White Salad Turnip

Brassica rapa

Also known as Hakurei Turnips, Tokyo Turnips, or Japanese Turnips, this is the turnip that will actually make you excited when you hear the word turnip. Unlike storage turnips like the purple top turnip, this tender baby turnip is super sweet, supple, and absolutely delicious eaten raw as is or with a dip. And unlike their radish cousins, white salad turnips have completely hairless stems and greens that are much like mizuna or bok choy, perfect for stir-fries. From root to shoot, this is turnip is a treat!

Quite taken with these turnips at a young age, I wrote a poem about them to express my awe. As obsessed with vegetables as I may be, I hardly write poems about them, but these supple sweet snacks made it hard not to.

Ode to a Turnip

I placed turnip seeds into the soil with my hands.

I weeded them, I harvested them, I washed the mud off of them.

I loaded them onto a big truck in the dark early morning,

and I drove them to market.

I set up this table, and dressed it in my favorite tablecloth.

I built a mountain of these turnips so people would notice them.

When the clock struck nine,

I walked around the booth and gathered my ingredients.

It was a public cooking demonstration.

People love to watch food being cooked.

The entire turnip plant is in this dish.

Children asked their parents if they could buy turnips.

Parents told me that the way I cook vegetables

has changed the way they cook for their families.

I learned the names of these people,

and we remembered each other.

Market ended.

Turnips were sold out.

We broke down the booth,

table by table,

and I drove the truck back to the farm.

At home I rested my tired feet.

I looked through my photos from the day

and fell in love with this one.

I started typing.

“Fresh Spring Roots” became the recipe title.

I cooked this dish that night for my partner,

who grew,

threshed,

and winnowed

this turnip’s seed.

You may find some fancy pink salad turnips as well (see last photo). This pink tinge makes for a beautiful color, the turnips are hairless with delicate greens just like other salad turnips, and they have a little bit of a spicy kick similar to a radish.