Roasted Parsnips and Carrots. |
One of my favorite components of a traditional Thanksgiving meal is the cranberry sauce. I also love oranges so I combined the two flavors in my unique cranberry sauce recipe, which I hope you enjoy! (I didn’t have enough fresh oranges so I used some orange juice as well. So that is how I wrote the recipe.)
Ingredients:
2 lbs of Russet Potatoes, peeled and sliced in 1/8 inch pieces
2 large turnips
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 large blog of 2% Swiss cheese (or 2 cups of Gruyere cheese)
1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese
1 cup of Half and Half
1-2 cups of 2% milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel potatoes and turnips. Place in a large pot of water with lemon to prevent browning. Slice all potatoes and turnips into small uniform pieces, measuring about 1/8 inch for each slice. (Using a mandolin would be great for this. But I don’t have one so I cut them by hand.)
Rub a large gratin dish with the butter. In a large skillet, combine milk, salt pepper, nutmeg, potatoes and turnips on medium heat. Simmer until the potatoes and turnips are tender. (Be careful not to use high heat, you don’t want the milk to curdle!)
Add the potatoes and turnips to the gratin dish. Shred in the Swiss cheese and sprinkle with parmesean. Bake for 40 minutes in oven. Broil if necessary to brown the top.
Let this dish sit for about a half hour so it will settle before serving.
Potato and turnip gratin – ready to bake! |
There’s nothing like a roasted seasonal vegetable to compliment any meal, including Thanksgiving. Parsnips, like turnips, are a white root vegetable. They are related to carrots but have a slightly sweeter flavor. There is evidence that the parnsips were commonly used by ancient Greeks and Romans. Parsnips are commonly used today in soups and stews. I adopted this Ina Garten recipe for Roasted Parsnips and Carrots. Ina recommends using smaller sized parsnips because the root core of the larger ones are often too tough.
Ingredients:
2 large or 3-4 small Parnsips
1 bag of carrots, peeled
Olive Oil
1 teaspoon of dill weed
Ground black pepper
Salt
Options: fresh thyme or dill weed for garnish.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel parsnips and carrots. Cut parsnips and carrots in half and slice diagnoally. Place the vegetables on a sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle dill weed, salt and pepper over the vegetables. Toss well so that each vegetable is coated with oil and seasoning. Roast for 20 to 40 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Garnish with fresh dill or thyme sprigs.