Turn It Up For Turnips

Turn it up for Turnips

Cutting the carbs?

If you’re trying to reduce your intake of carbohydrate laden potatoes, then switching some potato dishes for Japanese turnips might be something to consider. Now turnips might not sound so appetising, but if you know some creative ways to prepare them, they may just become one of your favourite vegies.

Yates Japanese Turnips, also called Hakurei turnips, are beautiful white skinned turnips with a crisp, mild sweet flesh. In addition to being cooked they can be eaten raw and thinly sliced in salads and the green tops can also be used like spinach.

Yates Japanese Turnip seed can be sown all around Australia during May. They’re fast growing, taking only 6 – 10 weeks to mature and are a perfect vegie to grow in pots in a sunny spot on a balcony or courtyard.

Growing Guide:

For potted turnips sow seed 6 mm deep direct into good quality potting mix, like Yates Premium Potting Mix.
For garden turnips, enrich the soil beforehand with some Yates Dynamic Lifter Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser. It adds rich organic matter to the soil which helps improve water and nutrient holding capacity and provides gentle slow release nutrients to the turnips as they establish.
Seedlings will take around 10 days to pop up.
Keep the potting mix moist while the plants establish and turnips can be harvested when the roots are 5 cm across.
To encourage a great harvest, once the seedlings are established feed your turnips each fortnight with Yates Thrive All Purpose Soluble Fertiliser. It contains phosphorus which is an important nutrient for promoting strong root (and thus turnip) growth as well as nitrogen for healthy green leaves.

Here are some recipe ideas:

Pan roasted Japanese turnips with honey

Roasted baby Japanese turnips with Dijon shallot vinaigrette

Japanese turnip & bacon soup