Interesting question :-)) I like rutabagas a lot but do not care for turnips (or parsnips).

FWIW, I wouldn't do a rutabaga raw. It's hard to begin with and I don't think the flavor is as good as when cooked. Kinda like eating a raw potato - some like 'em; most do not. And preparing them is much the same as you would with a potato as well

If not as a mash (my favorite method), then I would roast them. A little drizzle of olive oil, S&P, a bit of garlic if you like and some rosemary. Or as a gratin. I've also seen them combined with sweet potatoes in a casserole/gratin. But other than mashed, I usually just include them in soups and stews.

In my family, we refer to them as neeps........it's that UK background :-)

Thanks, gardengal48,

I am going to explore these two vegetables. I will slice the rutabaga then peel the wax off it. Maybe I'll try your recipe for the 'baga.

in searching GW Cooking, I came across Plllog's recipe for turnip chips. Maybe I can find some small flat turnips and make chips. If I wanted to make some fried Pringles like chips for the appetizer table, would I par cook before frying?

Any seasoning of spice to go w that presentation (finger food chip snack)? Thin dusting of garam masala & sea salt?

I can always fall back on Pumkin Pie Spice Sardines.

I dice turnips/rutabagas and cook them in boiling salted water until just tender. Put in a buttered casserole. Make a béchamel sauce, adding cheddar cheese, a pinch of nutmeg (and an optional pinch of cayenne or drops of hot sauce.) - pour over the cooked turnips. Top with buttered crumbs. Bake until brown and bubbly.

My favorite way to have turnips is tempura, but they have to be served hot and with a dipping sauce. They do not microwave that well and are better if reheated in an oven.

You can also make them in a pakora/samosa or pierogi/piroshki.

Just dice a rutabaga large, drizzle a little oil on, and roast as you would potato chunks. Season however you like or leave them plain.

Use a sharp knife. They're harder and denser than potatoes. People often substitute rutabagas (also called Swedes) for potatoes, but you have to be familiar with the relative differences to make it come out right in most recipes.

Re fried turnip chips, I've never done that. They're more comparable to carrots than potatoes, though less sweet. That is, hard and not very starchy. I'd slice very fine, and perhaps freeze first, but that's a wild guess. If you try it, do report back.

BTW, my roasted turnip chips with cheddar are delicious, but they do taste like turnips to a certain extent. If someone really dislikes turnips, rather than turnip dishes grandma made or similar, he probably won't like them. Though, good! More for everyone else. :)

I cut small turnips (NOT rutabagas) into eight wedges and simmer with a little water and a spoonful of sugar until they are tender, the water has evaporated and they are a bit caramelised. Add a little bit of butter, salt and pepper and enjoy!

I like them all, the turnips, the rutabaga and the parsnips. Parsnips were usually par boiled then fried in butter, a horrible thing to do to a nice healthy root vegetable, but I still do it. I also add them to stews, I roast them and I have a recipe for parsnip muffins that are a lot like carrot cake muffins.

I like turnips and rutabaga best boiled and mashed with butter. I also like them in pot roast and it's not a Upper Peninsula pasty without a rutabaga. And no, you can't substitute carrots, it's heresy. (grin)

I make glazed rutabaga too, just like glazed carrots. Peel, dice and cook the rutabaga, glaze with brown sugar and orange juice, add a little soy sauce if you like, reduce until the sauce is thick and sticky.

Annie

Rutabaga is my favourite vegetable. I've been known to eat it on its own and call it dinner but I really only like it one way. It must be boiled in salted water, & mashed with a bit of butter. I'll add fresh ground pepper once it's on my plate. My mother used to add brown sugar, but I don't like the extra sweetness.

Oh, well, stews... all kinds of root vegetables are good in stews! I'll put any of them in a regular beef stew, or many others. Peppi's (I think hers) recipe for chicken and dumplings has parsnips. It's very different and the best ever if you like a little kick. I never liked the old carrots and prunes tsimmis, but for Passover I'll make one with celeriac, rutabaga, turnip, parsnip carrot, and onions, plus whatever else is walking by, macerated mixed dried fruit, sautéed in wine. Wonderful! The celeriac, rutabaga, parsnip and turnips stand up really well to the sweetness of the fruit. While they have their own interior sweetness, it's not sugary like carrots, and they all have a lot of actual, distinguishable flavor.

I love rutabega!...my favorite way is roasted with butternut squash and onion. Toss with a very little bit of olive oil....salt and pepper, in a sheet pan, toss often and when they are getting soft, add some butter....and maybe some apple slices!
Or just cubed and steamed.
My mother boiled them and mashed them and I hated them....went to a friend's house and her mother serveds teamed and cubed with gravy!!

