My roomie had a a terrible childhood experience with a rutabaga and swears that if I ever bring one into the house, I will find all of my stuff in the middle of the street. I would love to prove to him that he can overcome this aversion/terror. Do any of you have any good recipes?
I eat mine with a little butter, salt and pepper. If it weren’t for the fact that it gives me the stinky farts, I would make a whole meal of it.
Perhaps I am not your target audience on this. I love me some rutabaga.
Dice some into a beef stew. We usually add potatoes, rutabaga and turnips to ours. Or use one in a dish of roasted roots.
One hesitates to ask…just what was his childhood trauma?
Boil. Mash. Serve with haggis and a wee dram.
They’re a key component in any vegetable soup I make. They taste like a cross between Yukon gold potatoes and turnips to me. I like a combination of plenty of diced rutabaga, swiss chard, string beans, carrots and spinach in my veggie soups.
Cube it with parsnips and celeriac. Boil for five minutes in salty water. Drain. Add chopped carrots, butter, and honey. Stir over heat for another five minutes. Add fresh chopped parsley. Honey-glazed root vegetables!
We serve the humble vegetable on Christmas Eve to remember our Scandinavian ancestors. Half of the time when I’m buying it the grocery clerk doesn’t know what it is. That’s a pity as it is healthful, tasty and inexpensive.
My MIL used to cook it along with potatoes and mash them together. I prepare it b y peeling and slicing and then letting stand overnight in the refrigerator in water to which a little sugar and salt have been added. Boil until tender, drain and mash with some butter and serve.
My mother cubes them and cooks them in a pressure cooker with carrots until fork tender, and then blends them together, so they’re just a little more coarse than mashed potatoes. Put some butter, salt, and pepper on 'em and gobble 'em up. I can’t get enough of them.
To be a bit more serious than in my previous post, mashed rutabaga is a very good side dish to cooked salted and/or smoked meat. Cook to tender, mash with some cream, a chunk of butter and perhaps a small cooked potato. Season with pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg, but not too much, you still want the main flavor to be that slightly sweet taste of root vegetables. Serve with meat, potatoes and some melted butter. You may even consider making yellow pea soup from the meat broth and serve that as another side dish. Very traditionally Scandinavian.
I remember a comedian once had " You’ll never hear anyone say. Gee, I wish I could accept those tickets for the World Series. But I need to get home. We’re having rutabaggas"
I grew up with them mashed, and never really liked them. Then I figured out how to roast them, and have never looked back. They are stunningly delicious when roasted.
Just peel the beggie, cut it into cubes about 1/2 - 3/4 inch square, toss with olive oil, salt, and ( if you have it) a drizzle of maple syrup. The syrup isn’t necessary, and don’t use too much, but it’s nice if you have it. Spread out in a single layer on a pan, roast at 400 degrees for 20-30 min, stirring 'em up once or twice.
Yum. Now I want rutabagas.
Rutabaga shavings in a salad always works for me.
Greetings from Rutabaga Nation, or what feels like it in the beginning of December. Rutabaga casserole is a traditional Christmas dish, so even people who don’t like rutabaga will probably be making it anyway. Anyway, rutabaga casserole is a bit of a hard sell for me personally, and not the thing you’d want to spring on somebody without Scandinavian cultural baggage anyway, so here are some other suggestions.
My favourite thing to do with rutabaga is to mix it up with other root vegetables and slow-fry them. Say, half a rutabaga, a parsnip, half a celeriac, two carrots or half a sweet potato. Cut everything into half-inch-thick sticks and fry in olive oil and butter together with half a star anise until caramelized and as al dente as you want them. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and a teaspoon honey. Serve sprinkled with fresh parsley, salt flakes and toasted pine kernels. Ginger would work well too, and cumin. I’ve sometimes put rutabaga into Indian curries as well (for example, together with cauliflower and yoghurt) and as far as I remember it’s been delish.
I like to chop them along with beets, parsnips, potatoes, turnips, carrots. Toss all in some oil of your choice, then drizzle balsamic vinegar over them. Roast in a pan until done.
Hah. Glad you added a postscript. Your post left me all WTH.
But then I realized I didn’t know much about the eating habits of the noble Scots and thought maybe they’d become enlightened. 
There’s a British dish called swede that’s basically a mash of rutabaga & carrot. I’ve had it a couple times; I’m not sure I’d call it tasty, but it’s less nasty than many stereotypically British foods I’ve tried.
Are you sure that’s what it’s called? Because Swede is simply what they call rutabagas in many parts of the world.
So, both rude and wrong. Way to go.
To answer the OP, I currently have a pot of spicy pork stew on the stove. One of the vegetables in it is swede. The sweetness works perfectly against hot chili and paprika.
Cube rutabaga in about 1/3 inch chunks. (it helps to nuke it for about 3 minutes in the microwave to soften it first.) Slice one large yellow onion also in large sections.
Drizzle baking oil into bottom of a large casserole and add onions, then rutabagas. (You want the onions to caramelize, not get crispy on top.) Add a bay leaf, a pinch of marjoram, and cracked black pepper. Celery seed is also good, but some folks hate the texture. Then drown the whole thing in cheap Rhine wine.
Bake at 350F until rutabagas are soft, onions have turned brown, and wine is mostly cooked off.
You can also add a couple of chicken breasts to the top of the casserole about halfway through. For a one-pot meal, add green peas in the final five minutes.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream and drizzle the bright yellow broth over the whole thing.
Dang, now I’m hungry.