What is a rutabaga?
Rutabagas are root vegetables that are similar to turnips. Raw rutabaga is sometimes chopped and added to salads. Rutabagas should be kept away from apples and bananas.
Is rutabaga the same as kohlrabi?
In Denmark and Norway, kålrabi is sometimes confused with Swedish kålrabbi (kohlrabi). The Finnish term is lanttu. The Romanian term is nap. Rutabaga is known by many different regional names in German, of which Kohlrübe and Steckrübe are the most widespread and most commonly used in lists of ingredients.
Why is my rutabaga bitter and Woody?
Like many other root vegetables, the rutabaga can grow woody and bitter if exposed to sunlight while it grows, so make sure that your rutabagas are fully covered and well spaced as they grow. Ever since she began contributing to the site several years ago, Mary has embraced the exciting challenge of being a DelightedCooking researcher and writer.
What is rutabaga Hasselback and how do you cook it?
In this riff on potatoes hasselback, a single rutabaga is cut into thin slices but left joined at the bottom, then baked and basted with melted butter until the slices are bronzed and crispy. I love this recipe for rutabagas hasselback, which includes slices of red onion and garlic between each rutabaga wedge for extra flavor.
What is rutabaga called in English?
Swede (UK) / Rutabaga (US) This vegetable is also sometimes called yellow turnip, but in US it's generally called rutabaga and in most of the UK it's called swede.
How do you eat a rutabaga?
They can be eaten raw, but are usually roasted, cooked and mashed (sometimes with potatoes or other root vegetables), and used in casseroles, stews and soups. They are high in vitamin C, a good source of potassium and high in fiber.
What is the difference in taste between a turnip and a rutabaga?
In terms of their flavor, rutabagas are slightly sweeter-tasting than turnips whereas turnips have a slightly more radishy flavor. The most obvious visible difference between the two root vegetables is their size. Turnips are best when small and tender, like around the size of a tennis ball.
What does the vegetable Rudebaker look like?
What Does a Rutabaga Look Like? They are orb-shaped, sometimes quite round, sometimes a bit more elongated. Rutabagas are often purple on the outside, though the purple usually covers about half of the vegetable, much like a purple topped turnip. The rest of the skin is a yellow-ish white.
Does rutabaga give you gas?
As a cruciferous vegetable, rutabagas contain raffinose, a complex sugar that can cause bloating, abdominal pain and flatulence in some people. Talk to your doctor about ways to incorporate nutrient-dense rutabagas into your diet while minimizing these side effects.
What does rutabaga go well with?
Rutabagas can be used similarly to potatoes. As a side dish, they go well with most proteins, such as roast chicken, steak or pork chops. Rutabagas can also be roasted with other root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots for a wholesome and complex side dish.
Do you peel rutabaga?
The wax and skin of rutabagas must be peeled before cooking. A sharp paring knife is better than a vegetable peeler.
What is another name for rutabaga?
rutabaga, (Brassica napus, variety napobrassica), also known as Swedish turnip, wax turnip, swede, or neep, root vegetable in the mustard family (Brassicaceae), cultivated for its fleshy roots and edible leaves.
Are rutabagas healthier than potatoes?
Are rutabagas better than potatoes? That depends because each vegetable has unique health benefits and nutrients. However if you're looking at it from a weight loss perspective, rutabagas are lower in both calories and carbs.
Why is rutabaga good for you?
Rutabagas are rich in antioxidants such as carotenoids and vitamins C and E. Antioxidants can help reverse oxidative damage to your cells and prevent chronic health problems. They help you stay healthy by protecting your immune system and organs from free radicals. Helps prevent cancer.
What is Rugabata?
Rutabaga is a root vegetable that belongs to the Brassica genus of plants, whose members are informally known as cruciferous vegetables. It's round with a brownish-white color and looks similar to a turnip. In fact, it's commonly referred to as a cross between a turnip and a cabbage.
How do you buy a rutabaga?
How to Select Rutabagas:Look for rutabagas that feel heavy for their size with smooth, heavy and firm roots.The skin should be free of major damage although smaller cuts around the top are natural.Smaller rutabagas (4 inches in diameter or less) tend to have a sweeter flavor than larger varieties.
Etymology
Rutabaga has many national and regional names. Rutabaga is the common North American term for the plant. This comes from the Swedish dialectal word rotabagge, from rot ( root) + bagge (lump, bunch). In the U.S., the plant is also known as Swedish turnip or yellow turnip.
History
The first known printed reference to the rutabaga comes from the Swiss botanist Gaspard Bauhin in 1620, where he notes that it was growing wild in Sweden. It is often considered to have originated in Scandinavia, Finland or Russia.
