Rapes in Potage (Turnips)

Baby turnip
Image by In Praise of Sardines via Flickr

Wednesday is Recipe Day at Cooking Manager. For the next few weeks I’ll focusing on recipes that are kosher for Passover, as well as gluten-free. This recipe was submitted by reader Devo:

Here is a recipe I made once for a medieval feast. You can use any combination of root vegetables in place of the turnips, carrots, or parsnips.

Rapes in Potage

Ingredients:

  • 500 grams (1 lb) rapes (turnips)
  • 500 grams (1 lb)carrots or parsnips
  • 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth (canned, diluted)
  • 250 grams (1/2 lb) minced onions
  • 6 threads saffron
  • 3/4 tsp. salt
  • Powder douce (medieval spice blend): 2 tsp. sugar, 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ginger

Instructions:

  1. Wash, peel, and quarter turnips (or cut into eighths if they are large), cover with boiling water and parboil for 15 minutes.
  2. If you are using carrots or parsnips, clean them and cut them up into large bite-sized pieces and parboil 10 minutes.
  3. Drain turnips, carrots, or parsnips. Put them in a pot along with the onions and chicken broth. Bring to a boil.
  4. Crush saffron into about a teaspoon of the broth and add saffron, salt and douce to pottage. Cook another 15-20 minutes, until turnips or carrots are soft when pierced with a fork, some of the liquid is boiled down.

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Comments

  1. Leanne Wheeler says

    Hi, I made this yesterday. It was super easy and pretty tasty and I am NOT a turnip fan. I had so many turnips and parsnips from my CSA that were starting to go bad and when I saw this recipe I thought, “What fun!” I wonder what would happen if I blended it into a cream like soup? anyway – I liked it as is and it promises to warm my soul for the next couple of days in this miserable midwest winter!