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Butter-roast parsnips with hazelnuts and sage

By: Tom Shingler
Head of food, delicious.

Published: 28 Oct 24
Updated: 28 Oct 24

Butter-roast parsnips with hazelnuts and sage

Parsnips deserve better than to be cut into little pieces, roasted until dried out and burnt in places and left looking sad on the table. Treat them right and they’ll give the roast potatoes a run for their money. Crisp sage leaves complement the texture and flavour of these sweet root veg, while a scattering of toasted hazelnuts provides crunch.

Serve alongside our ultimate roast turkey.

Easy
November 2024

Test kitchen approved

Serves 8-10
Hands-on time 15 min. Oven time 30 min, simmering time 10-15 min

Serve alongside our ultimate roast turkey.

Nutrition: Per serving (for 10)

Calories: 162kcals
Fat: 9.7g (3.1g saturated)
Protein: 2.6g
Carbohydrates: 14g (7.4g sugars)
Fibre: 5g
Salt: 0.2g

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Before you start

Try to buy parsnips that don’t taper off to a thin point at the end, as they’ll shrivel and burn long before the thicker end finishes cooking. It also means you can keep them in long halves rather than chopping them up to get an even thickness – which looks more appealing at the table.

You can boil the parsnips up to 2 days in advance and leave in the fridge until ready to finish. Just give them a few minutes longer on the hob in step 3 so they warm through before going in the oven. Pre-boiling cooks the parsnips through and means less time in the oven, preventing wrinkled, leathery, burnt bits. It also means you can leave them unpeeled, which helps lock in the moisture and gives them a delightfully fudgy texture.

Before you start

Ingredients

1kg parsnips, scrubbed clean (no need to peel)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
50g unsalted butter
10 sage leaves
50g blanched hazelnuts, roughly chopped
1 tbsp runny honey

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Method

Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the parsnips to the water and cook for 10-15 minutes or until a knife easily slips through the thicker end. Drain and set aside. Once cool enough to handle, top, tail and halve lengthways.
Add the oil and butter to a flameproof roasting dish or oven-safe frying pan over a medium heat. Once foaming, add the sage leaves and fry for 1-2 minutes until shiny and translucent. Lift them out of the butter using tongs or a fork and leave on kitchen paper to drain.
Add the boiled parsnips, cut-side down, to the same dish/ pan and turn the heat up to high. Fry for a few minutes, turning so they’re fully coated in the butter mix. Transfer the dish/pan to the oven and roast for 20 minutes.

Scatter over the chopped hazelnuts, give everything a good shake, then roast for a further 10 minutes.
Drizzle over the honey, give everything a final stir, then transfer to a serving platter. Sprinkle with salt and garnish with the crispy sage leaves.