Cooking with Turnips Successfully

When I bought the turnip, the guy at the store was rather skeptical about me cooking it.  He told me he’d only heard of people shredding it and making slaw.  But I think doing it in the slow cooker was a total success.  I am also starting to fall in love with my slow cooker.

Turnip, Potato, and Carrot Stew

1 peeled turnip

4 carrots

3 russet potatoes

1 small red onion

1 tetrapack or can cream of mushroom soup

rosemary

parsley

water

green onions

Chop up the turnip, carrots, potatoes, and onion and throw them in the slow cooker.  Put the cream of mushroom soup in and then add water until you’ve basically covered all the vegetables.  Sprinkle in a bit of rosemary and parsley, I used dried, but if you have fresh, I’m sure that’s much better.  Cook on low for 6 hours.  Serve with chopped green onions on top.

If I made it again, I’d probably add more carrots, but it was pretty good.  It could’ve used a bit more flavor but I’m not sure what I should’ve added.  I would’ve liked more mushrooms than just the few in the soup, but the hero isn’t a huge mushroom fan.  Any suggestions on what I should add next time?

Multi-Bean Soup Update

We made up some of the multi-bean soup for dinner and I’ve got some adjustments to make.  First, it needs more seasoning, it’s really good with sriracha sauce on it.  Also you can cook it in the slow cooker on high for 4 hours.

I’m really surprised with how much I like re-hydrated carrots.  They look gnarly, but they taste just like regular cooked carrots and have the same texture too.  I think if I made these mixes again, I would do a whole layer of dehydrated carrots.

I’m pretty sure the split peas completely disintegrated since you don’t normally cook them for so long.  This might also happen with the lentils, but this mix didn’t have any in it.  I hope there’s still enough nutrients in the bit of liquid that got poured over the rice.  Maybe next time, I’ll stick with more substantial beans.

The garbanzo beans on the other hand, could’ve cooked a little longer.  They were certainly edible but still a little hard.

All in all, pretty much successful, with the small addition of hot sauce.