Cheesy Turnips & Carrots

In my fourth CSA share I received turnips which I have never purchased, cooked or eaten before. They never really sounded appealing to me before. However now that they were in my possession I felt the need to at least try them. I researched recipes and found this one. I figure you can put cheese on anything and I'd at least try it. The dish might not taste much like turnips but for my first time I think that's okay.

I made a few modifications to the original recipe. First I halved everything. Then I switched the quantities of the turnips and carrots because the two turnips I received in my share only yielded one cup after they were diced up. I also took out the celery because I'm not a huge fan of the stringyness and replaced with celery seed to retain the celery flavor.

Cheesy Turnips & Carrots
2-3 servings

1 cup diced peeled turnips
1 1/2 cups diced carrots
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt, divided
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 tsp celery seed
2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp pepper
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a saucepan, combine turnips, carrots, ginger, water and 1/4 tsp salt. Cover and cook over medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes or until vegetables are tender; drain and reserve liquid. Set vegetables aside. In a skillet, melt butter and saute onion and celery salt until tender. Stir in flour, pepper and remaining salt. Add milk and the vegetable liquid; bring to a boil. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in cheese until melted; stir in the vegetables and heat through.

This recipe was pretty easy to make but I did have one problem. All the water cooked out of my vegetables so I didn't have any to reserve for the next step and I burned them a little. The rest of it went just fine though. I picked out a few of the really burned veggies and mixed the rest in.

In the end this dish turned out pretty good. It was an excellent side dish and a good way to use my turnips. I actually really liked the cheese sauce and I could see myself making that again to put on broccoli or cauliflower. Next time I make this I will use more water to cook the vegetables so they don't burn. If you've never had turnips before but would like to try them, I would recommend this recipe.