Kia hora te manno
Kia whakapapa paumamu te moana
Kia tere te Karohirohi

May the calm be widespread
May the sea glisten like the greenstone
And may the glimmer of summer dance across your pathways

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Better than candy

61 degrees, sunny with a little cool breeze in my vegetable garden today. I decided it was a good day to start on cleaning up in preparation for planting in the near future. I had pulled many weeds, and accomplished a little cleanup before really taking a close look at the parsnips.
Judging by the tops of the parsnips I thought the roots would be very puny, but when I tried to pull them from the raised beds, they would not budge without the tops coming off in my hands. Out came my garden fork, and oh boy! was I ever surprised by what I unearthed.

The two largest parsnips are just over 12 inches long and three inches across. Being this large sometimes means they are tough, but not these beauties. They proved to be crisp and tender when I peeled and cut them into uniform pieces ready for roasting.

After peeling and chopping the parsnips, I placed them into a baking pan, poured 2 tablespoons of good quality tasty olive oil over them, stirred them around to coat, then ground sea salt and black pepper over the top. They were then covered in foil and baked in a 400F oven for 20 minutes, the foil removed and baked another 20 minutes until browned.

As I said, these in my opinion, are better than candy. Oven roasted veggies are sweet, and parsnips especially so. I could eat all of these in one sitting.

9 comments:

Victoria Williams said...

I couldn't agree more!! I absolutely LOVE roasted parsnips! Why haven't I thought of growing them myself?

Balisha said...

I love roasted parsnips. I use them in lots of dishes.
Balisha

Randy Emmitt said...

Jennifer,

Oh yummy, did you save any for the rest of us?

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

They look so good! They are really big. I think oven roasted veggies are the best, plus it's such an easy way to cook them.

Bonnie Story said...

Oh, that looks wonderful!!! Have you ever tasted or grown Salsify? I understand it's a lot like parsnips.

Peggy said...

A lovely spring surprise waiting for you after the snow and frozen ground!Parsnips are one veg which were meant to be roasted instead of the blandness of steaming.

D said...

It doesn't get any better than that, does it Jennifer? All the veggies we get out of the garden seem only to need the slightest touch of salt and freshly ground pepper. We didn't grow parsnips but plan to add these and kohlrabi to our root vegetables.

Carrie said...

Roasted parsnips are my favourite! Great looking ones there and a surprise too, I'd say that was a good day all round.

RURAL said...

Those look so good, they are one of my all time favs. I never thought to roast them that way. Oh yum.

Jen