Nigella Lawson's 1 Key Ingredient For Perfect Roasted Parsnips

The sweetest accompaniment to your Christmas dinner plate.

If you’re anything like me, parsnips are right up there as one of the best parts of Christmas dinner. Wedged onto a fork with some potato and carrot, can anyone say ménage à root vegetable?

However, while we all know what we like when it comes to our cooking, who better to teach us how to improve it than the queen of Christmas herself, Nigella Lawson?

All you’ll need to make her parsnips recipe is 1kg of parsnips, 125ml of vegetable oil and 80ml of maple syrup.

Nigella Lawson’s perfect parsnips recipe

Nigella’s recipe, which was featured in Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen, takes just 35 minutes to cook. First, preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. While the oven is heating up, peel the parsnips and halve them crosswise, then halve or quarter each piece lengthwise.

Then, place into a roasting tin and pour over the oil, ensuring that it covers all of the parsnip pieces.

Finally, pour over the maple syrup, give them a good mix, and roast for 35 minutes, or until they are tender and golden-brown. Yum.

This should serve around 8 people but if you give yourself a double serving, we won’t judge you.

Additionally, if you’re looking for a little extra crunch, Mary Berry recommends adding a touch of semolina.

How to use up leftover parsnips

If you somehow have parsnips leftover and are looking for a way to use them up on boxing day, may we suggest some spicy roast parsnip soup? As recommended by the experts at Let’s Get, leftover parsnips can be used up in a soup by mixing them with garlic, onion, cumin, mustard, coriander and turmeric in a vegetable stock and then simply blended!

A perfect Boxing Day treat.

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