Rutabaga - Preparation and Use

Preparation and Use

Finns cook rutabagas in a variety of ways; roasted to be served with meat dishes, as the major ingredient in the ever popular Christmas dish Swede casserole (lanttulaatikko), as a major flavor enhancer in soups, uncooked and thinly julienned as a side dish or in a salad, baked, or boiled. Finns use rutabagas in most dishes that call for any root vegetable.

Swedes and Norwegians cook rutabagas with potatoes and carrots, and mash them with butter and either stock or, occasionally, milk or cream, to create a puree called rotmos (Swedish, literally: root mash) and kålrabistappe (Norwegian). Onion is occasionally added. In Norway, kålrabistappe is an obligatory accompaniment to many festive dishes, including smalahove, pinnekjøtt, raspeball and salted herring. In Sweden, rotmos is often eaten together with cured and boiled ham hock, accompanied by mustard. This classic Swedish dish is called fläsklägg med rotmos. In Wales, a similar mash produced using just potatoes and rutabagas is known as ponch maip.

In Scotland, rutabagas and potatoes are boiled and mashed separately to produce "neeps and tatties" ("tatties" being the Scots word for potatoes), traditionally served with the Scottish national dish of haggis as the main course of a Burns supper. Rutabagas were also carved out and used as candle lanterns in Halloween celebrations in Scotland and Ireland. Since pumpkins became readily available from Europe in the 1980s, they have taken over this role for the most part. Neeps may also be mashed with potatoes to make clapshot. Regional variations include the addition of onions to clapshot in Orkney. Neeps are also extensively used in soups and stews.

In England, they are regularly eaten mashed as part of the traditional Sunday roast. Often they are boiled together with carrots and served either mashed or pureed with butter and ground pepper. The highly flavored cooking water is often retained for soup, or as an addition to gravy. Rutabagas are an essential vegetable component of the traditional Welsh lamb broth called cawl.

In Canada, rutabagas are used as filler in foods such as mincemeat and Christmas cake, or as a side dish with Sunday dinner in Atlantic Canada. In Canada, they are often referred to as "turnips".

In the US, rutabagas are mostly eaten as part of stews or casseroles, served mashed with carrots, or baked in a pasty. They are frequently found in the New England boiled dinner.

In Australia, rutabagas are used in casseroles, stews and soups as a major flavor enhancer.

Despite their popularity elsewhere, rutabagas were widely used as a food of last resort in continental Europe during World War I, and remain particularly unpopular in Germany.

• Harvested roots

• Cut through a root

• Mashed rutabaga