Where have you been all my life, dear turnip?

As much as I would love to say I have an awesome latke recipe for you this week, I don’t. If any of you would like to share your own scratch recipe with me, I would be more than happy to try it out and share it here!

Instead, I’ll tell you about a recipe I used for one of my Thanksgiving dishes (that you can use for a Christmas dish) that I borrowed from the ever-awesome Ree Drummond (AKA The Pioneer Woman).  I’ll tell ya, I was a little apprehensive because in all of my 38 years on this earth – I’ve never eaten a turnip. When I went to the grocery store to go shopping for them, I wasn’t sure if this was a turnip…

or if this was…

Well if you don’t know…the rounder, lighter purple-colored root is a turnip, the other – a darker purple, less round root is a rutabaga. The more you know…

I was also a little afraid of this:

The kitchen torture device, also known as a mandoline, used to slice root vegetables and other items thinly and in a uniform fashion.  A few years ago I used one in making Tyler Florence’s Ultimate Potato Gratin for Thanksgiving dinner…and let’s just say…there’s a reason I haven’t taken it out since, and my pinkie eventually got back to normal.

This recipe looked so good that I just had to try it. It’s relatively easy to make once you get those turnips sliced…

Beautiful peeled turnips…

All the knives I tried to use before I succumbed to trying the mandoline again…

But really, that apparatus is the best slicer around…for root vegetables, not fingers.

Herbs and garlic to flavor…the rosemary is fresh from my garden!

I used:

4 whole turnips

5 cloves garlic

2 cups gruyere cheese from Murray’s Cheese, pre-shredded to save time

6 Tablespoons butter

chicken broth

heavy cream

Pink Himalayan Salt

Freshly Ground black pepper

Fresh Herbs, to taste (I used rosemary, chives, and thyme)

I chose to make this because it’s a one-pot deal, and I already had two dishes to transport.  Preheat your oven to °375 F. Melt a few tablespoons of butter in a large oven-proof pan – and then get ready for some layering!

It goes a little something like this:

Layer of turnips, sprinkle of garlic, pat of butter, splash of chicken broth, splash of heavy cream, handful of cheese. Repeat.

Don’t do what I did and add too much liquid, because you’ll end up with turnip soup and not gratin.  It still tasted amazing, but I know to add less now. Once you finish layering, it goes in the oven for about 20-30 minutes (bake it until it goes all bubbly.)

So good.