PrintRootin' for the rutabaga...
I like this homely-looking root vegetable! Roasted with carrots & potatoes or added to vegetable soups. Also, steam & chill then add to green salads. Nutrition-wise, the rutabaga adds some fiber along with an okay dose of vitamins & minerals. What do you do with rutabagas?
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Start Talking!
Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!
Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.
18 Comments:
It wouldn't be a holiday meal without them. Just peel, cut in cubes, simmer in salted water until soft (like potatoes), drain, mash. Add s&p and a little butter if desired. Most add gravy at the table. My family loves them.
I also add them when I'm roasting root vegetables. Also love turnips and parsnips along with carrots, beets and anything else I have on hand.
PerkyMac at 8:29AM on 01/26/08
i use them in stock, and a few days ago a friend offered me a little cube of one she had cut up raw to munch on like carrots. it was really sweet and crunchy. just last night, in fact, i went to get one to put in my lunch time container of raw veggies.
cybercita at 10:42AM on 01/26/08
They're wonderful roasted or mashed. Week before last I made a chicken stew with diced potato, rutabaga, and celeriac to go with the carrots and pearl onions; added frozen peas at the end, it was delicious! I love all root vegetables.
ride&cook at 11:12AM on 01/26/08
They're an essential ingredient in Pasties!
srhcb at 12:12PM on 01/26/08
Delicious with a simple glaze of reduced apple cider finished with a bit of butter (put some apple cider in a pan on a low back burner and leave it there until it is reduced to a syrupy consistency, then put melt a tablespoon or two of butter in it) The glaze is sweet & tart, goes nicely with purple top turnips and parsnips as well.
SSMom at 1:19PM on 01/26/08
PerkyMac - any chance you are Canadian? In my family they're known as turnips, and are a holiday meal staple prepared just as you said. At the restaurant we boil them, mash with salt and pepper and use them as ravioli filling for a salmon dish.
zapatista at 1:38PM on 01/26/08
Mom was born and raised in Ottawa. We had dual citizenship until we were 21. I have a ton of relatives in Canada and we are a very close family. Mom was an awesome gourmet cook, and so was my Grandmother. We also love turnips, but argue as to which one is sweeter. I say turnips are sweeter, but I like rutabagas better.
I didn't mention that I shake them on the heating element for a minute after draining, to dry them (I do the same with potatoes).
You are the first I've ever heard who also had them as a holiday staple. I'll bet you're right - that's it's a Canadian tradition.
PerkyMac at 1:47PM on 01/26/08
@zapatista..........forgot to add - that ravioli sounds wonderful! I've used butternut squash, but never thought about rutabaga. I'm sure I'd like that even better. I've never had ravioli with salmon either What an interesting pairing!
PerkyMac at 1:57PM on 01/26/08
@SSMom---your glaze sounds very good & will try it soon!
I find the smaller rutabaga has a better taste...do others agree?
JEP at 2:06PM on 01/26/08
JEP - I haven't noticed a difference, but I try to buy small because they're so much easier to cut in half with my arthritic hands - no strength. Rutabagas would be near the top of my list of favorite winter vegetables.
I love apple cider glaze, too. I've never used it on vegetables though - mostly pork and ham. Sounds like a great idea and I'm going to try it. Thanks SSMom!
PerkyMac at 3:52PM on 01/26/08
Another vote for turnips and/or rutabegas being a Canadian holiday tradition. My mom serves them for Christmas and Thanksgiving every year.
PerkyMac, I have lived in Eastern Ontario, including Ottawa, most of my life. Live about an hour from there now.
I wonder if the turnip thing comes from Canada's British traditions?
Maureen at 4:35PM on 01/26/08
Don't know Maureen. My Great Grandparents were Irish immigrants on both sides. (p.s. I have a daughter Maureen ;)
PerkyMac at 4:49PM on 01/26/08
I was confused as to why Canadians call them turnips, so I checked it out. Wikipedia says they are basically one and the same, except that turnips can be more white and rutabagas more yellow. My supermarket labels the white tops with purple bottoms as turnips, and the dark yellow/orange top with reddish purple bottoms as rutabagas. The flesh of these "turnips" are light yellow, and rutabagas orange. I don't think there is really that much difference.
Just in case anyone else was as confused as I.
PerkyMac at 5:11PM on 01/26/08
For answers to all your rutabagatious queries and latest rutabaganews, check out http://rutablogger.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html="The Rutabagan">
srhcb at 8:20PM on 01/26/08
Holy wah! You definitely need rutabaga in pasties, dere eh. Also I love to eat them raw after the first frost as this brings out the sugar in them
whippingwater at 10:21PM on 01/26/08
My father, who was from Texas, prepared this same dish almost weekly for most of my childhood. He'd peel and dice up about 2 lbs. of rutabsgas and throw them in a pressure cooker with 3 lbs. of pig tails, some water, salt and peppercorns. I never got tired of that meal but can't convince anyone else in my generation to even give it a try. For me, the sweetness of this root with some butter, salt and pepper on top is a taste sensation!
czken at 3:59AM on 01/27/08
czken: Where did your Dad get 3 pounds of pigs tails every week?
srhcb at 3:53PM on 01/27/08
Pike Place Market, downtown Seattle; still a great place to find otherwise hard to get ingredients. Something has changed in the pigtail market. When I was young, the tails my dad brought home were all 12-16" long. When I get a hankering, and a weekend home alone, I go out shopping for them but can only find stubs! Have pig farmers begun bobbing tails or has breeding changed things? GA pigtails! Horrors!!!
czken at 4:03PM on 01/30/08