I was very excited last week when we got two HUGE parsnips in our CSA panier.
I had never once tasted a parsnip before I spent Christmas in England a few years back, but it was love at first bite. Roasted crisp with carrots and potatoes, I loved their crunchy caramelized outsides and subtly sweet, tender insides. I am such a fan of roasted parsnips that I have rarely strayed from the straightforward recipe I first fell in love with.
But the panier encourages experimentation. Ever since we started getting it, we’ve been long on apples. It’s a different kind every week, from sweet goldens to the tart, perfectly-sized-to-fit-in-your-palm snacking apples we got yesterday. But still, that’s a lot of apples. I’m trying to come up with new ways to use them, so when I got out the parsnips and noticed the giant (we’re talking softball-sized) apples reposing next to them, I thought, why not?
And a new favorite Winter side dish was born.
Roast Parsnips and Apples
This is a delicious, simple side dish that is fantastic with roast chicken. For something a little more substantial, you could make it into a gratin by crumbling some blue cheese on top after the parsnip is tender, and baking until the cheese has melted a bit. A little bacon in there would definitely not suck.
2 very large parsnips (or about 4-5 medium or 6-8 small)
1 large apple
Leaves picked from one stem of rosemary
Coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
- Preheat the oven to 190 C / 375 F.
- Peel the parsnips and cut into bite-size pieces. Dice the apple, but don’t worry about peeling it.
- Spread the parsnips evenly on a baking sheet or in a small roasting pan. Season with salt, pepper, and rosemary. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat.
- Roast for 20 minutes, then add the apple and stir. Continue roasting another 20-25 minutes, until the parsnip is tender and beginning to brown at the edges. Serve hot.
Serves 2 hungry people as a side dish.
Originally published on Croque-Camille.
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I second your feeling about roasted parsnips. We discovered them last year and became quickly enamored. The parsnip-apple pair sounds perfect, and I never would have thought to put them together.
Oh good, this gives me ideas for variation too! I usually roast the parsnips with a little olive oil and then drizzle honey on them. I like the idea of adding an apple (with the advantage of using up the apples!) and blue cheese would be interesting too!
That sounds delicious – especially with the blue cheese to offset the sweetness. And, I’ve decided that I am going to borrow “that would definitely not suck” for my vocabulary every once in a while… It pretty much gets the point across. Thanks for making me smile, as usual!
Trisha – I don’t understand how anyone could NOT like parsnips. 🙂
Hopie – Yum, honey sounds good. I never think of it on my own, but it does very nice things with root vegetables.
Lissa – The literary term for that, in French, is la litote. It refers to making understatements in order to get your much stronger point across. Yes, I am a huge nerd.