Rutabaga Pi

A delicious pie that you can have for dinner or dessert. Rutabagas are a seldom used vegetable that are quite tasty, and really good for you. You can find them in the grocery store, at a farm stand, or if you're lucky enough to be part of a CSA, you'll probably have about 50lbs of them in November. They are also supposed to be really easy to grow yourself.

I found a recipe for this pie in the Victory Garden Cookbook, and changed it to my liking.

Here's What you'll need:

About a pound of Rutabaga
2 or 3 Apples
2 eggs
1T Maple Syrup
1/2 tsp ground corriander
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
2Tb brown sugar
1 cup soy milk
a partially baked pie shell

Use your favorite pie crust recipie, or search for pie crust right here on Instructables. Cook it part way, about 15 minutes, so it starts to brown and the dough starts to set. (Hint: if you substitute half of the flour with whole wheat flour, it gives the crust a yummy brown color.)

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Step 1: Get the rutabaga ready.

Wash the rutabaga, and peel it with a vegetable peeler. Cut it into chunks. Peel and core the apples, and cut them in half. Save the apple peels for step 2.

suayres says: Jun 8, 2011. 9:56 AM

I gather that this is a savory, rather than sweet, dish. It's true that there will be a bit of sweetness because of the inherent sweetness of the vegetable, but I wouldn't call this sweet enough for a dessert. Anyhow, as to the rutabaga/turnip/carrot/parsnip controversy here I thought I'd throw my two cents into the mix. Parsnips and carrots are related, cousins so-to-speak. Parsnips look like anemic carrots, and they are sweeter and starchier than carrots, with a somewhat aromatic flavor (I love them as I find them delicious). Rutabagas and turnips are also related to each other--but not to either carrots nor parsnips. I prefer rutabagas to turnips--as you said, they're watery. They also, to me, have a touch of bitterness not found in rutabaga.

piperjon says: Sep 19, 2009. 9:04 PM

OMG, this looks amazing! Now, this may be a regional/language thing, but your pic is that of a turnip. A rutabega in my world looks like a pale fat carrot. However, that being said, both turnips and rutabega become sweet and soft when cooked, and I think either one would be amazing in this recipe, or even perhaps both. YUM! And I bet they would go fine in either a ricer or a food mill. I would avoid a food processor, that would just make them a paste.

sinluz in reply to piperjonMar 15, 2010. 6:47 PM

(I speak of the following from my standpoint living in the US) The root vegetable that looks like a pale carrot is actually the parsnip. The turnip has a light cream merging to pink color and has a high water content. The rutabaga, correctly shown in the picture above, has a yellow merging to brown coloration and is denser that the parsnip. I should know, we were fed them all the time as kids. I had the dubious pleasure of watching my sisters gag and wretch as they were made to "clean their plate". Not pretty. Nonetheless, I love all three of these tubers.

glaxona in reply to piperjonNov 22, 2009. 2:38 PM

Just an fyi...although this vegetable is called a rutabaga in the US, in England, Australia and NZ, it's called a swede (Swedish turnip), in Scotland they're neeps or tumshie. The vegetable pictured is definitely a rutabaga/swede/neep; what you've described is called a parsnip in the US, and is very differently flavoured than the rutabaga.

St Jimmy in reply to glaxonaOct 11, 2010. 2:02 AM

What he's described is definitely what's in the picture... so how can they conflict?

Jur says: Mar 12, 2010. 10:34 AM

Fun and useless fact:
The name "rutabaga" comes from the swedish word "rotabagge", witch is a name for the same vegetable in some parts of Sweden. Generally it is called "kålrot" (roughly translated to cabbage-root). If you would ask a swede for a rutabaga most will not know what you are talking about =P

clephtis says: Mar 14, 2009. 11:22 PM

Do you happen to be a fan of the game portal?

domestic_engineer (author) in reply to clephtisMar 15, 2009. 5:57 AM

nope. why? do they enjoy rutabagas?

clephtis in reply to domestic_engineerMar 15, 2009. 11:12 AM

lol yea they are obsessed with cake. their is an easter egg where they give you the recipe and they go on and on abouyt rutabgas

MrAngryPants in reply to clephtisAug 24, 2009. 3:36 PM

Its rhubarb, not rutabaga :D

ClayOgre says: Feb 23, 2009. 5:35 PM

Can you run the cooked rutabaga chunks through a potato ricer instead of mashing? Or are they too fibrous?

domestic_engineer (author) in reply to ClayOgreFeb 23, 2009. 7:20 PM

sure you might need to cook them so they're a little softer. Sometimes I make it with them just mashed a little, and still a bit chunky. it's all good. enjoy