I like this recipe because I can prepare it ahead and the pre cooking in the iron skillet gives the parsnip a real roasted and BIG caramelized flavor.

First peal and chop the parsnips. There are 2 ways of doing this.

The first and I think the most traditional way is to quarter them long ways, but it is a bit tricky to get it even.

Another way is to chop them across into 2 or 3 pieces, then for the thin end, don’t chop again, for the middle section – half these, and for the largest end, quarter these – for your average parsnip this will give you 7 pieces that are more or less the size of large fries.

Pre-heat an iron skillet

Put the parsnips in a bowl and add a few tablespoons of olive oil and stir them around with your hands until they are evenly coated.

In a single spaced out layer add them to the iron skillet
Turn as they brown slightly and then put them into a roasting pan.

Once they are all done you can then store them for cooking later or put them straight into a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes – it really depends how much you cooked them in the skillet as to oven time, but its much shorter than roasting them totally in the oven.

Give them a sprinkle of salt before you roast them, as this will bring out their sweetness and flavor.

Options are to add garlic cloves and rosemary to the parsnips while they roast, particularly if your cooking them for Christmas day or thanksgiving.