Okay, I may have exaggerated a bit by calling these fritters “super exciting.” But I felt like I needed something to counter-act the fact that these are made of turnips and it’s hard to find a less exciting sounding word than “turnip”. Due to the dullness of it’s name I think turnips are often overlooked in the food world. I mean, who thinks of turnips when you have ingredient options like blood oranges, sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes or Vidalia onions? If produce were children and recipes were kickball teams, turnips would probably get picked last every time.
However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth using. This recipe is a prime example of the ugly duckling getting a chance to shine. These fritters are similar to potato pancaked, but the turnips add a little bit of a bite to the normally neutral taste of potatoes, and they are packed with vitamins. Add in some green onions and sour cream and oh man are these ever delicious. It’s kinda like when the dorky kid in glasses gets picked last, and then kicks the ball outta the park to score the winning point.
Turnip and Potato Patties
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine via Simply Recipes
Makes 6 patties
1/2 pound turnips, peeled and cut into cubes
6 oz potato, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 1/2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Grapeseed oil or canola oil (high smoke point vegetable oils)
Salt and pepper
Sour cream (optional)Cook the potato and turnip in a large pot of boiling water for 15 to 17 minutes or until tender. Drain the vegetables and transfer to a bowl. Mash with either a fork or potato masher and then stir in green onions, egg, flour and salt and pepper to taste.
Coat the bottom of a heavy bottom skillet with about ¼ of oil and heat over medium high heat until the surface of the oil begins to shimmer. Using a ¼ cup measurer, spoon the mixture into the oil and flatten with a spatula into patties. Cook for about 2-4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown, and then transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain the excess oil.
Serve with sour cream if desired. Yum!
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I love turnips! Don’t worry, these are exciting to me!
Yum! I love turnips! About to plant some in the garden for the winter too. Will have to keep this recipe bookmarked until they’re ready
oooo I’m soooo jealous that you have a garden! That’s awesome!
As the girl who was usually picked last, I feel compelled to make these. Stand up for the underdog. You know how it goes. Plus it doesn’t hurt that they’re so good for me!
I love love turnips! I will be trying this out, however my favorite way to do turnips is to roast them. They take on an entirely new flavor when roasted!
After this recipe I’m going to be cooking with turnips more often, I’ll give roasting them a try!
looks delicious, I wouldn’t mind having a few patties now, tasty!
you’re so right! turnips are great veggies and this is one of the better ways of using them =)
love this recipe…will have to wait for some colder days to try it
So I tried these. I think I used about the right proportion of turnip to potato. But I couldn’t get the patties to hold together enough. What wound up happening was the outside would burn before the middle would really even cook. And then when I tried to turn them, they would fall apart. Any tips?
I’m cooking some of these as I type this. I just taste tested one and it was amazing. The turnip adds such a great bit of oomph to them. I did add one more egg and 1/4c of flour more just because my batter looked a bit too runny and they turned out great! A note to the person who said they were cooking too fast on the outside: try cooking them in crisco on medium heat. They come out with a nice golden color and they’re cooked all the way through.
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