Mustard and Honey Roasted Parsnips

Name: Mustard and Honey Roasted Parsnips
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 6 parsnips (cut in to strips); 2 tbsp olive oil; 1 pinch sea salt and black pepper; 2 tbsp honey; 1 tbsp Dijon mustard

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Roasted vegetables are the best way to eat them and when it comes to parsnips, it totally changes the texture and makes them nice and crispy. For these Honey Roasted Parsnips, we have added a little drizzle of honey and a spoonful of mustard and you have a delicious side dish that will be the star of any roast dinner - and it's super easy too.

Mustard and Honey Roasted Parsnips on a plate next to a blue and white striped towel

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Why should you try it?
What you will need
Step by step
How to cut parsnips
What mustard to use for mustard and honey roasted parsnips
What can you use instead of honey?
Can you add herbs?
What other vegetables can you use?
What to do with leftover roast parsnips
Roast dinner essentials
FAQs
Extra tips
More side dishes
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Why should you try it?

A delicious way to eat parsnips
Just 4 ingredients
An easy side dish
The perfect addition to any roast dinner

What you will need

Parsnips - you can use this recipe for carrots too, or use a mixture of them both.
Olive oil - use the best quality cooking olive oil you can afford. Vegetable oil will work fine too.
Honey - you could use maple syrup to keep it vegan.
Dijon mustard - whole grain mustard would work too.

Parsnips, oil, honey, mustard and salt and pepper on a brown surface

Step by step

One: Peel the parsnips and cut into batons. Place the cut parsnips in to a pan of boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes.

Two: Drain and add to a baking dish or roasting tin with the oil, honey and mustard. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.

A white baking dish with parboiled parsnips

Three: Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C/400°F/Gas 6 for 20-25 minutes, until crispy on the outside and soft inside.

Mustard and Honey Roasted Parsnips on a blue plate

How to cut parsnips

If you want the perfect roast parsnips, then you need to make sure that they are cut correctly. It's not like there is a secret way to do it or anything, but you need to make sure that they are all the same size so that they cook evenly. The worst thing is when you have some with really burnt edges, and others that aren't even cooked all the way through.

Firstly, when you are picking your parsnips in the shop, choose all ones that are the same size. Then, when it comes to cutting them you want to cut them in half width-ways and then cut the top (larger) half in to four length-ways and the bottom half in to two length-ways, so you end up with 6 pieces for each parsnip. This should give you all fairly even parsnips.

What mustard to use for mustard and honey roasted parsnips

Honey and mustard are a delicious flavour match. The combination of the sweet from the honey and the spicy from the mustard just works in a sauce or dressing.

We used dijon mustard to make this, as it makes the sauce nice and creamy. But, you could use English mustard to give it even more of a kick or wholegrain mustard so it have some texture to it. It just depends on how spicy you like things.

What can you use instead of honey?

Honey not only makes these roasted parsnips nice and crispy, but it really brings out the sweetness of them. You want to use a really good quality runny honey, so it has the best flavour.

If you want to keep these roasted parsnips vegan, then swap the honey for maple syrup. They might not get quite as crispy though.

Can you add herbs?

We added a sprinkling of fresh parsley before serving, as it really lightens them up, however there is no reason why you can't add some herbs to the mix before putting them in the oven. Woody herbs like rosemary and thyme work well with honey roasted parsnips.

Mustard and Honey Roasted Parsnips with chopped parsley on top

What other vegetables can you use?

You could use this recipe as a base to roast lots of different vegetables. Add some carrot, potato and beets too and roast them all together in the sweet honey sauce. It would make a really filling side dish that is easy to make a big batch to feed a crowd. They are perfect for Christmas Dinner.

What to do with leftover roast parsnips

If you end up with leftovers of these, which is never a problem in our house as they are the first thing on the plate to be eaten, then they are easy to store, or re-purpose.

You can keep them in the fridge in an air tight container for 2 days and then just fry up in a pan to heat through. However, we prefer to re-purpose them and use them in a different meal. You could mash them up to use in our Broccoli Bites or why not make our Christmas Leftovers Pasta Bake.

Mustard and Honey Roasted Parsnips on a blue patterned plate

Roast dinner essentials

These roasted parsnips are definitely a roast dinner essential. But, parsnips by themselves don't make a roast dinner. Why not serve them with some of these recipes:

FAQs

What do parsnips taste like?

Similar to carrots, parsnips have a little bit of sweetness to them, but they have a more earthy, nutty flavour. We aren't a massive fan of plain boiled parsnips or even parsnip mash (unless it is mixed with other mashed veg too), but we love them roasted.
When you add the mixture of honey and mustard, it totally transforms them and makes them really sweet.

Do you have to par-boil parsnips?

We like to par-boil ours first, as it makes them a bit fluffy first so you can bash the sides making them get nice and crispy when roasted. Boiling them a little first also means they take less time in the oven - which is good if you are making a big roast dinner and limited on space. Add on some cooking time if you aren't par-boiling them.

Extra tips

We used Dijon mustard to make this, but you could use English mustard to give it even more of a kick or wholegrain mustard so it has some texture to it.
You could keep this side dish vegan by using maple syrup instead.
You could use a mixture of vegetables rather than just parsnips. Try a mix of parsnips, carrot, potato and beets to make honey roasted vegetables.
Make sure that the parsnips have plenty of space in the baking tray. If they are too close together, they will steam rather than bake and won't get crispy.

More side dishes

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