Cuisine
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Other uses
The roots and tops of "swedes" came into use as a forage crop in the early nineteenth century, used as winter feed for livestock. They may be fed directly (chopped or from a hopper ), or animals may be allowed to forage the plants directly in the field.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brassica napus subsp. rapifera.
Vitamin C
A 1/2-cup serving of cooked rutabaga contains approximately 16 milligrams of vitamin C. This amount supplies 25 percent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recommended daily allowance of vitamin C for a healthy adult man or woman following a 2,000-calorie diet.
Dietary Fiber
Cooked rutabagas provide about 7 percent of the RDA of dietary fiber in each 1/2-cup serving. Like all cruciferous vegetables, a rutabaga's fiber is primarily insoluble fiber, a type of fiber that does not break down within the digestive tract.
Potassium
The USDA National Nutrient Database reports that a serving of cooked rutabaga contains 277 milligrams of potassium, or nearly 6 percent of the recommended daily intake of potassium.
Antioxidants
All cruciferous vegetables, including rutabagas, contain a high concentration of carotenoids like lutein and zeaxanthin. Carotenoids act as antioxidants by inhibiting the ability of free radical compounds to cause damage to DNA. Consuming antioxidant-rich foods may help prevent cancer, heart disease and inflammatory diseases like arthritis.
Mashed Rutabagas
One of the simplest and tastiest ways to eat rutabagas is just to cube, boil, and mash them with butter. Unlike potatoes, which can get gluey if you mash them overzealously, there’s no danger of overdoing it with rutabaga. If you want them really smooth, you can throw rutabagas in the food processor. Mash it with carrots for added color.
Rutabaga Noodles
Your spiralizer is good for so much more than zucchini! To make low-carb rutabaga pasta, run rutabaga through a spiralizer. You can eat them raw, but they’re lovely baked into a casserole. Try then tossing them with olive oil and herbs or transform into a gooey, rutabaga-noodle casserole.
Rutabaga Gratin
If you're bored with potatoes, try making a creamy rutabaga gratin: Thinly slice rutabaga, layer in a buttered cast-iron pan, pour hot cream over, sprinkle with Gruyere, and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.
Rutabagas Hasselback
In this riff on potatoes hasselback, a single rutabaga is cut into thin slices but left joined at the bottom, then baked and basted with melted butter until the slices are bronzed and crispy. I love this recipe for rutabagas hasselback, which includes slices of red onion and garlic between each rutabaga wedge for extra flavor.
Rutabaga Spice Cake
Think carrot cake, but lighter with a honey-colored crumb. If you have food sensitivities, try this marvelously dense, dairy- and gluten-free rutabaga spice cake or this dairy- and flour-intensive version of rutabaga spice cake with browned-butter icing.
Rutabaga Oven Fries
Rutabaga also makes superb oven fries: Toss rutabaga spears in in fat (olive oil, coconut oil, or even bacon fat or beef tallow) along with salt and seasonings of your choice (like garlic powder, dried thyme, and cayenne ), then roast at 425 degrees for 30 minutes.
Rutabaga and Cheddar Cheese Soup
Rutabaga is a cousin of broccoli, and it makes a fine stand-in for that vegetable in this rich rutabaga and cheddar soup. Try adding a glug of beer in there for good measure.
Mashed Potato, Rutabaga, And Parsnip Casserole With Caramelized Onions
This is great with Apricot Glazed Turkey and Green Beans With Walnuts And Walnut Oil. This dish can be made one day ahead. The broth made in this recipe can be used as stock for turkey soup.
Roasted Root Vegetables With Apple Juice
Caramelized roasted vegetables made with a white wine syrup. Originally submitted to ThanksgivingRecipe.com.
Pasties II
A traditional Upper Peninsula of Michigan treat! Complete with rutabaga! I am from the UP and this is the real deal! Rub pasties with a little milk for a golden color.
Roasted Winter Vegetable Soup
This is a tasty and satisfying pureed soup that makes the best of the humble produce that winter farmers' markets have to offer.
Cornish Finnish Michigan Pasties
I make these pasties about once a month for my family and extended family. I weigh my ingredients for accuracy and flavor.
Pot-au-Feu
The flavorful broth is often traditionally served first, dotted with croutons and sprinkled with Gruyère cheese. The main dish, or 'bouilli' - a platter of boiled meats and mixed vegetables - follows usually with gherkins and a variety of mustards, horseradish, and sauces alongside. The two courses can also be combined into one course.
