Easy Honey Roasted Carrots and Parsnips Recipe - Beyond Flour (2024)

FAQs

Should you parboil parsnips and carrots before roasting? ›

Roasting Tips

Parboiling skin-on carrots and parsnips lets you soften them without them losing too much moisture.

Parboil the parsnips in boiling salted water for 10 minutes, then drain well. Pick the thyme leaves. Toss the parsnips with the honey, thyme, a pinch of sea salt and black pepper, 10g of the butter and 2 tablespoons of oil. Tip into a roasting tray and arrange in one layer, then roast for 40 minutes, or until golden.

Cooking instructions

Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, then add the carrots and parsnips and toss to coat in the oil. Add the thyme, cinnamon, star anise and some seasoning. Cook over a medium heat for 15-20 minutes, turning the vegetables frequently, until golden brown and almost cooked through.

Reheating: We prefer to reheat carrots and parsnips in the microwave for 30 second intervals until warmed through. You can also reheat them in the oven at 300 degrees for around 10 minutes. Freezing: These roasted root veggies freeze really well.

How to prepare parsnips. Young, small parsnips don't really need peeling – just scrub clean and serve whole. Older parsnips should be peeled very thinly with a peeler or sharp knife, then chopped into evenly sized chunks. If the central core is very fibrous, this should be cut away.

Because a carrot's skin isn't as thick as other root vegetables (like potatoes) or winter squashes, carrots are perfectly safe and delicious to eat without peeling so long as they are properly cleaned. When it comes down to it, peeling carrots or keeping the skin on is a matter of personal preference.

Parboil if you prefer a soft texture.

You can skip straight to roasting, but parboiling the parsnips first will help prevent dry or chewy parsnips. To parboil, put whole or halved parsnips in salted, boiling water and cook for 8 minutes or until slightly tender.

However, if parsnips have been allowed to grow too big or remain too long in storage, they tend to get woodier and bitter. Thus, it is recommended that larger parsnips be peeled and that the “woody” core in the middle be cut out before preparing.

The trick is to keep the parsnips say 1 inch thick or so, so they have a chance to crisp up. Giving them a blanche in boiling water first also helps to make these crispy during roasting.

Do you flip vegetables when roasting? ›

Roasting is not a set-it-and-forget-it method of cooking. Forget to flip the vegetables, and they'll end up unevenly cooked, with one side that's deep brown (or burnt), while the other has no color. Follow this tip: At least once, although preferably twice, toss the vegetables around the sheet pan.

Too much oil and your veggies will turn out soggy and dense. But skimp on that oil and those vegetables will be too dry. Luckily, it's easy to find Goldilocks' just right amount. The solution: Before hitting the sheet pan, place the vegetables in a large bowl and add a tablespoon of oil.

The secret is to soften the carrots slightly by boiling them briefly before roasting. The texture will be firm-tender with just the right amount of caramelization on the outside.

The sweet spot is between 400°F and 425°F. Go any higher, and the outside of your veggies will start to burn before the inside has a chance to cook through. Any lower? They'll still cook through (eventually), but the oven won't be hot enough to get your veggies golden, crispy, and caramelized.

Vegetables with high amounts of nitrate, like carrots, turnips, celery, or spinach, can turn toxic when reheated. Such reheated vegetables have carcinogenic properties.

Parboil if you prefer a soft texture.

You can skip straight to roasting, but parboiling the parsnips first will help prevent dry or chewy parsnips. To parboil, put whole or halved parsnips in salted, boiling water and cook for 8 minutes or until slightly tender.

Parboil potatoes, carrots, turnips and celeriac and the like because they are very dense. Don't parboil onions or other less dense roots. Parboil is faster and useful if you can't vary the heat of your oven e.g roasting a bird.

Blanching the veggies before roasting them may allow you to have less salt on the vegetables and for them to caramelize a bit nicely without burning. Sometimes I have burned vegetables when roasting them until they were tender. So try this — enjoy the bounty.