Eating Turnip top leaves

[WendyS]

The leaves on my turnips are growing very prolifically. Has anybody tried copping them and cooking like spinach. What do they taste like?

[Clanad]

Part 1

They are a staple in the southern U.S. My grandmother used a recipe similar to this:
1/4 pound bacon slices or cubed salt pork*
5-6 pounds fresh greens, trimmed. rinsed (WELL)
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 quarts water diced, optional
1 teaspoon salt, or less to taste

[Clanad]

Part 2
Cook bacon in a large stockpot until almost crisp; remove bacon, reserving 2 teaspoon drippings in pot. Crumble bacon, and set aside. Bring water, salt and red pepper to boil in stockpot. Add greens, a few at a time. Sprinkle bacon or other meat to top of greens; cover and cook over medium heat 45- 60 minutes or until tender. Makes 6 to 8 servings. Southern greens are served with vinegar and/or hot pepper sauce, raw chopped onions and, of course, cornbread.

[Keeprockin]

A good question really. There must be loads of food thrown away when it could be eaten healthily. I think some beetroot leaves are also edible. There must be lots if instances

[Hermit]

There is a really good website run by the charity plants for a future. www.pfaf.org that addresses exactly this point and tells you all sorts of stuff that you can eat but probably didn't know. I would definitely recommend it for anyone interested in food, gardening and preserving our environment.

[WendyS]

Thanks Clanad - I'll give your recipe a try as I do hate wasting food, even though surplus leaves would end up on the compost heat. Thanks too Hermit for the interesting website link. I've had a quick glance through it and will revert back when I have time to read it in detail. Had no idea that some of these species mentioned were regularly eaten by people..

[glenis]

i'd always thought them to be poisonous ,rather similar to the fact that you can't eat rhubarb leaves ,just the stalks

[nickmo]

If a recipe calls for mustard greens or kale for example, use turnip tops.

Aubergine, peppers, tomato and potato greens - don't eat these. They have alkaloid poisons and are toxic as they are in the same family as deadly nightshade. Oh, and so is tobacco.....

Beetorr tops are fine as well and can add colour to a dish.

Make sure all tops are more than washed though as they will have chemical residue in shed loads. Use a vinegar wash in a basin to throughoughly clean before using....