Farmer’s markets are my happy place. Since we have been back from the islands, my husband and I made an intentional effort to spend our weekend mornings in various farmer’s markets around the city.
We love that we can get fresh produce from local farmers and support people in our community. Unfortunately, with the arrival of the winter months, most of them will go on a hiatus until April of next year.
Since these are the last few weeks, this past Sunday we spent all our morning in one of my favorite farmer’s markets in Atlanta: Grand Park Farmer’s market. With the weather cooperating, it ended up being a day of eating, shopping, and having a few laughs with local farmers.
What Are Japanese Turnips?
Also referred to as Tokyo turnips, Hakurei turnips, Asian turnips, and salad turnips, Japanese turnips are small, white, globe-shaped roots with green edible leaves that resemble radishes. Due to their mild flavor, they can be eaten raw or cooked/roasted.
If you are buying them from your farmer’s market, chances are that they will come with their green parts attached. The green parts are edible as well, so do not throw them away. They taste similar to mustard greens. You can lightly sautee them and serve with the turnips.
How To Store Tokyo Turnips?
If you are not planning to eat them right away, the best thing to do is to cut the green parts, roll them in paper towels (which keeps them dry), and keep them in the fridge.
You can place the roots (turnips) in a plastic bag and store them in your fridge as well. As long as they are kept sealed, they would be fresh up to a week.
The important thing here is to make sure that they are not wet.
When you are ready to serve, give them a thorough rinse to ensure that they are free of dirt.
What To Make With Japanese turnips? How To Cook Them?
Surprisingly, there are a lot of things you can do with these vegetables. Here are a few recipe ideas:
- Serve them raw: Since they are mild in taste, you can serve them raw. Simply slice them thinly (or in small cubes) and add them to your salad recipes.
- Lightly sautee: Cut them in half and saute in a large skillet with a little bit of olive oil just until they are softened and turned golden brown. You can sautee the green leaves as well. However, I recommend cooking them separately.
- Pickle: I have never tried pickling salad turnips bit you could make a simple pickling brine and store thinly sliced turnips in there for a few days until you are ready to use.
- Roast: Simple cut them in half and roast in the oven.
How To Roast Tokyo Turnips?
To roast Tokyo turnips:
- Preheat the oven to 425 F degrees.
- Cut the stems and set them aside. Rinse turnips under cold water until they are free of dirt.
- Place turnips on a kitchen cloth and dry them as much as you can.
- As they are drying, make a simple olive oil-based dressing. Whisk together olive oil, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
- Place the turnips in the bowl and toss until they are coated with the dressing.
- Transfer onto a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes making sure to flip them halfway through the roasting process.
PROTIP: It is imperative to ensure that the rinsed Japanese turnips are dried as much as possible before coating them with the olive oil mixture. If you skip this step, the mixture might not fully coat the turnips, and as a result, you might end up with burned turnips.
About this Miso Roasted Japanese Turnips Recipe:
If you want to take this simple roasted Japanese Turnips recipe up a notch, you can add in a few tablespoons of miso paste into the olive oil mixture. I love miso paste because of its umami flavors.
Also, since it is already pretty salty you don’t have add in a lot of additional salt into the mixture. Not to mention, miso has a lot of benefits.
If you are into cooking with miso paste, you might also like this Cauliflower Risotto recipe.
How To Cook The Tokyo Turnip Greens?
As I mentioned earlier, the green leaves of hakurei turnips are edible. They taste delicious when sauteed.
To do so, give them a good rinse and dry them as much as you can and chop into small chunks.
In a large skillet, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil. Add in the leaves and cook for 2-3 minutes or until they are wilted. If preferred, add in a teaspoon of white miso paste for additional umami flavor.
The leaves of Asian turnips are very similar to spinach leaves in that when cooked they release most of their liquid and lose their size quite a bit.
In my recipe below, while the turnips were roasting I sauteed the greens leaves. Then when it was time to serve, I placed the sauteed greens at the bottom of a large salad bowl and the miso-roasted Japanese turnips on top.
It ended up being a visually appealing vegetable side dish recipe that I know I will be serving in the years to come whenever I can get my hands on these beauties.
