Not enough people cook mashed swede (aka neeps), which is a shame. Swedes have a unique flavour and, when matched with butter, nutmeg and lots and lots of black pepper, make a cracking partner for numerous meat and veg dishes. Haggis is, of course, the obvious thing to eat with neeps. But sausages with onion gravy, lamb stew and dumplings and even a smoked haddock gratin are well suited too.
If you anticipate being particularly busy just before dinner time, you could make this in advance and reheat it in a saucepan with a little water, or bake it in a low oven for 15 minutes with extra butter dotted on top.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg swede, peeled and cut into 3–4 cm chunks
- 100 g butter, cubed
- ¼ nutmeg, freshly grated
- ¼ lemon juice
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
How to Make It
- Put the swede in a large pan of cold water with a good pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, then simmer for around 25 minutes, until the orange colour has intensified and a fork can push through the pieces with relative ease. Drain, add the butter, then smash and mash the vegetable with a hand masher. A little texture is good, so don’t be too thorough it’s not supposed to be a smooth purée.
- Grate in the nutmeg and season liberally with black pepper (at least 20 firm grinds of your pepper mill). Stir, taste, add a little salt if needed and more nutmeg or black pepper if you fancy. Add the lemon juice, which is there to lift the flavour a little, rather than make the neeps taste of lemon.