I love to browse when I’m in the produce section of the supermarket. There are so many interesting vegetables and fruits. But after looking at them, I typically select the same old, same old – lettuce, potatoes, bananas, apples, and other items that I buy almost every week. One vegetable I almost never purchase is rutabaga. But when I saw a recipe for Creamed Rutabaga in a hundred-year-old cookbook, I decided it was time to give it a try.
The Creamed Rutabaga was lovely. The rutabaga tasted like a cross between turnips and carrots.
The cookbook that I got the recipe out of is called Low Cost Cooking. The author noted that rutabagas cost about 4 cents per pound. The one I bought weighed about 2 pounds and cost $1.99 per pound – which isn’t cheap, but I guess that it is a reasonable price for a fresh vegetable. I only used about half of it when making this recipe, so I’ll need to either find another rutabaga recipe or, more likely, I’ll make this dish again.
Here’s the original recipe:
The recipe says that the cooked rutabaga chunks could be put into a white sauce which would be made using butter and milk, or that that the sauce could be made using water and milk (and skipping the butter). This reminds me that the cookbook is all about how to prepare inexpensive meals, and this probably was seen as a cost saver.
This recipe calls for a whole rutabaga, as well as for three cups of white sauce. Rutabagas are large- and this would be a lot, so I used half a rutabaga and made about of 1 cup of white sauce. (I decided not to go with the low cost water and milk option for the sauce.)
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Creamed Rutabaga
2 cups chunks of rutabaga (about 1/2 of a medium rutabaga; chunks should be about 1/4 inch thick, 1/4 inch wide, and 1/2 inch long)
1 teaspoon salt +1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon flour
dash pepper
1 cup milk
Put rutabaga chunks in a saucepan and cover with water. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil using high heat, then reduce heat and simmer until the rutabaga is tender (about 30-40 minutes). Remove from heat and drain.
In the meantime, in another pan, using medium heat, melt butter, then stir in the flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Gradually, add the milk while stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the white sauce begins to thicken. Add the cooked rutabaga chunks and stir gently. Remove from heat and serve.
I had to look this one up. ‘Ah, she means swede!’. Not a favourite I’m afraid, though I make a dish similar to yours, half swede, half carrot which sweetens it a bit and makes the flavour less intense.
We’ve found another terminology difference across the continents. 🙂 A mixture of swede (rutabaga) and carrots would be good.
We’re on the same wavelength this week! It is definitely the time for rutabagas to shine! I love them prepared any way, and this sounds delicious!
Somehow rutabaga and other root vegetables seem just right for meals as the winter months begin to wind down. I also have some parsnips in my refrigerator at the moment, and plan to make a winter vegetable medley.
I’m actually roasting some more rutabagas and some parsnips and carrots for dinner. All still bountiful from our CSA!
mmm. . . sounds yummy.
I’ve never had rutabagas. I’ll see if they even have them here.
At the supermarket where I shop they are next to the parsnips and turnips.
So first I would have to find a rutabaga…. like the turnip a little hard to find without driving 50 miles.
Sometimes seems like there are fewer types of vegetables in the produce section at the store than what there were 5 or 10 years ago. Rutabagas aren’t available at stores near you, and I’ve noticed that endive has vanished from the stores were I shop. Endive used to be a green that I would buy fairly regularly.
Yep…. fresh vegies types seem to limited even in the spring and summer ….
Our grandmothers made the sauce by combining cornstarch, some of the cooking liquid and sometimes milk. Cheap and simple. Nutmeg would be added just before serving.
A touch of nutmeg!
That sounds promising
I like the idea of using some of the cooking liquid to make a sauce. Back in the day, cooks were so frugal, yet knew how to prepare delicious foods.
I’ll try to remember to look for a rutabaga at the store this week. If one calls my name, I’ll buy it. Your recipe sounds promising.
If one calls your name, I think that you’d enjoy this recipe.
My mother and grandmother would just cut into chunks and boil until soft then mash the rutabaga with butter and top with s shake of salt and pepper. It’s peeling the blasted things. The last one I had was so hard I had to use a hand axe to get it in half and peeling was a pain. Not all of them are like that fortunately.
Agree – they are really difficult to cut in half, peel, and cube. When I googled rutabagas several days ago when I was preparing this post, a random website popped up about kitchen accidents. High on the list of kitchen accident causes was knife accidents when cutting squash and rutabagas. When I made this recipe I was really careful.
Sheryl
Butternut squash can be a killer!!!!
Whenever I can I bake them before I cut them open
I’ll have to give that a try. I hadn’t realized that you could bake them before removing the seeds.
I do it all the time with acorn squash and butternut if I do not need to slice and dice….Also spaghetti squash
Love to eat them not prepare them. Yes, careful is absolutely required.
Interesting! I’ve only had them mashed. A friend from Sweden (Oleg Kai Madsen) always brought them when he came over for dinner. I thought they tasted like bitter mashed potatoes. My mother would sprinkle a little sugar on them and then they were tasty…
It sounds lovely to mash the rutabaga and then sprinkle with sugar.
The rutabaga was never a vegetable I could warm up to. That being said, add butter and cream to anything and I’m game!!
Rutabagas and other winter root vegetables like turnips and parsnips have grown on me over the years. I didn’t use to think I liked them, but now find that I enjoy them – especially with some butter and cream. 🙂
I’m sorry to say I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that my mother never seasoned anything. I will have to give them another go!
You should give them another try.
Wonderful recipe share! Would love to try and cook with Rutabagas some day!
I think that you’d like them.