Turnip Stew

Here’s a classic Persian recipe for all those turnips!

I’ve been growing a lot of turnips for the past few months, so here’s a recipe for turnip stew. Called ash- e- shalgham in Farsi, turnip stew is a hearty Persian dish full of vitamin C from the turnips with meat, rice, and peas or lentils. Maybe when you first read turnip stew, you think of some weird mash from Game of Thrones, but this stew has layers of flavor, and it’s not too hard to make. This is my Mom’s recipe.

Ingredients

1 minced medium onion

1 cup meat (ground meat/ cubed meat/ chicken breast)

1/3 cup split pea

1/4 cup rice

1 pound turnip, cubed to about 1” pieces

1 cup finely chopped parsley, mint, dill, spinach, coriander (I grow all this too)

Pinch of turmeric

Crushed Black pepper

Salt

1) Saute the onion until translucent and golden color

2) Add meat and saute with a pinch of tumeric, add black pepper and salt to your liking

3) Add split pea and rice 

4) Add 5-6 cup of water

5) Let it all simmer until the rice and lentils are parboiled

6) Add turnips and herbs

7) Let everything cook down over low heat a little more and make sure the meat is cooked through

8) Salt and pepper to taste

9) Serve hot and garnish with more herbs and saute onion