Finns cook swedes (rutabagas) in a variety of ways; roasted to be served with meat dishes, as the major ingredient in the ever popular Christmas dish Swede casserole ("lanttulaatikko"), as a major flavour enhancer in soups, uncooked and thinly julienned as a side dish or in a salad, baked, or boiled.
Finns use swedes in most dishes that call for any root vegetable.
Swedes and Norwegians cook swedes with potatoes, sometimes with the addition of carrots for color, and mash them with butter and cream or milk to create a puree called "rotmos" (Swedish, literally: root mash) and "kålrabistappe" (Norwegian). Onion is occasionally added.
In Norway, kålrabistappe is an obligatory accompaniment to many festive dishes, including smalahove, pinnekjøtt, raspeball and salted herring.
In Wales, a similar dish produced using just potatoes and swedes is known as "potch".
In Scotland, swedes and potatoes are boiled and mashed separately to produce "tatties and neeps" ("tatties" being the Scots word for potatoes), traditionally served with the Scottish national dish of haggis as the main course of a Burns supper.
Swedes have also been used in Scotland and more widely in the UK as a carved out lantern during Halloween.
Neeps may also be mashed with potatoes to make clapshot. Regional variations include the addition of onions to clapshot in Orkney. Neeps are also extensively used in soups and stews.
In the English counties of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, swedes are often mashed together with carrots as part of the traditional Sunday roast.
In Canada swedes are used as filler in foods such as mincemeat and Christmas cake, or as a side dish with Sunday dinner in Atlantic Canada.
In the US swedes are mostly eaten as part of stews or casseroles, served mashed with carrots, or baked in a pasty.