The Cost of Slow-Cooking Turnip Stew

Turnips are so underrated.

I started collecting Madhur Jaffrey cookbooks about ten years ago, when I was preparing to teach Shakespeare at the University of Hyderabad. There was a time in my life where I made my own roti (badly) and samosas (badly) and kheer (inedible), as a way to literally consume Indian culture—first because I was excited to be traveling to Hyderabad, and then, afterwards, because I missed it.

I don’t do that anymore. There’s a fine line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation, and I was probably right on the edge of it back in 2006. (I did not wear a bindi. I did have an opinion on which lime pickle was the best.)

So most of my Jaffrey cookbooks stay closed, these days. But I still make Madhur Jaffrey’s shorvedar shaljam, or “turnips with cumin,” from Quick and Easy Indian Cooking.

Jaffrey explains, at the beginning of the recipe, that we can add pretty much any vegetables we want to this “simple stew.” In addition to the titular turnips and cumin, the recipe also calls for diced tomatoes straight from the can (plus juice), which means that it is exactly the kind of recipe I like to make: open up cans and add whatever else you’ve got lying around.

I like this recipe because it is easy and flexible, but I also like it because I love turnips. They are an absolutely underrated vegetable. Like beets, they’re kind of a pain to peel—but like beets, I would eat turnips every day if I got the chance.

Here’s how much my turnip stew cost to make:

Three turnips: $1.65

Two 15-oz cans of diced tomatoes: $2.50

One 15-oz can of chickpeas: $1.00

Four cloves of garlic: $0.50

A few shakes of cumin seed: $0.10

A few shakes of turmeric: $0.05

Two tablespoons of olive oil: $0.25

Salt and pepper to taste: $0.05

I remembered too late that I could have added a thing of peas from the freezer, but this soup is hearty enough as it is.

Total cost for a slow cooker’s worth of turnip stew (serves five): $6.10

Cost per serving: $1.22

Now I want to make everything with turnips in them. Turnip French fries. Mashed turnip. Sweet turnip pie. But all of that stuff takes way more work than making this simple turnip stew, so I may stick with this for a while.

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