What are parsnips? When trying to answer that question, a few things come to mind: a weird cousin of the turnip, seriously pale carrots, and a funky-looking vegetable with a hard-to-place flavor.
What Parsnips ~Technically~ Are
Scientifically, parsnips have the Latin name pastinaca sativa. They’re members of the Apiaceae or Umbelliferae genum, a family of plants that includes coriander, cumin, carrots and celery.
If you’ve always thought parsnips and carrots were the same thing, you aren’t alone. Historians estimate that parsnips have been cultivated since Ancient Greece and Rome, but they can’t be sure because they were classified as carrots for a long time.
For those of you who want to add parsnips to your personal garden, they are biennial plants that are good at surviving winter months. After you plant the seeds, seedlings should emerge within 2-3 weeks. For more detailed instructions on growing parsnips at home, consult this website.
What’s So Great About Them
While it’s fascinating that carrots, cumin, celery, and parsnips are in the same genetic family despite being so different, it’s definitely more practical to know the health benefits of parsnips that make them worth incorporating into your diet.
Like other root vegetables, parsnips are high in fiber, which help you stay ~regular~ and fuller for longer. Additionally, they are high in potassium, and vitamins C and E, which aid in heart and immune system function. For expecting mothers, the folate in parsnips can help decrease the risk of birth defects in their developing baby.
Additionally, by replacing less healthy foods like fried potatoes or bread with parsnips, you boost the overall nutritional value of whatever you’re eating in general.
How You Should Eat Them
Call me basic, but I’m *so* excited for it to be fall, because that means that it’s root vegetable season. Roasted carrots, sweet potato fries, and beet salads make delicious side dishes that honestly steal the show from fall-flavored main dishes.
They have a flavor similar to carrots, turnips, and other root vegetables, but also have some of the delightful bitterness and bite of a radish, which sets them apart from their peers. Because of this, they add depth to the flavor profile of whatever you make with them. If you’re trying to impress someone, serving parsnips makes you seem like you know what you’re doing.
Beyond simply roasting them, parsnips make great additions to soups , dips, salads, even desserts! For a slightly healthier, more flavorful french fry, you can even make them out of parsnips.
Clearly, parsnips have not gotten the love they deserve. Whether they’ve been mistakenly lumped together with carrots, brushed aside as weird and foreign, or just ignored at the grocery store, parsnips have definitely gotten the short end of the stick.
You have the power to change this, and improve your life in the process. Parsnips are both nutritious and delicious, and incorporating them into your diet will make you feel like an adult.