Is It a Turnip or a Rutabaga?
The Rutabaga suffers from a long-time misnomer in this country. For years people have been buying Rutabagas and calling them Turnips. The true Turnip is small, about the size of an orange and white and purple.
Rutabagas are extremely popular thorough out Europe, where they are nicknamed ‘Swedes’. This is because they are a great cold weather grower (and Sweden grows a lot of them). They are also called a ‘Yellow Turnip” and referred to by the generic term “Neeps” through Scotland and Northern England. The word ‘turnip’ and its slangs have become interchangeable over the centuries.
Both Turnips and Rutabagas store for months in cool cellars.
When buying Turnips look for a small to medium size one, because those are sweeter. It should have waxy whitish skin with purple edges. If it is yellow, and bigger than a grapefruit, you’ve got a Rutabaga. Don’t panic, they are extremely close in taste and you can use either for any purpose. Most of the time you (or your mother) was buying a Rutabaga and didn’t even know it. Both should feel smooth and heavy.
Whether you mix up the names or wish to be precise and call one a ‘white turnip’ and the other yellow, both are wonderful and extremely nutritious. Turnips (like many other root vegetables) have fewer calories, about a 1/3 less carbs than potatoes, more fiber and are high in calcium, iron and vitamin C. The Rutabaga is larger than a white turnip, it’s nutritional content is greater and reads like the side of a multi-vitamin bottle.
I like to substitute out potatoes as much as possible. Potatoes have a high Glycemic Index due to their high starch content (parsnips are only vegetable with a higher index). Which means that those carbs are rapidly turned into sugar and absorbed in the blood stream. Great if you plan on exercising, but usually after dinner we Americans sit down for night.
There is a wonderful world of root vegetables out there for you and your kids to explore. If you can cook a potato, you can cook a turnip. Or Rutabaga. Many people will mix turnips and potatoes together. These can be mashed, roasted or boiled. (Add the potatoes later since they cook quicker). It’s a good way to add flavor, nutrition, cut carbs and stretch the turnip.
