Evelyn, this looks delicious! You’re obviously not only tops when it comes to photographic royalty in our neighborhood but a regal cook as well. I’ll be trying this one!🤗
My favorite soup is chicken tortilla soup - I see it as an excuse to eat tortilla chips! Your cooking week sounds amazing, you’re inspiring me to move beyond salads and start thinking about soups again.
Thanks for your comment, Lisa!Honestly, you can never go wrong with soup. When we’re finishing one pot of it, I’m already perusing my pantry to dream up the next! Tortilla soup is a huge favorite in this house too!🍲
I'm firmly in the I Love parsnips camp. Roasted with some blackberries and red onion and they are delicious. And they are wonderful in cakes. There is a lovely recipe in Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s book Sweet for a parsnip cake which is nutty and if I remember correctly includes some aniseed. And soup is good anytime of year!
Thanks, Julia! That preparation with blackberries and red onion sounds really good! I'll be looking up that parsnip cake from Ottolenghi and Goh too! Thanks for the heads-up on both recipes!🤗
My wife LOVES parsnips and I admit I had never had them! I also love them now and whenever I see them loose – especially at a farmer’s market I love to roast them with other veggies. This will make me look for them again!
Thanks for commenting, Mark! I find there's quite a divide on parsnips, with some fierce devotees on one side and others who either hate or haven't tried them on the other. I agree that they're quite wonderful roasted with other veggies. I'm also planning to cook and mash some with some potatoes with a little butter and cream (just a little!). I think they'll be pretty good that way.
Since my eating patterns now include TRYING to eat a cruciferous vegetable of some sort everyday, once I try a new one it makes it just a little easier...parsnips are crucifers
Thanks so much for all the sharing and love, and I need to try those biscuits! It's a parsnip idea I don't think would ever occur and they sound perfect for the sub-zero temperatures at the moment..!
Good comparison, Amie! Jeff is definitely my “Mikey”! I have to sneak healthy veggies into things. If he can’t recognize it and pick it out, he usually ends up liking it! Our son Sam was picky as a kid, but he has grown up to be a foodie who will try anything! Go figure!
I'm very impressed with your inventive use of parsnips! I read somewhere that cooks used parsnips to replace scarce bananas in their bake goods during WW II. I may give those biscuits a try! Thank you for the link to my Substack, Ruth.
Thanks, Vicki! I had never read about cooks replacing bananas with parsnips in WW2, but it makes sense. When you mash them or grate them fine, they might replace any number of things in baked goods—apples, carrots, maybe even some of the fat. But they do vary in sweetness and texture—so sometimes you have to tinker.
Parsnips and turnips - both are regulars on our dinner menu. Great texture and flavor. Haven't used them in cakes yet, though. Claire handles all the cake baking around here - I do the breads - sour dough, focaccia, tortillas, etc. Oh, and pizza dough, of course!
Thanks for your comment, Crowden. I'm very impressed with your bread baking skills. I have been very lazy about making it lately. Focaccia and pizza both sound enticing! Maybe with some roasted parsnips and turnips!
I'm not a huge fan of parsnips, but I love your inventiveness. I love soup of all kinds, especially carrot and pumpkin. I used to make a red lentil and tomato soup which was delicious. Must hunt down the recipe for that... It's summer here in Australia, but quite rainy so I think it's okay to make some soup.
Marg, I think it's okay to make soup anytime! Carrot and pumpkin are really good! It gets pretty hot here--even in winter--and I'm always making soup. It's so convenient when you don't know what to serve for supper--and there it is! Truthfully I'm not the biggest fan of parsnips either, but I was interested in the idea of making them palatable in baking--and you really can hardly taste them in these bakes, which might make you wonder why use them? However, they add moisture, fiber, vitamins, minerals, etc. In these recipes, I think carrots, butternut squash or pumpkin would make good substitutes. Thanks so much for your comments!
Testimony to soup versatility! Yay! Thanks, Ruth, and thanks for the shout-out. 😀Now I will totally give your soup a go. I often revert to Scottish lentil soup from nostalgia and habit, so yours, which sounds delicious, would be a great way to shake up my soup scene!
Btw, I got your post while I am nuking frozen stock, to go with a bowl of chopped veggies for Mary Berry's Everyday Vegetable Soup. It's the simplest recipe imaginable, barely a recipe, and I make it even simpler by using whatever root veg, the aforementioned frozen stock, and the Instant Pot: I just wanted something light as a side to my leftover runzas (Midwestern beef and cabbage turnovers)
Wow, Annette, that vegetable soup from Mary Berry does sound good—as do those runzas, which I’ve never had the pleasure to try. I’m going to look up the MB soup. So many of my soups start off as one thing and end up as something else, depending on what’s in my fridge, freezer and pantry.
