It also leads to numerous oven-baked dinners, which is pretty delicious. Root vegetables always strike me as good cold weather food, so when I saw a box of "Swedes and Turnips" at the market one Sunday I grabbed one and brought it home.
I then set about trying to determine if it is a Swede or a Turnip. Google confused things even more. But I think I've figured it out -- a swede is also known as a rutabaga in the US, "neeps" in Scotland, and "turnips" in Ireland. They're the big ones, and sort of orange. A turnip, though, is smaller and whiter than a swede. And I have no idea what they are called in Scotland and Ireland.
Once I figured out the difference, I had to figure out which vegetable we had. From the outside, I thought: swede.
Then I peeled it, and it looked very white -- not at all orange fleshed, as google suggested would be the case for a swede. So I thought: turnip.
Then I chopped it up, and it was a little bit orange. It also smelled a little bit like a skunk. At this point, I had no idea what this stupid root was.
Then I boiled it, along with some potatoes, in preparation for baking (this is our favourite way to get potatoes that are fluffy inside and crunchy outside without too much oil). After boiling it was definitely orange, so I've finally decided that we bought a swede, rather than a turnip.
After roasting, we served it up with some veggie casserole.
I liked the swede -- mainly because it was something a bit different to usual. Andy wasn't such a fan.
6 comments:
hehe that indeed is a swede. At coles, we could tell the difference by the outside colour and general size - turnips are bright white and purple, and smaller (usually) and swedes are purple and yellow/orange :) I love them both. It's good mixed in with mashed potato :)
Yup, that's a swede, allright! Or as we like to call it in Scotland, a 'turnip'. Confusingly, we call actual turnips 'turnips' too!
I love to eat rutabagas prepared just like mashed potatoes. Cube, boil til fork tender, mash with some butter and salt/pepper. Totally yummy!
Yep, definitely a swede! It's always easier to tell when you've got one of each kind side by side :) I've been into raw turnip lately, but roasted swede sounds more weather-appropriate indeed.
P.S. Something about the photo angle makes Andy seem like he has the most longerest legs in the world!
Really great blog. My friends referred me your site. Looks like everyone knows about it. I'm going to read your other posts. Take care. Keep sharing.
If it helps at all, turnips look like white carrots.
and yes, that was a swede. Swedes also are excellent mashed, if you care to try them again.
We also bake little blobs of mashed potato in the oven until the outside is a little crispy, I would imagine doing swede like that would be super tasty as well :)
Post a Comment