Turnip Risotto

Author Notes

I have been dying to adapt Marcus Samuelsson's risotto technique from his New American Table book. Its deceptively simple yet still yields a beautiful, creamy texture. How it works, I have no idea becuase he foregoes completely the gradual adding of hot stock and dumps it all in at the beginning and just stirs. I thought why not use it now and incorporate some of the beautiful baby turnips abounding. The turnips get chopped and blend in beautifully with the creamy rice. I have always seen bacon as the traditional approach to taming turnip greens - but I went with another delicious source of umami - miso. It works beautifully. —meganvt01

Test Kitchen Notes

Creamy and full of savory dark notes, meganvt01’s Turnip Risotto takes an unlikely combination of ingredients – turnip, rosemary, miso – and an unusual technique to create a toothsome risotto that is difficult to stop eating. The key to this dish is her smart use of miso. Not only does it provide depth of flavor and salt (in fact, I did not need any additional salt after stirring in the miso), but along with the egg yolk, nearly pulls off a palate pleasing trick. Just at the point when you are second-guessing having added all the stock at once, because your rice is tender but not creamy, you stir in the miso and egg yolk, along with some parmesan and rosemary, and voilà – instant texture and a rich combination of flavors. It is a dish worth repeating. The only hitch for me is that the creaminess does not come from the rice itself, but rather from the silky yolk and smooth miso. —gingerroot