Turnip Fries!

Tonight I was craving burgers and fries!  Or at least a healthy version of them.  So, we decided to cook up turkey burgers and turnip fries!  That’s right, turnips.

I had a few snacks while shopping for groceries this afternoon:

Some Skinny Water (note the clearance sticker)

The Skinny water was pretty good and no after taste (always a plus!)

Also downed a White Chocolate Macadami Luna Bar:

This is my favorite of all the luna bars I have tried.  Felt like I was eating dessert!

For the turkey burgers, I used this recipe as my guide but modified it slightly.  Here’s what our burgers consisted of:

• 1 lb 97% Fat Free Ground Turkey Breast
• 1 small zucchini, grated
• 1/4 cup red onion, grated
• 1 clove garlic minced
• Salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes

Now on to the fries!  I don’t believe I’ve ever consumed a turnip before.  I went to the local produce market to pick them up, and once I walked in the door I realized that I had no idea what I was looking for!   After some deliberation, I picked up what I thought were turnips, and asked the nearest employee if they were, in fact, turnips.  After a huge smile appeared on her face, she let loose a belly laugh, then told me I had picked up beets–which are not turnips for those who were wondering.  😛

With turnips (AKA not beets) in hand I headed to the kitchen to get to fry makin.  We gave the turnips a good scrub, then cut then up into thin strips.  We were hoping this would speed up the cooking process — next time I’ll go for bigger sticks (more like steak fries size) since the turnips shrink up considerably while cooking.

We seasoned the turnip fries with salt, black pepper, and cajun seasoning.  The first batch we cooked at 450 for about 40 minutes (again — hoping to get things mover fast since we were starving).  These turned out good — but were not really crispy (even though some of them were burnt).  The second batch we threw in at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

The second batch didn’t really turn out crispy either–I’ll need to play around with the cooking temperature on these guys to get it right.  Despite the lack of crisp, they were definitely tasty and definitely healthier than potatoes!  They reminded me of the kind of fries you get in a big sack at Five Guys Burgers (minus the grease of course).

Will and Grace time!