A rutabaga, sometimes called a Swedish turnip (or a Swede to the Brits), is a root vegetable that looks like a pale yellow turnip and belongs to the cabbage family. Cook a rutabaga as you would any other turnip. The rutabaga also has edible leaves.

If you are a German old enough to remember World War I, you may have had enough rutabaga to last you a lifetime. This heroic root vegetable kept many from starving in the so-called Rutabaga Winter of 1916-17, and will forever be considered a "famine food" by those who lived through it.