Miso Roasted Japanese Turnips
Ingredients
- 2 pounds of Japanese turnips, rinsed* and cut in half – green parts reserved
- 3 tablespoons white miso paste, divided
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- coarse sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 425 Fdegrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Whisk together the 2 tablespoons of miso paste and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a bowl.
- Spread the turnips on the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle it with the miso-olive oil mixture. Give it a toss to make sure that all turnips are coated with the mixture. Place in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes making sure to rotate the turnips halfway through the baking process. When they come out of the oven, let them cool. Sprinkle them with a big pinch of black pepper. Taste for seasoning and add in some salt if necessary.
- Meanwhile, rinse the green leaves and give them a rough chop. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan. Sauté greens until they are lightly wilted, 2-3 minutes. Stir in the rest of the miso paste and make sure that the green leafs are coated with the paste. Add in ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Taste for seasoning and add in if necessary.
- Transfer the warm greens in a large salad bowl. Spread the roasted turnips on top of the greens.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe was originally posted in December 2016. It has been updated with additional helpful information with no changes to the originally published recipe.
Got the turnips from my local green market without any idea how to prepare them and found your recipe. They were so good! Hoping they are back tomorrow when I go shopping.
I am happy to hear that you liked it KD. Thanks for coming by and leaving a review.
Your comment that farmer’s markets are your happy place made me smile, because that’s exactly how I feel, as well. 😄 Each spring I see beautiful Japanese turnips at several of the vendor’s stalls, but I’ve never known what to do with them other than include them in salads. I live in Ontario, Canada, so these turnips are about to appear at my favourite markets. I decided to preempt the dilemma of how to make them interesting by doing an online search and I found your great recipe. Thanks so much!
By the way, our Memorial Centre Market created an amazing online ordering system to deal with Covid. Now it’s the way we continue to buy market offerings during the winter!
I am happy to hear that I am not alone in my feelings towards Farmer’s markets, Ann.
Japanese turnips are a fantastic addition to salads (when thinly sliced), but I love roasting them too. I am glad you enjoyed it too.
Absolutely delicious. I roasted them in miso and oil and sautéed greens just like the recipe says. Simple and fantastic. I will look for these turnips differently now.mi had only eaten them raw and although good, nothing like roasted.
Yes, those little turnips are so delicious. My Japanese friend serves them roasted just like you do .
And we also make Miso Tsukemono ( pickles ) with them, which is so wonderful and good for you. All you do is slice the turnips, not too thin/not too thick, put them in a bowl and add a few Tbs miso , and toss it all together. Put in a jar in the fridge, and you can enjoy them after a few hours. Very tasty. The Japanese love to eat their pickles at the end of their meals.
An important note: most Miso paste has gluten in it. Your recipe cannot be labeled gluten free unless you stipulate that the reader purchases gluten free miso. This is very
important for those of us who have Celiac disease or a gluten allergy.
I actually really don’t like Hakurei turnips but I get them every year in my CSA share. Last year I just threw them straight into the compost…that’s how I feel about them! But this year I decided to try this recipe and they were actually great! I ended up going back for seconds and thirds! So thank you very much for this super simple recipe- it’s a keeper! For me, the miso and olive oil mixture was kind of thick and chunky and didn’t really ‘drizzle’….but I just tossed the turnips in it and they got coated well enough.
Thanks so much for changing my mind about these turnips 🙂
YAY! This makes me so happy to hear Tarrah. I am thrilled to hear that this recipe changed your mind.
Thanks for coming by and leaving a review.
Cheers!
Great recipe! I only had red miso on hand but it still turned out amazing! Not sure what happens in the cooking process but the juices explode in your mouth after roasting, what a surprise 🙂 I didn’t have any issues with the sauce not sticking. Whisked the sauce as instructed and patted dry with a paper towel. This is a keepr!
I am so pleased to hear that you enjoyed the recipe Jean. I totally know what you mean when you say that the juices explode in your mouth after roasting.
Thanks for coming by and taking the time to leave a review.
Cheers!
This was my first time trying my hand in roasting white turnips and the miso sauce was truly delicious. Next time, I will try them on the grill. Thanks for such an easy recipe.
So happy to hear that you liked it Isabella. I have never tried my hand in grilling them, but I think it is definitely worth a try. Thanks for coming by.
Cheers.