I have to confess that I have wanted to mash every single root vegetable I have tried thus far on this blog. I have a master list of all the things I want to try and when and ideas for what to do with them. I held off as long as possible on mashing them up, because I truly believe completely changing the texture of something will make it so much easier to enjoy the flavor on its own. I believe that, and it may be a food fact, but I’m just going to bask in some arrogance and not look it up to see if there is any research behind it.
You treat the rutabagas like you would potatoes if you were just making some Sunday dinner mashed potatoes. You peel them, boil, them, mash them up with some milk and butter. I may have just wanted the milk and butter part but after eating these it is very obvious that they were not white potatoes mashed up on the plate.
They have a weird color pattern on the inside, like you see in sweet potatoes after slicing them up. It looks really neat and I wish I knew if there was a term for it but most of my searches end up with makeup palette results.
For some reason these were messier than mashing potatoes though and I wonder if I didn’t soften the turnips up enough, but I like my mashed stuff to be ever so slightly chunky. Does anyone else like them that way? I enjoy creamy mashed potatoes but after a while I do want a little something to chew on. If this makes me uncivilized in the food world, I don’t care. You can pry my slightly chunky mash out of my stubborn hands.
You know, of course I had to add some green onions on top of there. I finished making these, plated it, put green onions on top and got some pictures. My first bite was a complete surprise as this was sweet. Not exactly like I was eating candy, but it was almost as sweet as fruit, but had savory underlying in there. It had a turnip aftertaste but I just kept eating more and more of it.
Mashing rutabagas almost makes me want to go back and mash so many other root vegetables, namely turnips. While this was sweet I wonder if I could throw some cheese, salt and pepper in with mashed turnips and have something amazing, rather than just average. The au gratin turnips though were pretty excellent though I must say.
There I go again, making this all about turnips. I was honestly very amazed at how different these tasted from what I expected. I thought these were going to be so turnip in taste that I couldn’t finish the dish, but I ate every bit of this (over the span of a few days mind you). Go crush some rutabagas and give them a try, you won’t regret it!
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