Baby Food: Turnips

Over the weekend, there was some nice looking Turnips at a local farmer's market I visited.

I have been curious about Turnips since I can't recall the last time I ate one. I had read somewhere that you want a small Turnip, around the size of a ping-pong ball, versus a larger one. Smaller ones are supposed to be 'sweeter'. Once they get larger in size, they taste more tart. And, surprisingly enough, all the local grocery stores (whole food type stores included) were selling softball sized Turnips!

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Last night I whipped up some for the babe. They were fairly pleasant - kinda reminded me of a mashed potato really. I like root vegetables when they are roasted so I peeled & diced the Turnips and then swirled them around with some extra virgin olive oil. I then baked them at 325 degrees (F) for about 45 minutes or so - until fork tender.

Once they were finished, I gave them a few pulses in the food processor. Since they still seemed kinda boring to me that way, I had to kick them up a tad :) If your baby is still on plain veg puree's, they'd be good with some butter. But since my little guy is becoming more of an adventurous eater, I knew a plain turnip wouldn't cut it.

I was also making a Bacon Swiss Chard Saute recipe I found over at Food52. I thought this would be an excellent way for him to get some bacon and greens too - so I threw some of this in with the turnips for a few more quick pulses and viola! HE.LOVED.IT!!!  I should note the Chard recipe called for pasta in it and I omitted the pasta part for him and replaced it with the turnip. It turned out well!

Someone made the comment about "Turnips! Who eats Turnips!?" when I mentioned this. My answer is - we do! I am trying to get the babe accustomed to a wide variety of foods and since we are trying to eat more seasonally and locally, Turnips it was for dinner! I also read that Turnips can be a natural decongestant and since the babe has been a tad congested lately, it only seemed logical!