Achari Turnips with Crispy Toasted Lentils
An often-underrated vegetable is turnips. Treated with love and a good dose of spices however turnips blossom. These Achari Turnips with Crispy Toasted Lentils will change your perception about turnips. This recipe works well for other vegetables like kohlrabi, parsnips, broccoli carrots or a mixture of everything.
Serve this as a side, with a good bowl or dal, or eat a large batch by itself, it is all good. It served me well on this chilly day.
The Story Behind the Dish
Our farmer’s market (Pleasantville Farmer’s Market) is a rain or shine market. This weekend, despite the snow, I suddenly visited the market. Not a lot of things around, but there were some purple turnips. Right alongside potatoes and all kinds of herbs. I picked up a bunch and this dish is born. My favorite kind of turnips are the small Japanese turnips. I do have to wait a little for them. But until then, this will do. Turnips by the way pack a lot of fiber, folates and potassium. A healthier step up for potatoes. You can enjoy then with Kashmiri Seasonings here and use their greens to make this.
What is Achari?
Achari comes from the Indian word Achar, which means pickles. Often, Indian pickles tend to be oil based and leave you with a residue of oil and spices to work with. The spices and oil is often used as a base to season other dishes. That is how achari dishes originate.
Here I mimic some of the more typical pickle spices, like nigella seeds, fennel and mustard oil to create the “achari” effect. This is also done especially for dishes that are not cooked in a saucy manner. As for the lentils, they are a great way to add texture and protein to the dish. If you want, you can add in chickpeas instead of the lentils. If you have the greens you can toss them in as well.
What to Serve with your Achari Turnips?
This is a bold and somewhat drier dish. To make a balanced and varied meal with this, pair it with a soulful curry, with chicken or paneer and some kind of flatbreads.
A simple stir fry with turnips and turnip greens. Perfect over warm toasted bread and cheese.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 4 to 6 medium sized turnips, cut into a medium dice
- 1 teaspoon powdered turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper powder
- 1 teaspoon nigella seeds
- 1 tablespoon mustard oil
- 1 cup of cooked brown lentils
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt to taste
- 2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Set aside two half sheet pans.
- Crush the coriander and fennel seeds and place in a small bowl.
- Spread the turnips out on a sheet pan.
- Add the turmeric, red cayenne pepper and the nigella seeds to the bowl with the coriander and fennel seeds. Rub this over the turnips and drizzle with the mustard oil.
- Place in the oven.
- In the next sheet pan spread the brown lentils and drizzle with the olive oil.
- Cook these for 20 minutes. The turnips should be crisp, golden and cooked through.
- The lentils should be nice and crispy.
- Sprinkle the turnips with the lentils and sprinkle with salt.
- Sprinkle with the lemon juice and the cilantro