My house smells amazing right now because I am making baked apples and rutabaga. Again! I made this last week and I just can’t stop eating it. Apples and rutabaga are a great sweet and savory combination when they are baked together and make a delicious side dish that you can feel good about. It’s so tasty AND healthy.
What is rutabaga?
Last week’s produce was the rutabaga. Healthy, packed with flavor, and a member of the important cruciferous family. I’m a little behind the game this week because I wanted to get this recipe to you last week and get a new produce post up now. This “always behind” feeling is a normal occurrence these days and I don’t do it well. Anyone else know that feeling? Every time I stop to catch my breath, life keeps on rolling right along with or without me.
For today anyway, I am simply thankful that I was able to put a nice healthy plate of food on the table because I’m not even sure I remember what I fed them last week. They certainly didn’t starve but it may have been cereal, sandwiches, and who really knows what. Oh yeah, pizza one night. Can’t complain about that one! And that day I helped my daughter make her dinner idea – I thought the cooking gene skipped her but she wanted to make turkey sausage in a cauliflower “white” sauce with a little feta served over pasta. That was a good one.
This week I intend to do better but then, we eat with friends tonight and I leave for a conference on Thursday so that’s an easy one to do when I only need to make 3 dinners to be a success story. This baked apple and rutabaga side dish will score major “good for you” points.
PrintBaked Apples and Rutabaga
One bite of this sweet and savory baked apple and rutabaga won’t be enough. The earthy savory taste of rutabaga is enhanced by the sweetness of apples and fried onions. Perfect served with an egg sunny side up or as a dinner side.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Side Dish
Ingredients
- 4 cups cored then sliced apples*
- 4 cups thinly sliced rutabaga** ( approx. 1 med. or 1/2 large)
- 1 medium onion
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Put large oven safe frying pan in oven with 1 tablespoon oil for 2 minutes. I like to use a 12 inch cast iron pan.
- Thinly slice the onion during the 2 minutes then put in pan and back in the oven so the onions can soften while the oven preheats.
- While the onions cook, thinly slice the apples and rutabaga.*
- Once the oven is preheated, pull the pan from the oven and remove onions.
- Layer rutabaga in bottom of pan.
- Sprinkle 1/2 the salt and pepper over top.
- Put apples on top of rutabaga.
- Spread cooked onions across top.
- Add remainder of salt and pepper.
- Cover pan with oven safe lid or foil.
- Bake 45 minutes.
Notes
- *I use gala or empire apples
- **I use a mandoline slicer with setting 2 but you can also slice by hand.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 103
Excellent recipe. In New England, the older the recipe, the simpler and perhaps more gently seasoned than today’s cooks tend to create, which is a compliment. This turned out great as a side dish. We used a vidalia onion so since it’s mild, we could have added at least a half vidalia more. Served with a pork loin with garlic honey gravy and the two together were amazing. Thank you for inspiring us to make this.! Think it would be great for Thanksgiving with some cranberries!
★★★★★
Thank you for taking the time to follow up with your experience. Funny thing is that I didn’t even know rutabaga and apples was a thing before I posted this recipe. Your pork loin with garlic honey gravy sounds amazing. I’m going to do a twist on that and use maple syrup instead. How New England is that?! 😉 And I agree with you on the rutabaga and apples with the addition of cranberries. That would be beautiful AND tasty. Thanks for the idea!
5 stars just because I am GOING to try this, and everything you have suggested before is awesome! My Grandmother was from New England, and insisted rutabaga be served at Thanksgiving. (for 94 years she never lost her accent, so we always knew it as “rooterbeggar”) For the record, at 28 and 31 my Daughter and Son have embraced my love of cooking. It is an awesome legacy, not to mention it has impressed and helped them find their respective soulmates!
★★★★★
If I could give your comment 5 stars, I would. Thank you for your kind comment. I love hearing stories like this. To this day this is one of my favorite recipes.
This recipe is SO GOOD! I’d never had rutabaga before nor had I ever used a mandolin, so this was an adventure for me. I only had honeycrisp and pink lady apples and it was great with both. I loved that this recipe didn’t have 100s of ingredients, it let rutabaga, onions, and apples shine through with their flavor and perfectly complimented each other. I plan on making this again for company, it was that good! I didn’t come across anything like this when searching and am so glad I friend sent me this link.
Thank you so much for your comment. You brought a smile to my face. I’m so happy you enjoy it. It’s definitely one of my favorite recipes.