Is all food created equal or there are some more beautiful than the others? Let’s make rutabaga fries and find it out!
A simple thing like rutabaga could mean many things if it viewed through the lens of cultures.
For many, it is just another root vegetable that can be used to substitute potato in a poorly planned and sloppily executed low carb diet venture. While for others it’s the symbol of endless suffering, war, and famine.
While probably few of those are alive today who still holds any memories of the First World War, many would remember rutabaga with loath. Even if this humble vegetable saved the life of many, being the only edible thing for many during the 1916-1917 Turnip winter, few remembered for those meals fondly.
Rutabaga or Swedish turnip -as it was called of old- was used as a potato substitute but it has half the carbs and protein than potato. Although rutabaga has nutritional value (most notably Vitamin C) meeting the 1000 calorie daily minimum with rutabaga only, as it was the case during the First World War, is quite a challenge.
Such poor energy supply comes quite handy though when we are not willing on sacrifice of the amount of food we eat. We can use rutabaga fried, roasted, cooked just like we do with potatoes or even raw without the additional baggage of calories that come from the potato’s carbs content.
Ingredients
- 1lb / 500g Rutabaga
- 3 tablespoon / 50ml Cooking oil
- 1 teaspoon / 5g Salt
- Optional
- 1 teaspoon / 1g Garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon / 1g Onion powder
- 1 teaspoon / 1g Thyme
- 1 teaspoon / 3g Paprika or chili powder
- …
How to make Rutabaga fries
- Peel the rutabaga. It has somewhat thick skin and the bigger the rutabaga is, it gets even worse.
- Cut the rutabaga as we would do it with french fries about half inch / 1cm wide wedges. Try to cut them evenly otherwise the small pieces will get burnt while the big chunks hasn’t even warmed up.
- Rub them with cooking oil and salt. Add optional spices and herbs if desired.
- Place them onto a rack, parchment paper or baking sheet.
- Put them into a 400°F / 200°C oven for 30 – 40 minutes.
- Or just simply deep fry them as regular french fries until golden brown.
Enjoy!
Rutabaga Fries Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb Rutabaga
- 3 tablespoon Cooking oil
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- Optional
- 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Onion powder
- 1 teaspoon Thyme
- 1 teaspoon Paprika or chili powder
Instructions
- Peel the rutabaga. It has somewhat thick skin and the bigger the rutabaga is, it gets even worse.
- Cut the rutabaga as we would do it with french fries about half inch / 1cm wide wedges. Try to cut them evenly otherwise the small pieces will get burnt while the big chunks hasn’t even warmed up.
- Rub them with cooking oil and salt. Add optional spices and herbs if desired.
- Place them onto a rack, parchment paper or baking sheet.
- Put them into a 400°F / 200°C oven for 30 – 40 minutes.
- Or just simply deep fry them as regular french fries until golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
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rutabaga or swede as known in England and neeps in Scotland are delicous mashed. (Bashed Neeps) with Haggis are the centre of Burns’ Night suppers (25th January) celebrating the Scots poet Robert Burns birthday
That’s great to know! We’ll definitely have a closer look at them!