More parsnips than a girl should have to deal with

Ugh...my fingers stink of parsnip. The kitchen stinks of parsnips. The compost bin is full of parsnip skins.

I needed to dig over the space, so an obscene quantity of parsnips had to come out. About 1/3 of these went straight on the compost heap, as they were too thin to do anything useful with (must sow more thinly this year).

But I couldn't bring myself to throw away the remainder, which I washed off with the hose, topped and tailed and brought to the kitchen to decide what to do with them.



Ugh

Admittedly, they were good specimins - not woody and untroubled by carrot fly. I decided to par-boil the better looking ones briefly and freeze them for quick roast dinners.

Aunt Bessie? Eat my shorts.

The rest I made into Spicy Parsnip soup, which we will take to work this week (all week!). It was lovely. Here is the recipe - although I doubled the quantities:

Spicy Parsnip Soup

6 parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
1tsp garam masala
1tsp dried chilli flakes
butter for frying
1 pint stock
seasoning
1/2 pint milk (or cream)

1.  Sweat the onions and garlic in the butter, garam masala and chilli until golden.
2. Add the parsnips and fry gently to coat in the spicy oil.
3. Add stock, milk and seasoning and simmer for 20 minutes until parsnips are soft.
4. Whizz up with a blender and nom it down. You can add corriander if you are so inclined.