a whisk and a spoon

Everyday Dorie: Butter-Glazed Turnips

Turnip time often represents a low point on the “what’s in season” calendar. You rarely hear people talk about how excited they are to have turnips with dinner. This recipe for Butter-Glazed Turnips is an easy way to coax the best out of them. “Everything’s better with butter” is totally true, IMO, and a bit of honey and black pepper finishes a glaze that clings to the turnips and plays up their natural flavors.

I used Japanese Hakurei turnips here. They are so cute and small, and a bit sweet to begin with. Often, I buy them to eat raw in salads (and they usually have pretty green tops to sautée, too). I trimmed their tops and left them whole for this, and they were steamed through pretty quickly. I didn’t go further and caramelize them after they were cooked (although if I’d been using a larger variety that I’d cubed up, I definitely would have)…just rolled them around in the butter-honey glaze, gave them a grind of pepper, and ate them ate as a snack.

For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see all that the group made this week.

Everyday Dorie: Roasted Acorn Squash Wedges

I eat a lot of roasted orange stuff in the colder months– squash, sweet potatoes, carrots– and I’m always looking for new things to do with them. These Roasted Acorn Squash Wedges are brushed with a dressing of olive oil, pomegranate molasses, za’atar, lemon juice, cayenne and, of course, salt before they go into the oven. While they roasted, I stirred together the harissa yogurt Dorie suggests serving alongside, and I’m glad I did, because I thought the squash really needed it. I told my dining companion that I thought that this preparation was okay but not great. I thought maybe the squash I bought just wasn’t sweet enough for the tart dressing, but after reading the group’s reviews, I saw that I wasn’t alone. Perhaps I don’t really need to find a new thing to do with acorn squash…the “classic” butter and brown sugar schmear with a hint of salt and spice is just what I like. I think the pomegranate molasses dressing would be a better coating for already-roasted sweet potatoes, or actually even salad greens.

For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see all that the group made this week.

Everyday Dorie: Miso-Maple-Jammed Sweet Potatoes

Okay, it’s fall. Time to roast up squash and root veggies. Time to make Miso-Maple-Jammed Sweet Potatoes! Here, a roasted sweet potato gets slathered with a “jam” of butter, miso, maple syrup, ponzu and Sriracha. It’s really more of a soft flavored butter than a jam (maybe that just refers to the consistency?), but it’s sweet and salty and a little funky and great match for a sweet potato. Leftover jam is also really nice on a piece of broiled salmon…I just had that for dinner, so I speak from experience. Dorie gives options for serving these sweet potatoes whole, in chunks or mashed. The only way I haven’t tried them is mashed, but why wouldn’t that be great?

For the recipe, see Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan, and head over to Cook the Book Fridays to see all that the group made this week.