I stumbled upon Parsnips while watching my new favorite show, Good Eats. I had heard that word before, but I had no idea what a Parsnip was. Well the show said that they were delicious, and I am totally into eating new things, so I went straight to the store and picked up a bag of them. I immediately noticed that they looked like white carrots, so I put them together and created a really awesome dessert tasting side dish.
I love cooking things like carrots and sweet potatoes with brown sugar. Actually I don’t even use real brown sugar but a prepackaged seasoning from McCormicks called Brown Sugar Bourboun which is great on chicken, carrots and sweet potatoes. I figured that parsnips would fit into this equation, and this time, I would use some real brown sugar to really get some sweet sweet veggies. Here’s how to copy me:
Prepping The Veggies
The first thing you want to do with both the carrots and the parsnips is peel them. A small kitchen peeler should do the trick. I also cut away the tops and the tips. I just made one serving worth, just eye it and try to get the same amount of carrots and parsnips. Mine were sort of like french fries.
Cutting the parsnips and carrots into…uh…equal-ish sizes
Now the best way to cook stuff like this is to make sure that they are cut into pieces that are the same size. However, each of these veggies are “V” shaped, or they go from thick at the top to thin at the bottom, so you have to use geometry or something to figure it out. After you cut them up a few times you will figure it out. I’m not good enough to teach you here.
One thing you will notice with the parsnips is as soon as you begin to peel and cut them an aroma will hit you right in the face. I’m not a huge fan of this “christmas in the woods” smell, but once cooked the flavor isn’t as strong as that smell, thank goodness.
Parsnips also have a woody center sometimes. The Internet suggests that you remove this darker woody portion in the middle, which I think I did, but it was quite the pain in the neck, especially when trying to get equal size pieces. Here’s a site that shows you how.
Cooking The Veggies
The hardest part of this “recipe” is cutting the veggies. After that you are basically just throwing them in the oven with some brown sugar. Like, really. I just put them in my oven safe cast iron skillet, sprinkled brown sugar all over them, and then baked for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Don’t forget to spray them with butter flavored pam cooking spray (or oil them up a bit).
They were actually done quicker than 20 minutes because they were cut thin. They will be warm and sort of soft but crisp if that makes sense. I knew by looking at them and tasting the thickest one (the thin ones were super cooked, which shows how important cutting evenly is).
You can cut into any shapes you want at any thickness. Just cook longer if thicker.
Carrots & Parsnips sprinkled with brown sugar
Once these were cooked they were delicious. Because they were all mixed together I couldn’t exactly pick out the taste of parsnips, but it was in there and made the dish better tasting than it is when it is carrots alone. Definitely a great combination and super easy. Now, from a health standpoint…not so amazing.
Brown sugar carrots & parsnips
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