What To Do With Rutabagas

My husband and I belong to a CSA. Let me describe that a little more accurately. We belong to Farm Spot, the Community Supported Agriculture program in our neighborhood of Jackson Heights in Queens, NY. He sometimes picks up the fruit and vegetable deliveries about five blocks from where we live and I eat 99 percent of the produce myself. The vegetables come from Golden Earthworm Farm, an organic farm on the North Fork of Long Island. Fruits come from Briermere Farms located close to Golden Earthworm in Riverhead, NY.

A few weeks ago, he picked up a 30-pound granny cart load of root vegetables, greenhouse grown kale and spinach, and storage apples. Some woman in front of him said she didn’t like rutabagas, or Swedes, as they are sometimes called.

He said, “Oh, I’ll take them, my wife loves them.” Never mind that I have 6 rutabagas in the refrigerator that we—or, more precisely, I—have not eaten since our last CSA delivery 3 weeks ago. Now, we have 18 rutabagas. Here’s the simplest and one of the best ways I’ve prepared them. The lemon gives me hope of spring, the rosemary adds a piney note, and the honey softens the slight bitterness that rutabagas can have.

Note: If you don’t know what a granny cart is, it is a wire frame fold-up cart that elderly ladies and people who buy groceries fifty pounds at a time use in NYC to carry home their haul. It is very uncool to use a granny cart at any age (I use mine almost daily)!

Rosemary-Lemon Glazed Rutabagas   

Makes 4 servings

2 large rutabagas, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 2 pounds)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary or crumbled dried rosemary

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Place the rutabagas in a large rimmed baking pan. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with the rosemary, salt, and pepper and toss to coat. Arrange the rutabagas in the pan in a single layer.

Bake, stirring once, until tender and well browned, 45 to 50 minutes.

Whisk together the honey, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a serving bowl. Add the hot rutabagas and toss to coat. Serve hot or warm.

Each serving: 20 g carbohydrate, 118 calories, 4 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 5 g fiber, 2 g protein, 179 mg sodium

Carb Choices: 1; Exchanges: 1 starch, 1 fat