Parsnips. Yuck!
 

I've ventured out into the wide world of veggies and decided to try new things.

I bought parsnips & kale, I found a recipe online that I thought would be good.

Basically it consisted of slicing the parsnips and chopping the kale, sauteing with onion and minced garlic then simmering with chicken broth added until everything was tender.

It sounded good because that's how I cook other greens sometimes. The Kale was ok and I could eat again but the parsnips were Blech! They had a spicy & bitter kind of flavor. I didn't like it at all.

Should I have cooked the parsnips another way? I really don't know because I've never had them before.

mmmm parsnips, you've made me hungry now!

One of the best ways to eat them is peeled and topped and tailed but not sliced in any way; tossed in olive oil and roasted. Absolutely my favourite vegetable. Well, equally with boiled brussel sprouts with bacon..... droooooool

I love parsnips! I think of them as tasting sort of like carrots, only more intense and a little spicy. As such, I substituted them for carrots in soups and stews sometimes. I've also roasted them with some olive oil, salt and rosemary as Rosinante suggested. Mmmm, I'd love to roast some with some sweet potatoes - too bad that roasting veggies would not work right now in my sweltering apartment! One thing I did read is that parsnips can be bitter as they get bigger and more mature, so maybe try some smaller ones?? I don't know, but worth a shot.

Speaking of roasting veggies, brussel sprouts are awesome roasted - my favorite vegetable. Just cut them in half, toss with some olive oil and salt and pepper and bake. Delicious. I've also recently discovered kale which I have been adding to everything. I love that it keeps its shape pretty well and doesn't wilt down to nothing. I've been adding it to pasta, stirfrys, curries, wraps, sandwiches, you name it.

I've never had parsnips, but my grandmother loved them. She fixed them just like Rosinante and ate tons of them. I do love roasted brussel sprouts, though.

Roasted with other root veggies is a real favorite - just toss with olive oil and roast in oven. Very tasty!

Curried parsnip soup is very good in winter.

Thanks, I'll try them again roasted as suggested. I'm determined to be open minded and I'll try anything several different ways before I make up my mind to like it or not. I'm generally not a fussy eater but I have to say that the way I made them were not good to me, my husband or my daughter.

Okay, this is going to sound weird, because I never thought I'd ever say this about a vegetable. But I think parsnips are too sweet for me. Really. A couple weeks ago, I got a bundle of "soup" vegetables marked-down from the produce section, and instead of making soup, I peeled & chopped them up & then roasted them. They looked & smelled great. But when I ate them, I found myself eating like a 8-year-old & picking out all the other veggies & leaving a little pile of roasted parsnips on my plate.

Hmm well I dunno, I believe parsnips are a winter veggie, so the ones you ate must have been imported. I say try them again in the winter.

Although, I dunno about them either. I saw an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown snuck parsnips into a bunch of stuff. I made his muffins, and I didn't like them much. The flavor was strange.

I'll have to try them roasted, that sounds like it could be good.

When you roast them (or any other veggie for that matter) how do you know when they're done? I was thinking of trying roasted beets. I keep looking at them at the store, because they're fairly cheap, but never buy them because I don't know what to do with them.

I'm sorry you got a bitter batch of parsnips. Parsnips are wonderful fried in butter so that they are crunchy-caramelized on the outside and chewy on the inside. They are perhaps, my favorite vegetable.