Nutritional value
High in fibre, vitamins C and B6, potassium, manganese, thiamin, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus.
Storage
In the fridge lasts a week or two.
Season
October to February
Choose
Firm, heavy, solid and dry swede.
Uses
Mash, grated raw in salads, casseroles, pasties, roasted.
Recipe
Freeze chunks of raw swede ready to pop into a stew
Swede, not turnip
Brassica napus
A root vegetable, larger and more hardy than turnips. Also known as rutabaga and Swedish turnip. Thought to have originated when the turnip crossed naturally with cabbage or kale. Swede arrived in the UK, fittingly from Sweden, around 1775.
A sweetish flavour, a great ingredient for a hearty, warming meal during the cold winter months.
A member of the Cruciferae or Brassicaceae family, which includes cabbage, mustard, broccoli, cauliflower, oil seed rape, stocks, radish and horse radish.
Growing up in the North we used to call them turnips, and hollow one out, raw, with a spoon for a Halloween lantern. Then we would tuck into the famous "swede and potato pasty" whilst nursing an aching wrist.