• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
The April Blake
  • About
    • Work With Me
  • Recipes
  • Travel
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Bluesky
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Turnip and Rutabaga Soup

May 13, 2013 by April

Last week's CSA box yielded some vegetables that I don't normally associate with the word "like," but something inspired me to make a turnip and onion soup. I was thinking, "Hey these are starchy like potatoes, and potato and leek soup is awesome."

So I pulled out five purple and white orbs, and two green onions from the crisper and started dicing the onions and set them in the pot to sautee. While peeling the turnips I noticed that the flesh was a brighter white on some and  the others were more beige. I kept on because I assumed some were just older, from the previous week's box, and got the rest of the soup cooking.

After posting about it on Facebook, my friend Katie who is the membership coordinator for Pinckney's Produce asked for a recipe to use rutabagas too, and I got to thinking about the different colors of the vegetables. I didn't realize that there were even rutabagas in the CSA boxes, because the ones I am accustomed to seeing in grocery stores are freaking enormous, whereas I didn't have anything that large in my box. I Googled and sure enough, I had actually made turnip and rutabaga soup. And here I thought I'd never even HAD a rutabaga before and here it was, making the soup even more flavorful than it would have been if I had just used turnips!

The best part of this soup is how creamy it is, without the use of ANY cream at all. If you leave out the cheese, it is completely vegan, but frankly, the cheese is too good. I used a Manchego cheese since we are tres fancy seeming now thanks to Trader Joe's. Seriously, we don't even have cheddar right now because it seems so passe when there are bries, goudas, Jarlsbergs, and Roqueforts available at price points previously unheard of around here. Anyways, back on the soup, not the cheese.

Print Pin

Turnip and Rutabaga Soup

Turn these inexpensive winter root vegetables into a warming soup if you're on a budget (or trying to be).
Course Soup
Keyword rutabaga, turnip
Servings 4 servings
Author April

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon butter or coconut oil
  • 1 garlic clove minced
  • 2 green onions diced
  • 2-3 turnips peeled and cubed
  • 2-3 small rutabagas or one larger rutabaga peeled and cubed
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 vegetable or chicken bouillon cubes
  • 1 shake of dried thyme
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • optional cheese for garnish (try a harder cheese like Parmesan, Pecorino, or Manchego)
  • rosemary garnish if desired

Instructions

  • Melt the butter or coconut oil over medium heat. Once melted, add the garlic and onions and sautee for five minutes or until soft.
  • Add the cubed turnips and rutabagas and sautee for an additional minute.
  • Add the 3 cups of water, the bouillon cubes, thyme, and salt and bring to a boil.
  • After the mixture comes to a boil, turn to medium low heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Once the root vegetables are very soft, remove from heat and use an immersion blender to puree thoroughly, or carefully transfer the soup in to a blender and puree in batches.
  • Serve in bowls, garnished with grated cheese of your choice if any, and salt and pepper to taste.

This tastes really great re-heated, and in these photos the soup is actually cold. I made it in the morning and waited for the sun to come out more before photographing it. Once the photos were taken, I took everything inside and heated it up and ate it! This is a great way to use a bunch of those root vegetables you may also get in your CSA and feel let down by, but rutabagas and turnips are packed with vitamin C and dietary fiber which will leave you feeling fuller longer than if you had boring old been-there-done-that potato soup.

More Recipes

  • cherry blossom sakura latte
    Sakura Cherry Blossom Latte
  • chocolate chip cookie with roasted peanut oil
    Roasted Peanut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
  • charred sage caramel iced coffee
    Charred Sage Caramel Coffee Syrup
  • eggs benedict hash browns
    Hash Browns Eggs Benedict

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Flora Atchison

    May 13, 2013 at 1:31 pm

    Thank you for posting this. I thought mine were all turnips until I saw Pinckney's post on Facebook. I'll go to Google next time. In the meantime, I plan to try a vegan version of this.

    • theaprilblake

      May 13, 2013 at 1:46 pm

      Haha, Katie posted that in response to my initial confusion! Let me know how your version goes! I'd probably recommend a little extra salt to replace the saltiness from the cheese!

  2. Melissa

    May 13, 2013 at 6:25 pm

    Looks good! Thanks for sharing this recipe. I was confused about the turnips vs. rutabagas too! I sliced mine thinly in the food processor and made hashbrowns with thinly sliced onions, and they turned out great. It didn't seem to hurt having a mix of turnips and rutabagas together. I've got a turnip gratin I'm making tonight, but maybe later this week when I get my next box, I'll try your soup!

    • theaprilblake

      May 13, 2013 at 9:40 pm

      Yum, root vegetable hasbrowns! That sounds amazing (and like how I'll use this coming week's turnips and 'bagas)!

  3. April Carroll

    May 14, 2013 at 4:29 pm

    Made this tonight - it's fabulous!

    • theaprilblake

      May 14, 2013 at 4:51 pm

      Glad you enjoyed it! I finished mine off today at lunch, tastes just as good reheated!

Primary Sidebar

About April Blake



Cooking doesn't have to be boring and routine. Are you looking for easy dinners, Southern-inspired recipes, fun desserts, and ways to incorporate unusual ingredients in your cooking? Welcome, you're in the right place!

I'm April Blake, a recipe developer, food, agriculture, and travel writer, and digital marketing manager in South Carolina. Please follow me on Instagram, but not in real life.




Find Something Interesting

Footer

^ back to top


About

  • About
  • Work With Me 
  • On The Blog 

More

  • Recipes
  • Blog

Copyright © 2023 The April Blake