What Can I Make With Parsnips?
Parsnips may not be on your list of favorite vegetables. They certainly were not on mine, that is, until I learned how to cook them. Now, when I see a batch of nice, little parsnips at the farmer’s market, I grab a bunch.
Peeling and boiling parsnips like you would potatoes is fine, but not the best method as far as I’m concerned. I prefer to leave my parsnips unpeeled when I boil them. Then once they’ve cooled a little, I just remove the skins with a little paper towel, and mash them up with a little butter, salt, and pepper.
You can even eat raw parsnips if you choose the small ones. If you get young, small parsnips, grate them up in a salad, just like you would carrots.
My favorite method, however, is to bake them. Like most vegetables, baking, or oven-roasting, brings out the best flavor. Just peel and cut parsnips into big chunks, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper them generously, and pop in a hot oven until they start to get brown and are tender all the way through. If you can buy young parsnips, you don’t even have to peel them before you bake them. Just scrub them well before you cut them up.
Another tip I’ve learned is, if you’re adding parsnips to soup or stew, wait until the final 15 minutes or so to add the cut up parsnips. They will tend to get soggy if cooked too long.
One last method for cooking parsnips that I like is to cut them up into small slivers and quickly saute the pieces in a hot skillet with a little oil and butter mixture. This is an especially nice side dish for pork roasts, tenderloins, or chops.
There must be a lot more ways to cook and serve parsnips. If you have any favorite dishes that you’ve made using parsnips, I’d love to hear about them!
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Although I don’t tend to stock up on radishes, I do often end up with some leftovers after my husband makes his potato salad. He likes, as I do, to add radishes to potato salad for color, crunch and flavor. They really perk up a potato salad. But, we always end up with some extra, and I don’t know about you, but I can only munch on so many radishes. They’re sort of like green onions to me; a few are yummy.