Thanks for the inspiration to make red lentil soup—it was a great variation.
BTW, I had thought my mom’s lentil soup came from her Lithuanian roots, but I see now it was probably as common as porridge in her Glasgow childhood!
Yes! Essentially a national dish. Traditional Scottish food often gets a bad rap, with posh people responding by pointing to salmon and venison... which most Scots never ate because they couldn't afford it, or the fines for poaching. They also couldn't afford to waste food, so they repeated the same dishes. Mince (ground beef stew) and lentil soup are eaten often, even now, by a lot of people, including me. 😀
Wow, I feel like I should have known this, being a daughter of a Scot, but clearly I needed a historian to fill in the gaps! Thanks, Annette!
Mom was very frugal and loath to waste anything, which probably came from growing up poor and living through the Depression and WW2. We didn’t eat fancy food growing up, and dishes were often repeated. I recall a lot of beef stew made with chunks of chuck beef, but not mince. I’ll be looking that up. Thanks again!
My Favorite soup:
SWEET POTATO- Jalapeno peppers SOUP
3 medium yams --Baked, cooled, peeled and sliced
2 TBL unsalted butter
1 Lg onion finely minced
6 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper
1 cup sour cream
juice of ½ lime
1 tsp grated lemon rind
½ cup heavy cream
1 jalapeno pepper, thinly sliced
1½ cups of corn
2-3 TBL fresh cilantro
In 4 quart casserole melt butter over medium heat.
Add onion and cook 3 to 4 min. until it begins to brown
Reduce heat and cook until onion is nicely browned.
Add sweet potatoes and chicken stock, diced pepper, some cilantro, and salt and pepper.
Simmer 15 minutes.
While soup is cooking prepare garnish.
In a small bowl, combine sour cream, lime juice, lemon rind and blend
Puree the soup.
Wisk in heavy cream and corn kernel.
Cook 5 minutes more.
Serve with sour cream mixture and more cilantro.
Evelyn, this looks delicious! You’re obviously not only tops when it comes to photographic royalty in our neighborhood but a regal cook as well. I’ll be trying this one!🤗
My favorite soup is chicken tortilla soup - I see it as an excuse to eat tortilla chips! Your cooking week sounds amazing, you’re inspiring me to move beyond salads and start thinking about soups again.
Thanks for your comment, Lisa!Honestly, you can never go wrong with soup. When we’re finishing one pot of it, I’m already perusing my pantry to dream up the next! Tortilla soup is a huge favorite in this house too!🍲
I'm firmly in the I Love parsnips camp. Roasted with some blackberries and red onion and they are delicious. And they are wonderful in cakes. There is a lovely recipe in Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s book Sweet for a parsnip cake which is nutty and if I remember correctly includes some aniseed. And soup is good anytime of year!
Thanks, Julia! That preparation with blackberries and red onion sounds really good! I'll be looking up that parsnip cake from Ottolenghi and Goh too! Thanks for the heads-up on both recipes!🤗
My wife LOVES parsnips and I admit I had never had them! I also love them now and whenever I see them loose – especially at a farmer’s market I love to roast them with other veggies. This will make me look for them again!
Thanks for commenting, Mark! I find there's quite a divide on parsnips, with some fierce devotees on one side and others who either hate or haven't tried them on the other. I agree that they're quite wonderful roasted with other veggies. I'm also planning to cook and mash some with some potatoes with a little butter and cream (just a little!). I think they'll be pretty good that way.
Since my eating patterns now include TRYING to eat a cruciferous vegetable of some sort everyday, once I try a new one it makes it just a little easier...parsnips are crucifers
Thanks so much for all the sharing and love, and I need to try those biscuits! It's a parsnip idea I don't think would ever occur and they sound perfect for the sub-zero temperatures at the moment..!
You’re welcome, Rachel! I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with parsnips. Thanks again for the inspiration!🤗
I’m intrigued by the parsnip biscuits, Ruth! Thank you for this nourishing post.
You are welcome!
And thank you for reading! The parsnip biscuits were a bit of culinary whimsy that turned out to be quite good.
If Jeff is the “Mikey” of trying intriguing food, and he liked this, then there may be hope for me with parsnips.
