.
No mashed turnips don't taste like potatoes but the taste is similar, especially if you chose to season your turnip mash further.
Season and enhance your mash by creating variations of mashed turnip recipes. You can pep up your mash with dried oregano, nutmeg or ground caraway. Seasoning blends such as Italian seasoning and Herb de Provence are suitable as well.
👁️ More side dish ideas
- Basic Mashed Potato
- Pumpkin Carrot Mash
- Kohlrabi Potato Mash
- Mashed Cauliflower by therisingspoon.com
📖 Recipe
Mashed Turnips Recipe
Ingredients
For the mash:
- 2.2 pounds Turnip peeled and cut
- Water to boil
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- pinch Black Pepper Ground
- 4.4 ounces Cream *see Notes
To garnish:
- Butter
- Chives chopped fresh
Instructions
- Place cut turnips into a pot and cover with water. Season with salt.
- Boil and cook turnips soft.
- Strain cooked turnips and discard water. Take turnips back to the pot.
- Season with black pepper and add the cream.
- Mash or blend your turnips over low to medium heat to the desired consistency.
- Serve hot with a dollop of butter and freshly chopped chives.
Notes
- Use a thick cream in the mash. Liquid cream would make these mashed turnips watery. Use something like Fresh Cream or Sour Cream.
Awesome! I used heavy cream, but needed to add a little flour. I used the nutmeg and it is delicious!
Hi Lori, you added a little flour to thicken it further? Mashed turnips can be a bit watery. I either leave it that way because it doesn't bother us or I pour out the watery part, which is maybe at most a tablespoon.