Neeps vs. Tatties - Let's Talk About Root Vegetables

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I have only just learned that a Neep/Swede is the same thing as a Rutabaga! I thought it was just a turnip. Or are they all the same thing?

Also, sweet potatoes and yams. I am confused. I bought a "sweet potato" at the weekend but fear I may have the wrong thing.

Also, parsnips. Are they the food of the gods or what? I love parsnips.

It's winter, so let's worship the lowly root vegetables.

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:32 (twenty years ago)

I like that in Scotland and England turnips and swedes are the opposite things.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:36 (twenty years ago)

I have been reading Wiki and it's more confusing than I ever thought.

And "rutabaga" - where on earth did that come from? I remember it, because when I worked at a supermarket as a teenager, they had an instruction video on how to pack grocery bags, and it had a repeated joke about rutabagas.

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:39 (twenty years ago)

A swede is a type of turnip, I think. I grew up calling swedes turnips then went to London and discovered that other people called turnips swedes. I did not know of this rutabaga word but I may use it to make my Burns Supper sound exotic.

I bought my first ever sweet potato at Christmas and made sweet potato garlic soup. It was more swede than potato in texture. It was very nice (IMO).

Roast parsnips are nummy.

xpost

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:39 (twenty years ago)

See, I think of turnips as the little white things. And then Swede/Neep being a variation of turnips. I thought a rutabaga was some strange mutant thing with nothing to do with any of them!

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:42 (twenty years ago)

see the turnip disambiguation page

I like that such things exist.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:43 (twenty years ago)

This is the largest Rutabaga ever grown:

http://www.alaskagiant.com/images/rutabaga_national_record.jpg

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:44 (twenty years ago)

(This thread is making me very, very hungry. I'm going to go and eat my curried neeps.)

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:45 (twenty years ago)

Radishes are what its all about.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:47 (twenty years ago)

I had forgotten about radishes - mmm, it's been ages since I had one.

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:54 (twenty years ago)

Small turnips are good, but rutabagas are so bitter, at least the way I had them growing up. Nasty.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (my crop froze in the field) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:55 (twenty years ago)

Bitter? I don't think of them as bitter. They certainly have a nice, full flavour. Much uh... gamier (for lack of a better word) than potatoes.

Have you had them since you were a child? Because lots of things that I *hated* as a child (spinach, asparagus) I actually love now.

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:03 (twenty years ago)

Celariac

― Ed (dali), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:03 (twenty years ago)

Beetroot.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:04 (twenty years ago)

Mmm, beetroot, that reminds me, I have to try and make that thing that The Russian made - I have beetroot sitting in my fridge waiting for it.

Celariac is a strange beast - I've only ever had it in soup and casseroles. It was a Grigson favourite, IIRC.

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:06 (twenty years ago)

No, I've avoided them since I was very young. My mother used the southern method of cooking them to death and then a while longer.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (my crop froze in the field) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:11 (twenty years ago)

sweet potatoes are the ones with the purple skin and orange insides. sometimes the inside is more like the colour of a normal potato. yams are the ones that look kind of coconutty outside and are pale and stringy inside... right?

also beetroot soup with a bit of feta crumbled into it: OMG.

― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:12 (twenty years ago)

Borscht

― Ed (dali), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:14 (twenty years ago)

I cut them up into bite sized pieces, then parboiled mine for about ten minutes, then chucked them in with the curry for about half an hour.

If I was going to make them plain, I'd probably boil them for about 15/20 minutes, (until the small bits are toothable) then mash them up with butter (and possibly potatoes).

x-post

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:14 (twenty years ago)

See, I was thinking this thing would be more like what you describe as a yam, which I used to eat in the States microwaved with cinnamon. But this is purple-orange.

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:15 (twenty years ago)

rumbledethumps

― john clarkson, Monday, 16 January 2006 15:27 (twenty years ago)

Dasheen: which, for you non West Indians, is something like a yam only better tasting and with a less strigy texture. My personal favourite in the world of tubers.

xpost
re: Sweet Potatoes and Yams
The distinction made above is not entirely accurate. I have eaten both sweet potatoes and yams that have either colour of flesh (orange/yellow or white). Like potatoes (or Irish potatoes, as my Jamaican mother calls them) they come in different varieties.

There is traditional Jamaican cake that is be made from sweet potato. I vaguely recall my mother doing this when I was a child but I don't remember how she did it.

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:32 (twenty years ago)

Not exactly a root vegetable, seeing as it's a tuber, but we had jerusalem artichoke for the first time last night, and it depressed me that it'd taken us so long to try it, cos it was gorgeous!!!

― Vicky (Vicky), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:36 (twenty years ago)

"that is be made from sweet potato"

I'm quite certain I didn't mean it to come out like that. Ouch!

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:38 (twenty years ago)

That's another question for discussion - what's the difference between a root vegetable and a tuber? (Isn't a potato technically a tuber, as well? Though everyone calls it a root veg.)

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:39 (twenty years ago)

I made lovely sweet potato and butternut squash at the weekend. It's all gone now. Will be making spicy bean and pepper soup tonight.

I fancy making borscht as well.

― leigh (leigh), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:51 (twenty years ago)

Borscht? Is that what The Russian's thing was? This was grated boiled beetroot mixed with garlic and Tartar sauce, served cold. It was *delicious*.

