Chef Juliette
Bouillabaisse à la Marseillaise
Marseille's great fish stew, saffron-gold and garlic-scented, proves that a hard boil can be the careful choice: it binds olive oil into broth before the whole pot meets bread.
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Purée de Navets, otherwise Freneuse
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 641, Purée de Navets, otherwise Freneuse, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Purée de Navets teaches the discipline of gentle cooking: butter-softened turnips, their edge tamed by sugar, bound with potato and loosened with hot milk until the spoon leaves a satin wake.
Soups & Stews
French
Comfort Food
Weeknight
25 min
Active Time
55 min cook•1 hr 20 min total
YieldAbout 2 quarts
Purée de Navets, otherwise Freneuse (silken turnip soup), teaches one true thing before you touch the pan: turnips must soften completely without taking colour. The measured sugar isn't there to make a sweet soup. It quiets the turnip's peppery edge so butter, consommé, and milk can reveal its gentler character.
The classical formula assumed white consommé never off the fire, a saucier free to mind turnips and potatoes in separate pans, and a tammy with practiced hands to force the purée through. This home batch keeps the book's one-pound turnip ratio and separate cooking sequence, replaces the tammy with a food mill and fine sieve, and finishes at about two quarts. The dedicated brigade hand is scaffolding and can go; the parboiling, butter stewing, sugar, potato binding, and hot-milk finish are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Freneuse should arrive ivory-gold and perfectly smooth, with enough body to leave a broad wake behind the ladle. Butter-fried croûtons give each spoonful its crisp edge. Watch the turnips while they étuver gently in butter, because preventing browning is the step that decides the whole pot.
Purée Freneuse takes its name from Freneuse, a commune beside the Seine in the western Île-de-France, whose firm turnips earned a place in the classical kitchen. The preparation traveled from a local vegetable reputation into the grand repertoire as a named purée, with potato supplying the binding and a little sugar correcting the turnip's edge. It is not necessarily a cream soup: the source treats velouté and cream as alternate versions, while this Freneuse reaches its proper consistency with boiled milk.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
very firm turnips
Quantity
3½ cups (830 ml / 454 g)
peeled and finely minced
unsalted butter for stewing
Quantity
3 tablespoons (45 ml / 43 g)
granulated sugar
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g)
fine sea salt
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 36 g) for the parboiling water, plus up to 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g) for the soup
white consommé, or clear lightly seasoned chicken stock
Quantity
4¼ cups (1 L / 1 kg)
divided
medium potatoes
Quantity
2 medium (about 2½ cups / 400 g)
peeled and quartered
whole milk
Quantity
3 to 4 cups (720 to 960 ml / 745 to 990 g)
cold unsalted butter for finishing
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g)
diced
firm white bread
Quantity
2 cups (480 ml / 120 g)
crusts removed and cut into small dice
unsalted butter for frying the croûtons
Quantity
3 tablespoons (45 ml / 43 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| very firm turnipspeeled and finely minced | 3½ cups (830 ml / 454 g) |
| unsalted butter for stewing | 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 43 g) |
| granulated sugar | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g) |
| fine sea salt | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 36 g) for the parboiling water, plus up to 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g) for the soup |
| white consommé, or clear lightly seasoned chicken stockdivided | 4¼ cups (1 L / 1 kg) |
| medium potatoespeeled and quartered | 2 medium (about 2½ cups / 400 g) |
| whole milk | 3 to 4 cups (720 to 960 ml / 745 to 990 g) |
| cold unsalted butter for finishingdiced | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) |
| firm white breadcrusts removed and cut into small dice | 2 cups (480 ml / 120 g) |
| unsalted butter for frying the croûtons | 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 43 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 4-quart saucepan
- •Medium saucepan
- •Food mill fitted with a fine plate
- •Fine-mesh sieve
- •Wide skillet
Instructions
- 1
Parboil the turnips
Bring a large saucepan of water to a full boil and season it with the measured parboiling salt. Add the minced turnips and cook for 3 minutes after the water returns to the boil. Drain them thoroughly, shaking the colander until no water drips. Parboiling removes some of the raw, peppery edge; draining well lets the butter coat the turnips instead of sliding off into water.