Neeps and Tatties
When we went over to Edinburgh for Hogmanay, our friends made this for us, along with a slice of haggis! This is a traditional Scottish side dish, and goes well with a beef roast or chicken. It is also a great way to use an often overlooked vegetable: the swede (aka the yellow turnip, the rutabaga, or the Swedish turnip).
Difference Between Turnips and Rutabagas
Turnips are usually white and purple on the outside, with very white flesh, while rutabagas are yellowish and brown on the outside with orange-yellow flesh. Rutabagas are also generally much larger than turnips.
How to Use Them
As with many vegetables, turnips or rutabagas should be chosen based on their firmness and whether they feel a bit heavy for their size.
What Do They Taste Like?
Turnips and rutabagas are both members of the cabbage family, so they each have a flavor characteristic of other members of that family, including cabbage, radishes and cauliflower. And while raw turnips have a spiciness similar to that of radishes, rutabagas by comparison are sweeter.
Storage
Both rutabagas and turnips can be stored in your refrigerator, in the crisper drawer set to the humid setting, for up to two weeks. Rutabagas can also be stored like potatoes or onions, in a cool dark place like a cupboard, for up to a week. Turnips stored this way will tend to lose their firmness, so keep them in the fridge.
Nutrition and Benefits
Both turnips and rutabagas are good sources of fiber and vitamin C. 1 2 Rutabagas have more carbohydrates, accounting for the sweeter taste.
Did you make this recipe?
Preheat the oven. Rutabaga is best roasted at 425 F (218 C), so set the oven and let it preheat to that temperature. Line a baking sheet with cooking spray, parchment paper, or a silicone mat. This will prevent the rutabaga from sticking to the pan.
Did you make this recipe?
Stir fry it. Heat a tablespoon (15 ml) of vegetable oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet. Wash, peel, and cut a rutabaga into thin slices. When the oil is shimmering, add the rutabaga slices. Cook the slices for about seven minutes, until golden brown and soft. Season with salt, pepper, garlic, and other seasonings if desired.
About This Article
This article was co-authored by Vanna Tran, a trusted member of wikiHow's volunteer community. Vanna Tran is a home cook who started cooking with her mother at a very young age. She has catered events and hosted pop-up dinners in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 5 years. This article has been viewed 238,881 times.
Overview
Rutabaga or swede (British English and some Commonwealth English) is a root vegetable, a form of Brassica napus (which also includes rapeseed). Other names include Swedish turnip, neep (Scottish), rwden/rwdins (Welsh), and turnip (Canadian English, Irish English and Manx English) – however, elsewhere the name "turnip" usually refers to the related white turnip. The species Brassica n…
Etymology
Rutabaga has many national and regional names. Rutabaga is the common North American term for the plant. This comes from the Swedish dialectal word rotabagge, from rot (root) + bagge (lump, bunch). In the U.S., the plant is also known as Swedish turnip or yellow turnip.
The term swede (from "Swedish turnip") is used in many Commonwealth Nations, …
History
The first known printed reference to the rutabaga comes from the Swiss botanist Gaspard Bauhin in 1620, where he notes that it was growing wild in Sweden. It is often considered to have originated in Scandinavia, Finland or Russia. According to the Natural Resources Institute of Finland (Luke), rutabaga or lanttu was most likely bred on more than one occasion in Northern Europe, aro…
Cuisine
In the Netherlands, rutabaga is traditionally served boiled and mashed. Adding mashed potatoes (and, in some recipes, similarly mashed vegetables or fruits) makes stamppot (English: mash pot), a dish often served alongside smoked sausage.
In Sweden and Norway, rutabaga is cooked with potato and sometimes carrot, a…
Phytochemistry
Rutabaga and other cyanoglucoside-containing foods (including cassava, maize (corn), bamboo shoots, sweet potatoes, and lima beans) release cyanide, which is subsequently detoxified into thiocyanate. Thiocyanate inhibits thyroid iodide transport and, at high doses, competes with iodide in the organification process within thyroid tissue. Goitres may develop when there is a dietary imbalance of thiocyanate-containing food in excess of iodine consumption, and it is possible fo…
Other uses
The roots and tops of "swedes" came into use as a forage crop in the early nineteenth century, used as winter feed for livestock. They may be fed directly (chopped or from a hopper), or animals may be allowed to forage the plants directly in the field.
People living in Northern England, West England, Ireland and Scotland have lon…
See also
• List of vegetables
External links
• Alternative Field Crops Manual: Rutabaga—Center for New Crops & Plant Products, Purdue University
• Smillie, Susan. "Are 'neeps' swedes or turnips?", The Guardian, 25 January 2010.