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 15:53 (twenty years ago)

borscht is beet soup.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:03 (twenty years ago)

basically.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:03 (twenty years ago)

xpost
Aren't all root veg actually tubers?

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:04 (twenty years ago)

Just don’t follow my mum’s beetroot recipe. Or if you do, follow THE ACTUAL RECIPE and not what she tells you it is.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:08 (twenty years ago)

no, the russian's thing wasn't borscht. it was ace though.

― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:10 (twenty years ago)

there is a difference between root and ruber veg, and Kate's right, potatoes are tubers: http://www.foodreference.com/html/art-root-vegetables.html

― Vicky (Vicky), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:13 (twenty years ago)

Ooh, I forgot about ginger. What on earth is that?

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:20 (twenty years ago)

isn't it a rhizome?

― Vicky (Vicky), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:26 (twenty years ago)

Yes, but what is a rhizome?

(Oh god, my botanist grandparents are spinning in their graves that I don't know.)

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:27 (twenty years ago)

http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/archive/courses/liu/materials/D&G/bussoti-rhizome.gif

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:47 (twenty years ago)

Ah, an underground stem for propegating new plants.

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:50 (twenty years ago)

trees grow by branching -- i.e. a trunk becomes several branches, each of which becomes smaller twigs; rhizomes, er, don't

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:51 (twenty years ago)

rhizome : it is how the french say "rhythm".

― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 16 January 2006 16:56 (twenty years ago)

"WHATS TATERS!!!??""

Golum, 2003

― Latham Green (mike), Monday, 16 January 2006 17:02 (twenty years ago)

I no longer understand mine own thread.

Should I just start talking about Napoleon again?

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Monday, 16 January 2006 17:06 (twenty years ago)

i thought this thread would be about breasts.

― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 01:09 (twenty years ago)

yacón. can be eaten raw. once the roots have been dried in the sun, they become sweeter. i also thought about breasts.

― no bones, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 02:42 (twenty years ago)

What on earth do breasts have to do with root vegetables?

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:00 (twenty years ago)

There's that great story about when swedes were first introduced to Scotland, and the Scots, having no prior knowledge of swedes and subsisting entirely on a diet of oats and gravel, first served them as dessert. Don't know if it's true, but it sounds like it could be.

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:06 (twenty years ago)

Oats and gravel, mmmmm. That's what I had for breakfast!

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:07 (twenty years ago)

SWEDE:

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:21 (twenty years ago)

SWEDE:
http://www.livesoccertv.com/images/articles/sven_goran_erikkson.jpg

TURNIP:

Pesky HTML...

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:21 (twenty years ago)

GAHHH!!!!!

TURNIP:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/spanish/especiales_800/0504_boca100/taylor300.jpg

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:22 (twenty years ago)

Oi! No sport on my thread!

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:24 (twenty years ago)

Unless, of course, it is Haggis Hunting.

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:24 (twenty years ago)

BEETROOT:

ihttp://www.cpfc.premiumtv.co.uk/javaImages/13/83/0,,10323~557843,00.jpg

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:29 (twenty years ago)

That is a ginger, which we have already established, is a RHIZOME, not a root.

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:29 (twenty years ago)

... it's not his hair that's beetroot, it's his face

TUMSHIE:

http://scotlandtoday.scottishtv.co.uk/content/mediaassets/images/alex-mcLaiesh-close.jpg

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:30 (twenty years ago)

The French consider the swede a foodstuff fit only for sustaining cattle, the fools. Mashed with lots of butter & black pepper it is a thing of great beauty, and absurdly cheap. Also good with parmesan stirred in. I mean the yellow things, not the white (& purple) things, which are turnips & are a bit meh.

Celeriac seems uncommonly expensive for a root vegetable, but is very good mashed with equal amounts of potato (as are parsnips). Jerusalem artichokes are delicious, but promote flatus.

Buying imported African parsnips in summer = action of a madman.

― bham, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:55 (twenty years ago)

Well, the English considered Oats a footstuff fit only for sustaining horses (and the Scots) and look how wrong they were!

― Disciplining And Controlling My Mind (kate), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:56 (twenty years ago)

I love parsnips sooo much. Roasted with maple syrup. Yum. And sweet potato - I could happily eat them every day (and probably would if they were as cheap as normal tatties).

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 11:57 (twenty years ago)

NEAPS

TATTIES

NEAPS AND TATTIES

NEAPS NEAPS NEAPS NEAPS NEAPS AND TATTIES

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 18:02 (twenty years ago)

neaps neaps and tatties, tatties...

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 18:07 (twenty years ago)

Detroit salutes you, Tracer.

― ng-unit, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 18:11 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Yesterday, for my work lunches, I made a curry with parsnips and sweet potatoes in. I already knew that parsnips curried well, but ohmigod, curried sweet potato, yum, food of the gods.

― Boris and the Johnsons (kate), Monday, 27 February 2006 14:13 (twenty years ago)

Also, the yellow of the turmuric rice makes a nice palette with the light orange of the sweet potato and the dark orange of the carrots and the red of the tomatoes.

― Boris and the Johnsons (kate), Monday, 27 February 2006 14:17 (twenty years ago)

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