carrot and swede (rutabaga) mash

This way of eating carrots has been in my family for generations. I’d put money on this being one of the first foods I ate as a baby as it was on our table with well over half the meals we had each week. My children love it too. We always have it with shepherds pie, roast dinners and at Christmas. I love the fact that lots of you are now having this at Thanksgiving having learned it in my cooking classes.

When I first moved to California I went off for one of my first shopping trips and had a nightmare finding swede. I asked countless baffled shop assistants ‘where are your swedes?’, I think they thought I was on a blonde man hunt. Thankfully Google helped me realise I’d been asking for totally the wrong thing. Not the last time I realised that we really are a two countries divided by a common language.

Swede is known as rutabaga over there – not the most obvious name to be fair. Even with the name being so confusing, people still were curious why I was buying it. So I decided I must share the recipe and hopefully spread the swede/rutabaga love so that it gains its rightful place on the shelves in America.