Now here’s a good way to eat your turnips. I had 2 bunches of turnips that I got over 2 weeks from Ollin Farms‘ CSA. So, part of my CSA Challenge was figuring out what to do with turnips. To be perfectly honest, I thought I was sick of turnips. I got a bunch of scarlet queen turnips one week and they sat in my fridge until the following week when I got another bunch. I officially had more turnips than I could eat… or so I thought.

I sliced them and a local walla-walla onion I got at the Boulder farmers market, and tossed them in a dressing of:

• 2 TB Worcestershire
• 1 TB dijon mustard
• 3 TB heavy whipping cream
• 3 TB maple syrup
• 1 TB olive oil
• 1 TB grated parmesan
• fresh ground black pepper

This is my current CSA Challenge. I have lots of genovese basil, scarlet queen turnip, beets, zucchini, squash, alibi cucumbers, napa cabbage, and lacinto kale.

I need to be more creative with turnips!

It all started with some mushrooms. My friend Chad from Hazel Dell suggested I try these tree oyster mushrooms last week at the Boulder Farmers Market, so I had to figure out what to do with them.

Also, I had a beautiful head of radicchio from Ollin Farms, which was an ingredient in my CSA Challenge. I knew I wanted to grill it, which is easy. Just slice it, drizzle with olive oil and sea salt, and grill for a few minutes. Turns out great.

Then we decided to buy some halibut. Now I knew what to do with my meal. Halibut with caramelized onions, grilled radicchio, zucchini, and yellow pepper, and sauteed tree oyster mushrooms. A perfect combination.

It is easy to caramelize onions. It just takes a little while, so that usually needs to be done first. I had a beautiful little walla-walla onion from the market, so I sliced it and added it to a hot saute pan with a little olive oil and let that start to turn golden brown. You need to watch your onions and turn down the heat if they start to burn. The idea is to let them slowly release their sugars and caramelize into sweet, delicious, heavenly-brown goodness.

As I said before, the radicchio and veggies were grilled. I baked the halibut with a little olive oil at 350 until is was just cooked through. All ovens are a little different, so watch your fish. Mine took 15 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, a mushroom saute with a little butter, olive oil, shallots, sea salt and pepper was under way. Nothing too fancy because all of my produce came from local farms, so it was all super fresh and delicious.

I definitely enjoyed this one!

Scarlet Queen Turnips were in the CSA share, and I really had no plan for them. I tucked them in the fridge and didn’t pay attention to them until I decided to make a potato salad. Turnips go well with potatoes because they have a similarly smooth texture, add a little variety, and lighten some bites since you’ll get mouthfuls that are not all potato.

For this potato salad, I boiled 10 small Yukon Gold potatoes and 6 large Scarlet Queen Turnips until easily pierced by a fork. I drained them and gave them a rinsing in cold water to stop them from cooking.

When cool to touch, I quartered them, transferred them to a large mixing bowl, and dressed them with:

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 4 TB apple cider vinegar
• 2 TB Worcestershire
• 2-3 TB German mustard
• fresh ground black pepper