Recipe This | Instant Pot Turnips (2024)

Perfectly cooked instant pot turnips. Using the instant pot pressure cooker, we are going to show you an easy method to pressure cook turnips.

Forget boiled turnips, these steamed turnips taste delicious, are easy prep and you can serve them with some butter for a quick side or make mashed turnips.

Cooking Turnips

Whenever I mention to a Brit that I am cooking turnips they always assume I mean swede. Because swede and turnips are often confused for each other. Especially when more Brits eat swede than they do turnips.

Check out our post about turnip vs swede.

A typical Brit will have a Sunday roast dinner that includes swede and carrot mash, which is the two veggies mashed together and it is so delicious that I always have to go back for seconds.

But hang on a minute, if you live in the US you might not have heard of swede, that is because in the United States it is known as rutabaga.

I have also avoided turnips for many years and always said they were awful compared to swede. I tried turnips in Portugal, and they were so bitter I could never eat more than one fork portion of it.

Then fast forward to earlier this year and I picked some up from my local greengrocers and they were so, so good. No bitterness, just pure deliciousness and now I am back in love with the trusted turnip and wanted to share with you cooking turnip using the instant pot or any electric pressure cooker.

Today, we are going to show you how to steam turnips, best way to cook turnips and so much more.

If you are looking for more delicious instant pot recipes do try: instant pot frozen steak, instant pot red potatoes, instant pot liver and onions, instant pot rice pudding, instant pot porridge, or why not try instant pot breakfast potatoes.

Are You New To The Instant Pot?

Plus, as well as our extremely popularinstant pot mini coursewhich teaches you the instant pot basics in 5 days, we also have ourinstant pot bucket list. That is loaded with 30FREEbucket list worthy instant pot recipes.

Click hereor on the banner above and you will have access to both in an instant.

Can You Cook Turnips In The Instant Pot?

Yes, you can cook turnips in the instant pot, and you will love them. You can keep it simple and load them into the instant pot like you are doing boiled turnips and then transform them into turnip mash.

Or like we do, make steamed turnips and then serve them with some butter and a sprinkle of your favourite seasonings.

Best Way To Cook Turnips?

The best way to cook and eat turnips is to use a steamer basket and steam the turnips. Then you can eat the turnips like you would with potatoes. You can mash them (most people’s favourite method). You can cube them, or you could even make them into turnip fries.

Do You Peel Turnips?

Yes, you do peel turnips. Before cooking turnips in instant pot you will need to peel them and then dice them ready for pressure cooking.

Chef Dom says the easiest method is to top and tail them first and then finish the peeling process.

How Long Does It Take For Turnips To Get Soft?

It takes JUST 3 minutes for turnips to get soft. Or as I would refer to them, as fork tender turnips.

Isn’t that fast for cooked turnips? Though of course, it doesn’t include the time to pressure, just the cooking of them.

Do Turnips Take Longer To Cook Than Carrots?

If you take a look at our instant pot carrots recipe you will see the carrots take 3 minutes pressure cooked. The exact same time as this cooked turnip.

Therefore, if you would like to do cubed carrots and cubed turnips, you can pressure cook them together at the same time.

What About Instant Pot Mashed Turnips?

If you wanted to make instant pot mashed turnips, then this turnips recipe is ideal. Just finish the recipe by mashing the turnip and adding in a little milk and some butter and some extra seasoning.

Would you like easy & amazing instant pot recipes from instant pot experts? Click here and join the Recipe This Newsletter. We will then send you the BEST instant pot beginner recipes direct to your email inbox along with other useful instant pot resources.

Instant Pot Turnip Ingredients

Turnips – You can do as many, or as few, that will fit into your instant pot steamer basket. I find that doing a batch of 7 medium turnips is ideal for feeding a family of four for dinner, as a side dish.

Onions – I always start with some onion that I sauté in the instant pot with some extra virgin olive oil.

Stock. You can opt for filling the instant pot with water or stock for you to take the instant pot to pressure. I usually use water if just steaming turnips, but if I want to transform the turnips into a veggie mash, then I will opt for stock.

Seasoning – Then you will need some seasoning. I love salt and pepper, plus some mixed herbs. Bouquet garni is my favourite, but mixed Italian seasoning also works well.

Optional – I just love my pressure cooker turnips with a little butter, but of course you can skip this step if you want to avoid extra fat.

Can You Recommend An Instant Pot?

I often get asked which electric pressure cookers we recommend and which one we use. In 95% of our instant pot recipes, we use either this instant pot duo (we have both the 6qt and 8qt) or the Ninja Foodi air fryer and pressure cooker in 1. You can click on the links above and read up on them.

Plus, we recommend you head over to our instant pot recipes category as we have many electric pressure cooker recipes and have been using instant pots for 5 years.

How Do You Cook Turnips In Instant Pot?

• Pour. Add to the instant pot inner pot water or stock, that is enough to bring the instant pot to pressure.
• Peel. Next cut the top and bottoms off the turnips and then peel each turnip. Then using a chopping board, chop the turnips into cubes like you would if you were making our air fryer breakfast potatoes.
• Load. Add to the instant pot the steamer basket and then spread over the steamer basket the prepared turnip cubes. Season with salt and pepper.
• Cook. Place the lid on the instant pot then cook turnips in instant pot for 3 minutes, followed by a quick pressure release.
• Serve. The turnip instant pot recipe just needs a fork test now to make sure they are fork tender and then you can serve with some butter and your favourite seasonings.

How Long To Cook Turnip In Pressure Cooker?

For pressure cooking turnips into cubes like we have done we recommend 3 minutes and this will result in fork tender, soft turnips.

Listen To Instant Pot Turnip

Want to learn more about our Podcast? Then click here and you can browse through past episodes and subscribe to the Magic With Gadgets Podcast.

More Instant Pot Vegetable Recipes

• Instant Pot Butternut Squash
• Instant Pot Cauliflower
• Instant Pot Broccoli
• Instant Pot Parsnips
• Instant Pot Brussel Sprouts
• Instant Pot Carrots
• Instant Pot Swede/Rutabaga
• Instant Pot Mushrooms
• Instant Pot Cabbage
• Instant Pot beginner recipes!

This recipe for cooking turnips was originally shared in 2018. I have updated it with better pics and more info for you.

Your turnips in instant pot recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.

Though before you do, don’t forget to subscribe, and grab your FREE VIP Pass to Recipe This. You will get access to our latest recipes first, you will be able to request recipes, you will have access to free mini courses, free instant pot ebooks and useful instant pot cook time charts and so much more.

Can’t make it now? Then save it for later!