Dave Walker pleads for inspiration on how to deal with a bag of parsnips. Given that the thought of roasting them makes him feel "I can't be bothered", he probably won't follow my recipe for parsnip soup, although I did go to all the trouble of posting it in his comments, which probably took nearly as long as... ooh, roasting some parsnips.
Parsnip Soup is much more effort than roasted parsnips, but here's how: caramelise some onions in oil, add a healthy slug of ground cumin, then when the spice is cooked add your chopped up parsnips, preferably along with a chopped-up apple, add chicken or veg stock, simmer till soft and then blitz to creamy smoothness. A soup of life-changing qualities. A little creme fraiche and some fresh coriander on top and you can even serve it as posh soup.
Curried parsnip soup is also fab and rather warming on a cold day.
Posted by: brodie | 29/03/2006 at 11:53
Maggi - you'd be surprised, I might just try your soup.
My 'can't be bothered' was mainly to do with time and energy use rather that effort. The fact that living on my own as I currently do and have an oven which seems to take an age to heat up means that energywise roasting one parsnip per day seemed like a foolhardy approach. Something like your soup which is a 'cook it once - eat it several times' approach seems preferable.
Posted by: Dave | 29/03/2006 at 11:59
Strongly recommend the adding of apples as you suggest, they complement parsnips beautifully.
Posted by: Caroline | 29/03/2006 at 12:27
Great. Thanks. That solves my what to make for tea problem tonight. I wonder if the corner shop does creme fraiche?
Posted by: Miffy | 29/03/2006 at 15:09
Clearly it's parsnip soup time - I was halfway through chopping my parsnips when my husband mentioned you had this recipe today...
Posted by: Anne | 29/03/2006 at 19:54
As an American, I have to confess my wondermnet over British fascination for all things parsnips.
I once had a conversation with a British woman during my stay at Iona Abbery. We got into a conversation about my reluctance to eat anything related to parsnips.
She responded in a rather exasperated voice, "But what do you do for neeps?!?" "Nothing" was my answer.
Posted by: Jim | 29/03/2006 at 20:57
There are no words for how good that sounds. Parsnips just went back on the buy list.
Gratefully, one parsnip-loving American :-)
Posted by: Laura | 29/03/2006 at 22:08
Another recipe for parsnips which is easy too. Add mashed cooked parsnip to any plain sort of bread recipe. Yummy, and even nicer toasted!
Jan
Posted by: Jan | 30/03/2006 at 06:00
I'm salivating now! Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the veg box brought parsnips, so I will have to dream of Parsnip Soup instead :)
Posted by: Serena | 30/03/2006 at 12:17
Now I have to go buy some parsnips...I use this recipe for parsnip soup a lot, and my daughter was surprised how good it was when she called up from Uni with the big problem of only having parsnips and apples in the house, now they make it every week through the winter!!!
I've just had lunch and I'm hungry just reading this...please don't post anything on chocolate I'm on a diet!
Posted by: Sally | 30/03/2006 at 15:28
I love roast parsnips and your soup sounds fab. Too bad parsnips are so expensive here in Finland (sigh)
Posted by: Lorna | 30/03/2006 at 19:48