Gluten Free Menu Swap - Parsnips

I'm hosting the Gluten Free Menu Swap this week and I chose Parsnips as my ingredient.

We love parsnips here, often referred to in our house as 'snips though I have found they are one of those veg you either love or hate. They are one of those vegs that really symbolise winter food for us and one that we await with anticipation. Parsnips are a bit like a carrot but much bigger and a creamy white colour. They are quite sweet and roast wonderfully. We always have them when we have a roast dinner along with roast potatoes. Parsnips are a good source of vitamins and very versatile, our favourites apart from roast include Curried Parsnip soup and parsnip crisps.. They also make a great mash and we sometimes mix them with carrot for a mix veg mash. Adding them to a stew or soup gives it a lovely mellow sweetness.

They take a long time to grow and they benefit form frost before they are harvested as that makes them sweeter. The seed goes off very quickly so they are one of the few vegs it is very sensible to get new seed for each year. This year I hope to have more luck growing them than last time when none came up and I plan to try a couple of different sowing dates to see what if any difference that makes .

You can find some more recipes here at Vegbox-recipes..

I did a dinner party for Tom's birthday and totally forgot to take pictures.. far too busy cooking  but the menu was as follows.

Starters - Balsamic roasted red peppers, and spiced roast corgettes, cream cheese stuffed battered mushrooms.

Soup - French Onion or Roast Butternut.

Main - Pork and apple Terrine or Beetroot Gnocchi  served with a choice of roast potatoes, pue lentils, Waldron salad, green salad and a choice of chutneys and pickles.

Desert - banana curd crème brulee, maroons, cupcakes and a chocolate heart cake (the last two were gluten as they were supplied by others)

Menu of the week.

Monday - liver and onions or sausage meat patties with potato and parsnip wedges, leeks in cream sauce and carrots. (only some of us will eat liver)

Tuesday - Veg Pakoras - leek and/or cabbage, chickpea curry of some sort.

Wednesday - Curried Parsnip soup and cheese scones

Thursday - Stew and dumplings.

Friday - Tomato and Egg

Baking and Batch cooking. -we need some biscuits and similar, possibly some bread.

Other menus

Manda of Asparagus Thin has been updating her blog look and very nice it is too. She loves parsnips too and had the great suggestion of parsnip muffins.. that is so on my list of things to try now!

Over at Gluten Free is Life parsnips will be something new if they try them. Hope they do as I think they are fantastic, apparently she is thinking of adding them to her fairly long list of vegetable fries she has tried. I can confirm they make the most wonderful chips (fries) and crisps (chips). Here we can get bags of parsnip crisps or parsnip, beetroot and carrot mixes. Only think to remember don't have the fat to hot because of the natural sugars in them they brown very fast.

Angela over at Angela's Kitchen has a birthday girl in the family this week and has made the most fantastic cupcakes for her.. those would be appreciated by pretty much all our family young or old !! The Princess Bride is a must see and one of our all time favourites.. fantastic fairytale for the kids, so many layers, double meanings and just brilliant sayings for the more adult among us! I quite fancy the sound of Halibut in Green Tea Broth too!!