An essential part of any Christmas dinner, these roast parsnips are easy make and they taste sensational.
Also, if you accidentally buy way too many parsnips (curse you online shopping), then be sure to make my spicy parsnip soup or my parsnip and carrot rosti with with mushroom and Wensleydale sauce.
We all seem to forget about parsnips the rest of the year, but Christmas dinner simply wouldn’t be the same without them.
You can roast them in the same tray as your roast potatoes, but they end up crunchier if you roast them on a separate tray. Plus, having a separate tray means you can drizzle them in honey too.
Easily cooked and ready while your turkey is resting.
📋 What do we need?
Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Parsnips – use large or medium parsnips, which can be peeled and chopped, or your can use young, small parsnips, which only need to have the ends chopped off.
- Oil – use a high smoke point, neutral oil. Rapeseed or avocado oil works well.
- Salt, pepper and honey for flavour
- Fresh (or tried) thyme leaves – completely optional, but they compliment the parsnips really well.
👩🍳PRO TIP Don’t leave on the tray too long after cooking, as the sugars in the honey will make the parsnips stick.
🍽️ What to serve it with
These parsnips are a great side dish for a roast dinner, or to serve with pork chops, beef stew or steak pie, but of course the most traditional way is to serve it with your roast turkey at Christmas.
I love cutting them into long lengths, rather than chunky cubes, as they look so much prettier and they cook faster too.
🍲 More fantastic side dishes
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Honey Roasted Parsnips
Ingredients
- 500 g (17.5 oz) parsnips peeled and chopped into finger-sized pieces* see note 1
- 3 tbsp neutral oil e.g. rapeseed, sunflower or avocado
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp freshly chopped thyme or 1/2 tsp dried thyme
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C/400F (fan).
- Place the chopped parsnips in a large roasting tin.500 g (17.5 oz) parsnips
- Drizzle over the oil and toss together to fully coat.3 tbsp neutral oil
- Spread the parsnips our evenly, in a single layer in the roasting tin, ideally so they're not touching each other (this will give the best crunch).
- Place in the oven and roast for 20-25 minutes, turning once, about halfway through cooking, until lightly golden.
- Sprinkle on the salt and pepper and drizzle over the honey, then toss together and place back in the oven for 8-10 minutes on rich golden brown in colour.1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 2 tbsp honey
- Serve immediately, topped with fresh thyme leaves.1 tbsp freshly chopped thyme
Notes
If you leave them on the roasting tray for too long, they’ll stick, due to the sugar in the honey. Prefer to cook them in the air fryer? Toss the peeled and chopped parsnips with the oil, salt and pepper, then place in the air fryer basket and cooked at 200C/400F for 15-18 minutes, tossing every 5 minutes, until golden.
Drizzle honey on, then toss again and serve immediately (no need to cook with the honey on, as the air fryer may burn the honey). Don’t want the honey? Just leave it off and cook the recipe without. Alternatively, if you did want to have the honey, but didn’t want to cook with the honey, you can drizzle the honey on at the end. The parsnips won’t be quite as caramelised, but will still taste great. Nutritional information is approximate, per serving (this recipe serves 4).
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links – which means if you buy the product I get a small commission (at no extra cost to you). If you do buy, then thank you! That’s what helps us to keep Kitchen Sanctuary running. The nutritional information provided is approximate and can vary depending on several factors. For more information please see our Terms & Conditions.
Could you use maple syrup as I loathe honey. 🥴
Is it possible to prepare these in advance, freeze, then cook from frozen?
Thanks for giving instructions for cooking in the air fryer too, so handy when short on oven space.