Winter Roots The healthy and finely sweet parsnip

Today, parsnip celebrates a comeback in German cuisine. This is mainly due to organic farmers who have grown the well-known root vegetables in recent years again increased.
The parsnip has a delicate sweet to nutty aroma reminiscent of carrots or celery. For raw food, it is grated and served with a lemon dressing. However, the delicate roots also taste steamed as vegetables with lamb and game, in a creamy soup, in a stew, in a casserole and as nibble chips with herb dip. In vegetable patties they can be combined with potatoes and carrots.

Winter vegetables: parsnip - healthy and delicious! Image: Yantra - fotolia

A classic of English cuisine is parsnip puree, which is prepared similar to mashed potatoes and is often served with fried meat. The English also use dried roots to extract flour for cakes and pastries. Even the leaves are cut small and used as a spice, much like parsley.

The root is rich in starch and sugar and therefore very nutritious. With increasing frost the sweetness rises. Other positive ingredients include minerals such as calcium, potassium and magnesium, provitamin A, vitamins B and C and essential oils that are responsible for the unique taste.

The Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) is a member of the Umbelliferae family and is still growing wildly along the roadsides, embankments and meadows throughout Europe. The culture form has a thicker root. It is yellow to brown colored and can be forty inches long and 1.5 kilograms heavy. In the 18th century, the parsnip was still an important staple food in Germany, until it was supplanted by the potato and the carrot.

Before preparation, the vegetables are cleaned with a brush under running water and skinned thinly. The two ends are removed and the root cut into slices, pens or cubes depending on the recipe. Fresh parsnips are still available until spring, at the weekly market, in the health food store and also in well-stocked supermarkets. If you prefer to buy small, solid specimens, which are particularly delicate. The skin should be shiny and the green fresh and juicy. Wrapped in a damp kitchen towel, parsnips hold around two weeks in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator.
(Heike Kreutz, aid)