Parsnip Rounds or Parsnip Strips?

Roast parsnips have always been one of my favourite Christmas lunch side dishes – we always had these at home, I love the taste – but I dislike a lot of roasted parsnips!  Put simply, when you cut a parsnip you have a choice:

• Cut the parsnip into fat rounds
• Cut the parsnip into long strips

Of course, with a large parsnip, it’s possible to do both.  But I’ve always been a fan of the fat rounds of roast parsnips, not the long thin strips, that I feel lose taste and moistness.  It seems that, most of the time, most people cut their parsnips lengthways and I just find that the thin ends are burnt and the rest is quite shrivelled…. but how we like any food is a personal taste isn’t it!

With all the supermarkets offering cheap veg deals in the run up to Christmas, I was fearful that they’d all be thin parsnips, not capable of yielding some large fat rounds, just how I like them – so I was pleasantly surprised when I spotted Aldi’s parsnips, which gave the early shopper the choice of 2-4 parsnips of varying sizes and I’ve managed to grab a bag of two fat parsnips. Ideal!

Aldi Christmas Veg, Parsnips:

All the supermarkets are offering Christmas Veg at keen prices again, but I happened to find myself in Aldi at the early part of the day.

The Aldi Christmas veg parsnips are bags of “600 grams”, but the packs will be a little variable in weight due to the nature of freshly grown vegetables being variable weights.

The total pack weight is 615 grams, with the individual parsnips weighing 380 grams and 235 grams.  Under the Aldi Christmas Veg offer price of 19p for the bag, this is exceedingly good value for a vegetable that just last week was often to be found priced at 99p/Kg.  19p/615 grams is 31p/Kg

So, for my Christmas dinner that’s the parsnips nailed!  I’m so glad I managed to find and buy large fat parsnips.

Storing Parsnips

I immediately removed the parsnips from the plastic bag they were sold in and wiped them down with a sheet of kitchen towel.  I then left them out on the worktop for an hour to dry off a little more before popping them into a green Keep Fresh bag and into the cupboard.  They will all be cooked in 2-3 days’ time so that’s good enough!

I’ll use the thinner end of the smallest parsnip in the nut roast, where it’ll be mashed up – and I’ll cut fat rounds of parsnip from the rest.  I’ll then microwave steam the parsnips for a few minutes, before spraying with a little oil and roasting in the mini oven.  Once cooked, I’ll cool them and wrap them up – then re-heat on Christmas Day as part of my 20 Minute Christmas Lunch plan.