- 2
Étuver without colour
Melt the stewing butter in a heavy 4-quart saucepan over low heat. Add the drained turnips, sugar, and ½ teaspoon of the soup salt. Étuver, stew gently in butter, covered for 18 to 22 minutes, stirring every few minutes, until the turnips look translucent and are nearly tender. They must not brown. If a golden film begins to form, add a tablespoon of the consommé, scrape the pan clean, and lower the heat; the flavour is still sound, but stop the colouring there.
- 3
Complete both cookings
Pour 1¼ cups (300 ml) of the consommé over the turnips and bring it to a bare simmer. Cover and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the turnips collapse readily under a spoon. Meanwhile, put the quartered potatoes in a second saucepan with the remaining 3 cups (720 ml) consommé. Simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes, until a knife passes through without resistance. Drain the potatoes well and reserve their consommé for another soup or sauce.
- 4
Pass the purée
Add the drained potatoes to the turnips and their cooking liquid, then crush everything together with a wooden spoon. Pass the mixture through the fine plate of a food mill into a clean saucepan, then rub it through a fine-mesh sieve with the back of a ladle. This final pass is not decoration; it removes the turnip fibres and gives Freneuse its satin texture. Don't use a high-speed blender, which can work the potato starch into glue.
- 5
Set the consistency
Bring 3 cups (720 ml) of the milk just to the boil in the potato saucepan. Set the purée over low heat and whisk in the hot milk gradually, stopping when the soup pours in a broad ribbon and leaves a light coating on the spoon. Add more hot milk as needed to reach about 2 quarts. If it becomes too thin, simmer it uncovered for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring along the pan floor; if it is too thick, loosen it with another splash of hot milk. Taste and add only as much of the remaining soup salt as the consommé requires.
- 6
Monter au beurre
Take the saucepan off the heat and monter au beurre, finish with cold butter, whisking in the diced butter a few pieces at a time until the surface gleams. Don't boil the soup after this point or the butter may bead on top. If it does, ça se rattrape: whisk in a tablespoon of hot milk off the heat until the purée comes together again.
- 7
Fry the croûtons
Melt the croûton butter in a wide skillet over medium heat. Add the bread dice in one layer and toss for 5 to 7 minutes, until crisp and evenly golden on every side. Ladle the Freneuse into warmed bowls and scatter the croûtons over each serving only at the table, so they meet the soup crisp rather than waterlogged. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose turnips that feel dense and rigid, with smooth skins and no softness around the stem. Large woody specimens bring fibres and bitterness that no amount of sieving entirely disguises.
- •The sugar is part of the source formula, not an optional sweetening. Its small quantity rounds the turnip's mustardy edge without announcing itself in the finished bowl.
- •Use white consommé if you keep it, or a clear, lightly seasoned chicken stock. A dark roasted stock changes the ivory colour and makes the delicate turnip taste secondary.
- •Warm the bowls and keep the croûtons separate until serving. They should crack under the spoon before drinking in the purée, not disappear into it.
Advance Preparation
- •The turnips may be minced and parboiled up to 8 hours ahead, then drained, cooled, covered, and refrigerated. Begin the butter stewing directly from the cold.
- •The purée can be completed through the milk stage up to 2 days ahead. Cool it promptly and refrigerate; reheat gently, then monter au beurre only before serving.
- •Fry the croûtons up to 4 hours ahead and keep them uncovered at room temperature once cool. Refrigeration softens them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 260g)
Calories
295 calories
Total Fat
16 g
Saturated Fat
10 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
45 mg
Sodium
750 mg
Total Carbohydrates
28 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
11 g
Protein
10 g
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