Wow! All of you have been so kind to respond with such interesting recipes and information, especially at this very busy time. Wish we could do a sort of "pub crawl" -- a tour of various Cooking forum members' kitchens and dining tables. That would be so interesting and delectable.

Clearly, I'm going to have to try more than one recipe! They all sound so delicious. I am supposed to not partake of so many yummy foods and additions -- like sodium, saturated fats, oils, carbohydrates, yadda yadda. A few holidays can be exceptions, I hope. I dearly love cheeses, carmelized anything, salt, fats, just about any food (include desserts and drinks).

I love the idea of cooking the turnips - rutabaga (begge) with apples, cheese, butter and freshly grated nutmeg. And when I hear the descriptor "chips" or "tempura," I melt. Lars, we must talk tempura sometime. A few years ago I played around with trying out tempura-like batters. I could tempura my fingernails and find them delicious.

There are a few Asian and Vietnamese restaurants around that serve calimari in a sort of rice flour based tempura batter -- fried! Then served with a high sodium sauce or vinaigrette or "salad." I was getting close to being able to duplicate some of these, when some doc put a flea in my ear and suggested I desist. And I'd just discovered an affordable restaurant that served fantastic peppercorn calimari -- salt and pepper tender fried calimari on a fragrant picant salad of shredded greens and tomatoes. I took a photo of it (Yes, I'm one of those). C'mon, I bet a lot of us eat, take photos and notes, run yummy dishes through a yum-spectrometer in an attempt to duplicate it back home.

I will let you know how I decided to prepare the rutabaga.

Meanwhile, a household member talked me into making Chinese ravioli - "potstickers" with soy-ginger-green onion dipping sauce for a Thanksgiving appetizer. Personally, I don't think it adds anything and is better for New Years. But the pot luck is a post-Thanksgiving, play it again, Sam event. Always too much food. Yum. I'll have to let out my slacks before I leave home.

Thanks again, and Happy Stuffing, everyone!

photos: local turkeys and the rutabaga

petalique, I agree, a route where we just stopped at other members houses and ate would be a lot of fun. I've met nearly 30 of the forum members and eaten at several houses and they were, without exception, delicious and I came away with recipes.

Those turkeys look familiar, I have a flock of them at the farm too.

We also always called them "beggies", and now I have to go find one in the produce section. It's one of those things I don't grow because I have a big problem with root maggots that I've not been able to overcome. I've never batter dipped and deep fried them......yet.

Annie

I cooked the rutabaga. I was so tired out from other T day cooking and dining and traveling, so I overslept and was running out of time. I chefs knife peeled the rutabaga then chopped it into 1 inch dice. Then I cooked it in the pressure cooker for about 6 to 10 minutes. Then I drained it in mashed with good quality butter. I put it into a serving dish with some layers of pepper jack cheese (grated) and topped it with chopped roasted hazelnuts. Oh, I had also added salt and pepper. It tasted pretty mild so maybe I should've put and spice or onions or apples into it, but I was running out of time. It looked good and people at the table said that they really loved rutabaga, but they were quite a lot of people and some of them were vegans. I'm not sure why but I ended up bringing half of the bowl back. That's OK, we. will finish it.

I took other things such as the Irish soda bread, wine, and a chocolate pie so I wasn't relying holy on the rutabaga experience. Giggle. Thanks everyone for your tremendous help and encouragement.

I some times buy a smallish rutabaga, peel it and cut into quarters. Slice as thin as possible on a mandolin. Paint slices with olive oil , salt, pepper and garlic powder. Roast at 425 till crispy like chips. Turn over as necessary

That sounds yummy, marcopolo5. I love salty things, but I have be advised to limit my sodium intake. Maybe a bit of jalepeno would make me not miss the salt. (Trying to fool myself, but it might work.)

Petalique, how about a bit of low sodium soy brushed on when starting to crisp. Doubt that would be an amount that would make a difference.

Thanks. Maybe. But even low sodium (light) soy sauce is pretty salty. I tend to cook a lot of Thai and Chinese food, and try to give my sodium budget to those things. Even then, I have to cut back more. Thai Fish sauce has a lot of sodium in it, as do many of the other pastes and condiments. There really isn't a satisfactory substitute. I also want to limit fats, saturated fats and carbs.

Well, at least there's watercress, tomatoes and lemon juice- EVOO <smile>.