On a cold winter day, there is nothing better to warm up your soul like a nice bowl of soup with the most popular winter vegetable called parsnip. Not only you can use it for spicing up your favorite soup, you can also bake amazing dishes with it.
This root is a close relative to beets and carrots, but the taste is somewhat hard to explain. The taste of parsnip is everything but simple.
You get a variety of flavor profiles, sweet, kind of spicy with a slight hint of zestiness, starchy flesh like potatoes, and earthy. If you happen to not have parsnip in your home, don’t worry, there are a couple of suitable substitutes for it.
The best alternatives for parsnip in baking and cooking are
- butternut squash
- carrots
- celery root
- Sweet potatoes
- Parsley
- Peruvian parsnip
- Turnips
- Salsify root
- Radishes
- Potatoes
- Baby Carrots
If you want to find out more about these amazing and healthy vegetables, then keep on reading.
Substitutes For Parsnip
Butternut Squash
Butternut squash is a winter vegetable with a nutty taste, similar to pumpkin. This is honestly one of my favorite vegetables to eat during winter, and let me tell ya, it is pretty easy to come up with a dinner dish with this one.
I love to cook it the simple way, cut it into cubes, put some sunflower oil(I find it to go best with this vegetable), salt, chili powder, and black pepper, and just pop it into the oven for 20 minutes or so. You can even add some pumpkin pie spice blends to make it even sweeter.
Believe me, it is the most healthy and delicious thing to eat on a cold Saturday evening. Butternut squash like most vegetables is low in calories and full of vitamins, so you get a nice and tasty meal without having the guilt and the worry of eating too much.
Butternut squash is a good alternative for parsnips, especially when you’re making it with some red meat, and other root vegetables like carrots.
Carrots
Carrots need no introduction. It is one of the most used and famous vegetables for soups, stews, side dishes, carrot cakes, etc…
Carrots come from the root family and they have a sweet taste with a little bit of an earthy flavor and a crunchy texture, making them an excellent alternative to parsnips.
You can do basically whatever you want with this vegetable, and I have some ideas of what you can prepare it with.
Ideas To Make Your Carrots Taste Even Better
- Roasted Veggies- In a baking dish with a baking sheet on it, put cubed potatoes, cubed carrots, red bell peppers, and cubed spring onions.
To add more flavor to this dish, add paprika, some garlic powder, fresh herbs (or herbes de Provence), curry powder, salt, pepper, and to top it all off, pour some melted butter over it and a couple of drops of some light vinegar like rice wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
Mix it all up, and put it to bake on 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes. You can skip the melted butter if you’re trying to cut on the carbs or you don’t like the buttery taste or you want to do some vegan baking, and instead pour some olive oil or coconut oil.
This side dish goes amazing with roasted dishes like roast beef, roast cubed chicken, etc…
- Old Fashioned Soup- Prepare a healthy bowl of soup from scratch with some celery, ground ginger, some fresh parsley, carrots, and of course, chicken stock. If you’d like you can always mix it up and put a spoonful of sour cream if you want more creamy options.
- Baby Carrots Side Dish- Baby carrots are the smaller, cuter version of regular carrots. I love steaming them and putting them on the side with some chicken nuggets (make with a mix of ground chicken, onion powder, garlic powder, and panko). It is one of the easiest and tastiest dishes that I love to make on a lazy weekend.
Celery Root
While not the most appealing vegetable on the outside, celery is most definitely beautiful on the inside.
Some may call it turnip-rooted celery, and some may call it Celeriac but either way, this awesome root with white flesh is the way to go when making all sorts of soups and stews.
There isn’t a day where my uncle doesn’t make soup and just talks my ear off how celery is one of the most healthy, must-have vegetables around the house.
This vegetable is not just for soups, you can also make a beautiful salad out of it with just some apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper, as well as a healthy variant of mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes.
Celery root has an earthy flavor, that is almost bitter and kind of sweet. You can find it in almost every one of your local grocery stores, and markets. Celery roots are excellent parsnip substitutes.
The Most Unbelievably Tasty Baked Celery Burger
The coolest thing about celery is that you can easily just swap your ground meat for it.
If you’re vegetarian or vegan, simply just boil one celery root, mash it up, put some Italian herbs or any type of savory herbs(like rosemary), some panko, ground nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and form a patty out of it. Bake it at 180 degrees Celsius, for about 20 minutes or less.
To make the taste even better, I recommend putting a touch of cream cheese(or a type of light cream like creme fraiche or maybe some cottage cheese) on top of your non-meat burger.
This no-meat patty is an amazing substitute for ground beef and ground turkey in your favorite burger recipes. You can also fry your burger in a pan with some peanut oil so you have a more enhanced flavor.
Try to keep this recipe in mind when you have nothing to prepare for dinner at home, trust me you won’t be disappointed.
