Who knew? This past weekend we moseyed over to our nearby Farmer's Market and perused all the fresh fruits and veggies. We tasted yummy olive oil from a ranch in the Sierra foothills, we listened to fun Japanese music for kids, and of course headed to our favorite vendor of all, Venice Grind for a pour over coffee. While we were there I picked up some turnips. Even though I happen to fancy vegetables, I had never tried turnips before. I even had to ask the farmer to be sure I was buying the right thing. They are quite beautiful, these little turnips, with their purple blushed skin. I picked them up because I had wanted to try a recipe that I saw in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Everyday cookbook.
I have been cooking from this book a ton. There is deliciusness in its pages, namely, the Muesli, Frittata,Tortellini Salad and now I can add Turnip Chips to this list.
Heidi is upfront about the imperfect and finicky nature of these chips. She lets you know that they shrink when they cook and that they can go from underdone to burnt in a matter of moments - both of which I found to be true - but oh, so worth it! In short, you slice up the turnips very thin and toss them with some clarified butter, which is butter with the milk solids removed, another trick I learned in this wonderful book.
Lay the chips out on a baking sheet and pop them in a hot oven, and then watch them very close, because they do go quick. Once they are cooked to your liking, dust them with smoked paprika and a splash of fresh lime juice.
They were utterly delicious, turnips have a sort of cauliflower horseradish-y thing going on. I pretty much stood in one spot and devoured the whole plate.