Honey Roast Parsnips and Carrots Recipe | Kitchen Mason (2024)

FAQs

How does Jamie Oliver make honey roast parsnips? ›

Parboil the parsnips in boiling salted water for 10 minutes, then drain well. Pick the thyme leaves. Toss the parsnips with the honey, thyme, a pinch of sea salt and black pepper, 10g of the butter and 2 tablespoons of oil. Tip into a roasting tray and arrange in one layer, then roast for 40 minutes, or until golden.

If you try to roast them through in the oven 100% of the way, you end up with shriveled, wrinkled remains. Instead, I find it's much better to par-cook them in salted water, since they'll tenderize without shrinking. This step can be done in advance.

Then, cut each side of the vegetable to approximately three-quarters of an inch. If you keep parsnips inside the air for far too long, they will oxidize, much like apples. To prepare parsnips before cooking, soak them entirely in a basin of water, including a bit of lime juice.

Root vegetables store best in the refrigerator. Here are some more tips for keeping them longer.

Scrub and trim the parsnips. Line them up in the tray next to the carrots and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt and tuck in the bay leaves.

Spread them out evenly into one layer – this is important, as you want them to roast, not steam as they will if you have them all on top of each other. Roast for 1 hour, or until golden and crisp, then serve immediately with your roast and some delicious gravy.

How to prepare parsnips. Young, small parsnips don't really need peeling – just scrub clean and serve whole. Older parsnips should be peeled very thinly with a peeler or sharp knife, then chopped into evenly sized chunks. If the central core is very fibrous, this should be cut away.

As with many vegetables, roasting carrots brings out their sweet inner nature. Peel the carrots or don't peel the carrots—it's up to you. Peeling takes a bit more time, obviously, but also leads to a more consistent final texture to the dish.

You can skip straight to roasting, but parboiling the parsnips first will help prevent dry or chewy parsnips. To parboil, put whole or halved parsnips in salted, boiling water and cook for 8 minutes or until slightly tender.

However, if parsnips have been allowed to grow too big or remain too long in storage, they tend to get woodier and bitter. Thus, it is recommended that larger parsnips be peeled and that the “woody” core in the middle be cut out before preparing.

How do you take the bitterness out of parsnips? ›

Re: Bitter parsnips

If that still doesn't help, then you can simply trim the outside and discard the woody core before cooking (that's the bitter part). Or you can add a few pinches of sugar to the cooking water and that eliminates the bitterness.

So make sure that the parsnip pieces aren't wet going into the oven, or they will take longer to brown. Dry thoroughly before cutting. Toss in a mixing bowl, not on the sheet pan – Sometimes I see on cooking shows that they'll toss roasted vegetables in the oil, salt, and pepper on the sheet pan instead of a bowl.

Put your vegetables on a tray lined with baking paper and freeze uncovered, making sure they're not touching for at least 1 hour (this stops them from sticking together). Once they're hard, transfer into a freezer container and freeze for up to 3 months.

As parsnips start to go bad, they become shriveled or wrinkled. A bad parsnip can also be identified by limpness or softness. For example, when held up by one end, the other end drops over. Once parsnips become limp, they will be dehydrated and taste like wood.

Prep your veg the night before

Peel potatoes, carrots, parsnips and any other veg you're having and leave them in pans of cold water overnight. This will save you a lot of faff and additional mess on Christmas morning.

To honey roast, attendees simply raise their virtual hand in Zoom and speak in the order that they put their hand up. Sometimes we have a “moderator” who calls on the next person in line to keep things clipping along. The roast ends after 10 minutes (but you can choose a timeframe that makes sense for your team)

Half a cup of cooked parsnips contains 3 grams of fiber and just 55 calories. This half-cup provides 11% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C and is an excellent source of folate (providing 11% of the recommended daily intake), as well as manganese (10% of daily intake).

For roasting, prepare them in the same way, toss in a little oil and season. Place on a pre-heated roasting tray and roast in the oven pre-heated to gas mark 7, 425°F (220 C) for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of the parsnips. 1 lb (450 g) of parsnips will serve 4 people.