Turnip & Swede... what's the difference? Which is which?!
Answers: Turnips are smaller and with whiter flesh than the swede which has a yellow flesh and is a lot larger. In Scotland anyway, we tend to call swedes turnips (well, neeps really) but it's technically wrong.
sweed is orange and larger than the white green and purple turnip.
turnip is usually white in colour and tastes a little more bitter than the suede which is more orange in colour and a lot larger
Turnip is white fleshed and peppery tasting, swede has deep yellow flesh and a much sweeter, earthier taste , swede is also much larger than turnip
It's the Swede that's got a purple skin and orange flesh...the Turnip has a much lighter (more like a round parsnip) colour.
In Welsh..
Swede = Rwdan
Turnip = Meipan.
They are two completely different root vegetables. The turnip is the small white one, much loved by Baldrick in the Blackadder series. IMHO, they taste revolting. The swede is the big one with the orange flesh. These, boiled and mashed with a little milk and/or butter, are delicious, especially with haggis and mashed potato on Burns' Night.
Depends where your from people seem to call them different! Im from south england.
Turnips are usually small and a light colour look a bit like an onion in shape. Can be eaten raw in salads.
A swede is alot bigger. Is usually boiled and looks orange or yellow inside.
turnips are usually smaller, and white with a green bit around the top. Swedes are yellow and brick red colour and much larger and taste better to my mind.
Swedes are orange and larger than turnips which are white but only if you come from the south of the UK, in the north and particularly Scotland, they know turnips as orange and swedes as white. This is where they get the phrase "neeps" from (turneep!) this describes mashed swede
TURNIP - root vegetable can vary considerably in size, shape and color: it can round or cylindrical, yellowish or white.
SWEDE - a heavy,coarse-skinned vegetable with orange flesh
a swede is a swede
a turnip is a turnip
All are true and if you were in North America we call the rutabagas (swedes) and turnip is refered to as white turnip.
All the answers are corrects, here after harvesting to protect them from frost and transport damage they coat them in wax, even when advert in the papers sometimes will refer to them as waxed turnips, we call them turnips and rutabaga, it is just that way if some asks you if you like turnip it is a rutabaga, the white ones you have and we do also are more used in french cooking here as a garnish or in stews or cassarole dishes.