The humble swede is enjoying its moment in the culinary spotlight. After being championed by top-class chefs for its distinctive flavour and texture, this root vegetable is assuming its rightful place on fine-dining menus, writes Michael Raffael

Swede

When is a turnip not a turnip? Answer: when it’s a swede. No, this isn’t a bad joke left over from a Christmas cracker. The culinary border between these two vegetables is indistinct. To add to the confusion, swede is listed on some pickle jar labels in the UK as ‘rutabaga’. This is a corruption of rotabagge (root bag), its old Scandinavian name, and one, incidentally, that Americans still use. The swede is a cross between a turnip and a cabbage. It reached Britain from Sweden about 300 years……

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