How do you cook a rutabaga? So, all of the health and wellness blogs are raving about all of the nutritional value rutabagas have, and how badly we all need to incorporate them in to our diets. You ran out to the grocery store an purchased a couple of the rock-hard softball size miracle roots and brought them home, and there they sit on your counter because you have NO idea what to do with them. Sound familiar?
Before we get started – what is so amazing about rutabagas? The purplish root veggies are a hybrid between turnips and wild cabbage, meaning they contain the health benefits of both. Rutabagas are cruciferous vegetables, so they are high in antioxidants and actually recommended by the American Cancer Society. They boost your immune system, and help you fight off radical cells. Rutabagas are high in potassium, fiber, Vitamin B6, they have strong anti-fungal properties, and are even believed to help diabetics regulate their blood sugar.
So, you can see what all the fuss is about rutabagas. But, how do you cook them? Rutabagas can be difficult to prepare – they seem a bit overwhelming. First and foremost, you need to peel your rutabaga, you’ll need a large knife to cut off the ends of the vegetable. They have a waxy coating on them. The best way to hack away at them is with a vegetable peeler. Pare the skin off just like you would a carrot or potato.
Once you have the rutabaga peeled, it should look a bit like a potato, only rounder and much harder. You can try cutting up the rutabaga now, but you can save yourself a lot of trouble if you drop the entire thing in to a pot and pre-boil it. Pre-boiling the rutabaga for about 20 minutes will make it much easier to chop up into bite size pieces.
After you are done pre-boiling the rutabaga, let it cool and then chop it up in to whatever size pieces you prefer. You can toss the rutabaga in to a stir-fry, roast it in the oven, or saute it. Also, instead of pre-boiling the root, you can boil until it is soft and mash it up just like you would potatoes. Rutabagas can also be eaten raw – you can toss some in a salad or even grate it and make a cole-slaw.
Let us know how your rutabagas turn out in the comments below – and feel free to drop some of your favorite recipes.
This is probably an ingredient that I don’t normally cook with all the time. It would be nice to have this though! Thanks for the tips!
This is actually the first time I heard of rutabagas. I’m not even sure if we have them here in the Philippines.