Good comparison, Amie! Jeff is definitely my “Mikey”! I have to sneak healthy veggies into things. If he can’t recognize it and pick it out, he usually ends up liking it! Our son Sam was picky as a kid, but he has grown up to be a foodie who will try anything! Go figure!
Love Parsnips, this is so great, Ruth!
Thanks so much, Jolene! Have you ever tried using them in cakes or other sweet things?
No!! Now I will! 😂
Me too. It’s one reason why I stuck to less sweet bakes, but it’s on my radar for the future! 😏
I'm very impressed with your inventive use of parsnips! I read somewhere that cooks used parsnips to replace scarce bananas in their bake goods during WW II. I may give those biscuits a try! Thank you for the link to my Substack, Ruth.
Thanks, Vicki! I had never read about cooks replacing bananas with parsnips in WW2, but it makes sense. When you mash them or grate them fine, they might replace any number of things in baked goods—apples, carrots, maybe even some of the fat. But they do vary in sweetness and texture—so sometimes you have to tinker.
Parsnips and turnips - both are regulars on our dinner menu. Great texture and flavor. Haven't used them in cakes yet, though. Claire handles all the cake baking around here - I do the breads - sour dough, focaccia, tortillas, etc. Oh, and pizza dough, of course!
Thanks for your comment, Crowden. I'm very impressed with your bread baking skills. I have been very lazy about making it lately. Focaccia and pizza both sound enticing! Maybe with some roasted parsnips and turnips!
Great biscuits!
I'm not a huge fan of parsnips, but I love your inventiveness. I love soup of all kinds, especially carrot and pumpkin. I used to make a red lentil and tomato soup which was delicious. Must hunt down the recipe for that... It's summer here in Australia, but quite rainy so I think it's okay to make some soup.
Marg, I think it's okay to make soup anytime! Carrot and pumpkin are really good! It gets pretty hot here--even in winter--and I'm always making soup. It's so convenient when you don't know what to serve for supper--and there it is! Truthfully I'm not the biggest fan of parsnips either, but I was interested in the idea of making them palatable in baking--and you really can hardly taste them in these bakes, which might make you wonder why use them? However, they add moisture, fiber, vitamins, minerals, etc. In these recipes, I think carrots, butternut squash or pumpkin would make good substitutes. Thanks so much for your comments!
I like the sound of parsnip cake with cream cheese frosting, but I'm trying to stay away from cakes at the moment. (Long story)
Perfect timing, Ruth! Winter is here. All the soups I ever need are in your helpful roundup!
So very glad, Anne! Soup really is good food—especially when the winter sets in. Hoping you stay warm, inside and out!🤗
Testimony to soup versatility! Yay! Thanks, Ruth, and thanks for the shout-out. 😀Now I will totally give your soup a go. I often revert to Scottish lentil soup from nostalgia and habit, so yours, which sounds delicious, would be a great way to shake up my soup scene!
Btw, I got your post while I am nuking frozen stock, to go with a bowl of chopped veggies for Mary Berry's Everyday Vegetable Soup. It's the simplest recipe imaginable, barely a recipe, and I make it even simpler by using whatever root veg, the aforementioned frozen stock, and the Instant Pot: I just wanted something light as a side to my leftover runzas (Midwestern beef and cabbage turnovers)
Wow, Annette, that vegetable soup from Mary Berry does sound good—as do those runzas, which I’ve never had the pleasure to try. I’m going to look up the MB soup. So many of my soups start off as one thing and end up as something else, depending on what’s in my fridge, freezer and pantry.
Thanks for the inspiration to make red lentil soup—it was a great variation.
BTW, I had thought my mom’s lentil soup came from her Lithuanian roots, but I see now it was probably as common as porridge in her Glasgow childhood!
Yes! Essentially a national dish. Traditional Scottish food often gets a bad rap, with posh people responding by pointing to salmon and venison... which most Scots never ate because they couldn't afford it, or the fines for poaching. They also couldn't afford to waste food, so they repeated the same dishes. Mince (ground beef stew) and lentil soup are eaten often, even now, by a lot of people, including me. 😀
Wow, I feel like I should have known this, being a daughter of a Scot, but clearly I needed a historian to fill in the gaps! Thanks, Annette!
Mom was very frugal and loath to waste anything, which probably came from growing up poor and living through the Depression and WW2. We didn’t eat fancy food growing up, and dishes were often repeated. I recall a lot of beef stew made with chunks of chuck beef, but not mince. I’ll be looking that up. Thanks again!