Other Substitutes For Parsnip In Cooking
Peruvian Parsnip
Peruvian Parsnip is also known as Arracacha Arracacha and is a vegetable that is native to the Andes. Even though it has the name ”parsnip” in it, it actually tastes like a combination of celery and carrots.
Try to always cook it before eating as it can be bitter when eaten raw. The preparation is up to you, but I always boil it along with soups and stews, but you can also bake it like a potato and add some nice fresh herbs.
Turnips
Turnips are a type of vegetable with a combination taste of cabbage and radishes. This root is best when prepared as a salad along with some parsley, salt, and vinegar.
You can also make great mashed turnips as a substitute for mashed potatoes.
Salsify Root
This is a less-known type of root, especially in America. It has a cylindrical shape and a brown color. The taste is mostly compared to oysters and that is actually its other name, oyster plant.
This root is most often sauteed or roasted, but it can also be put in soups and stews for a more earthy taste.
Parsley
Parsnip and parsley may look alike but they are not the same. Parsley gives an amazing taste to everything you put it to. A warm herby loaf of bread with some parsley in it sounds good, doesn’t it?
Soups and salads just don’t taste the same to me when I don’t put some chopped parsley in them. This herb is so versatile, you can put it in anything.
Radishes
Radishes are very similar to turnips in taste but they’re a little bit smaller and their color is red/pink.
The flavor of radishes can intrigue you, and you’ll either love it or hate it. It is quite sweet with bitter and kind of spicy notes.
A simple salad with radishes, some onion powder, and garlic powder is the way to go on a hot summer night.
Potatoes
If you want that starchiness that parsnip has, then this is the right and the easiest way to go.
Potatoes need no introduction, they are yummy in every way you make them, mashed, fried, baked, roasted, or just plainly boiled with some light cream and Italian herbs.
Kohlrabi
Kohlrabi or German turnip is a green vegetable root that tastes like green cabbage and broccoli mixed together.
This root is incredibly versatile and you can use it in everything, coleslaw, fries, salads, and of course soups and stews.
Some ground nutmeg goes amazing with this earthy and sweet root.
Even though it is a bit hard to find, you can try and seek it in the local farmer’s markets. You won’t regret it.
Baby Carrots
Baby carrots are the smaller, cuter version of regular carrots. These small roots can easily be the perfect substitute for your parsnip recipes.
Parsnip Root Recipes
Parsnip Fries
- Peel and slice parsnips and cut them in the shape of fries.
- Now, add a blend of spices (garlic powder, chili powder, mustard powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper) and a touch of vegetable oil.
- Deep fry your parsnip fries in peanut oil(you can also make baked parsnip fries if you’re going for a more healthy variant but be aware that the cooking time will be prolonged)
- Put the parsnip fries on a cooling rack and salt them generously.
- Enjoy these fries along with some hot honey pork chops, and try to eat as much as you can.
Parsnip Moussaka
Ingredients:
- 400 grams of plain ground meat (ground pork, ground beef, or lamb mince)
- 2 0r 3 Parsnip roots
- 1 carton of half-and-half or heavy cream
- 1 cup milk(you can use oat milk or light coconut milk if you like)
- 1 cup of diced tomatoes
- Tomato puree
- 1 cup diced onions
Preparation:
- Put your meat in a greased-up pan and fry it until it’s no longer red and bloody(it should have a grey color).
- When the meat is ready add the diced onions, diced tomatoes, and tomato puree to the pan. Mix it all up and leave on medium it to soak up the flavors.
- While all of that is cooking, take a baking dish, and put some baking paper on it.
- Cut the parsnip into long strips and boil them for five minutes(parsnip is a firm vegetable and needs to parboil)
- Put a single layer (like lasagna) of parsnip strips directly on the baking paper.
- Follow up with a layer of the meat mixture.
- On top of the meat drizzle a little bit of heavy cream or make a fresh bechamel sauce(it’s better with bechamel but this is much easier)
- Follow the same order until you’ve run out of ingredients and remember that you have to finish with layered parsnips.
- Pour a cup of milk on the finished product(try to get some on the bottom too)
The Cooking Process:
- Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C and bake for half an hour, until you start to see some browning on top.
- Top off your dish with some bright herbs, herbs de province, or collard greens.
Parsnip Puree
Ingredients:
- Butter
- Parsnip root
- Salt
- Pepper
- A cup of milk
- Shredded Monterey Jack cheese(or any cheese with a mild flavor like queso fresco)
Preparation:
- Peel, and cut the parsnip into cubes, and put it to boil for 15 minutes(put a fork through the root, and if it has a soft texture, you know it’s done)
- Mash the cubes of boiled parsnip along with the cup of milk, and butter.
- When you’re satisfied with the texture, add in the cheese, salt, and pepper.
- Stir the hot puree until it’s all nice and incorporated.
- Enjoy this puree as a side dish to some pan-fried skinless chicken thighs(or filet mignon)
- Top off your puree with the leftover chicken fat.