Southern Turnip Greens Recipe

By Angela McGowan

Happy New Year everyone! Its New Years Eve, and I am making preparations for tomorrow’s New Year’s Day dinner. We always have the traditional southern New Year’s Day dinner, revamped a bit. We have abandoned the fatty hog jowls for a delicious spiral ham. Actually, my family abandoned the hog jowls, when my grandfather became a butcher back in the 60’s. He decided we could eat a little more extravagantly. We still have the turnip greens and black eyed peas though.  We eat turnips, because they use to be the cheapest green. The plant makes greens and roots, so you get double the product. Recently, though, I haven’t seen much of a savings between them and other greens, but we enjoy them anyway!   I also can hardly find turnips and their roots anymore, so I usually just buy them separately. My family also does cornbread, and sometimes, deviled eggs. So that is my menu for tomorrow. I wanted to share my Granny’s recipe for turnip greens today. The smell of turnips is one of the most comforting smells in the world to me, because it reminds me of being with my Granny. She was a wonderful, superstitious, god-fearing southern Baptist. She read her bible everyday, never missed a day church, and couldn’t leave an approximately nine mile radius, because she would have to cross a train track. She was deathly afraid of trains, and stayed in her little community for as long as I can remember. When I was little, I spent alot of time with her, cooking, fishing, sewing, tending to the chickens, taking care of the garden, and picking up pecans in the yard. I have many found memories of her, she was a loving and caring woman.

So here is her delicious recipe for turnips. These are so good, I don’t even use pepper vinegar on them, but you can if you like. Enjoy!

Yield: Serves 4

Southern Turnip Greens

Ingredients:

• turnip greens and their roots, or
• a small bag of turnip roots, about 6, diced and
• about 1 lb turnip greens, a large bunch or bag, cut
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• a smoke bone, ham or turkey
• olive or vegetable oil
• kosher salt
• water

Directions:

1. Dice onions and turnip roots.
2. Preheat a large soup pot. Drizzle with oil. Add turnip roots and onions. Add a little kosher salt. Saute until the roots begin to be transparent.
3. Add greens, then add water about 1/3 way up the pot, so that 1/3 of the fresh un wilted greens are in the water. Add a little more kosher salt. Don't stir for a while, leave the roots and onions on the bottom so they can cook more.
4. Cook the greens and their roots for a couple of hours, over medium low heat. Cook until almost all of the water has evaporated.

Southern Turnip Greens Recipe 2022-01-21T05:50:00-08:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Admin