Parsnips Cheese Gratin

I have decided to start this cooking journey with an ingredient I have never purchased, cooked with, even eaten: parsnips. When I went shopping for this recipe I honestly wasn't even sure what they looked like. Thankfully they were far less intimidating than I thought, they were essentially white carrots. The flavour was similar to a carrot, slightly sweet but also had hints of what seemed like potato.

I think the most difficult part of this recipe was the knife work. It called for the parsnips to be cut into batons which I have never tried before. Cutting a round vegetable into small rectangular batons was tricky. It seems like it has the potential for a lot of food waste but I think a lot of the scraps could be saved for vegetable broth.

This recipe also taught me was "Au Gratin" means. I always assumed it was the creamy part of scalloped potatoes but it is actually the crust part that is typically made of bread crumbs and butter.

Now I guess this wouldn't be quite the learning experience without making some mistakes. As I was pouring my cream mixture over my parsnips, I realized I had the wrong type of cream which made my dish less creamy, the liquid was fairly thin when I went to serve. I am also only now realizing as I am writing this with the cookbook beside me that I absolutely forgot the butter of the au gratin topping.

Regardless of the little slip ups the dish was pretty good. It is quite heavy and rich, perfect for winter. It's a really cool alternative to something like scalloped potatoes since the parsnips have more flavour than potato. I think for my first new recipe it was a great experience, it was something I have never cooked before but would likely try again in the future. I think learning cooking vocabulary and proper cooking techniques might be more difficult than I anticipated but a challenge I certainly looking froward to!

I'll leave you with this.

Why do beets always win?

They are unbeetable!

Make sure to check out the BTS of this dish!