Rutabaga Casserole

My Danish grandmother made this every Christmas Eve. It’s been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember, but we’ve mixed it with my mother’s Finnish traditions, so it’s served every Christmas Eve at our houses with the lutefisk (with white sauce and butter sauce, of course), oyster stew, boiled potatoes, and the Swedish meatballs for the kids. If you want the lutefisk recipe, you need to call my mom.

Buy two good-sized rutabagas. Peel and cut into cubes (the hardest part of this recipe). Boil in salted water until soft, mash with a hand masher, don’t mix with a mixer. You should end up with around six cups.

1/2 cup cream and add 1/2 cup dried bread crumbs (I used the plain crumbs in the cardboard canisters). Let this soak for a few minutes, it will be a paste.

Mix up two eggs until slightly scrambled.

Mix rutabagas, bread crumbs, eggs and add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp nutmeg and mix all together. Spoon into a casserole and bake uncovered for 1 hour at 350°. It slightly rises like a souffle, so make sure your dish has a little room on top.

This can be made the day ahead (better, I think), refrigerate overnight, and then bake 1/2 hour before serving.