Parsnip

Pastinaca sativa

vegetable · root

An ivory-white, carrot-shaped root, slightly sweet, nutty and spicy, of a European umbellifer; puréed, roasted or in gratins. 100 g provide 5 g of fibre, with fructans and falcarinol.

Origin

Europe and Western Asia

Season (United States)

October to March · grows in your region

Preparation

It is peeled like a carrot, and the core removed if hard and woody; eaten cooked — roasted, mashed, in soups — or raw, grated into salads. Its skin is eaten, and that is where its polyphenols sit: worth keeping, then — but under running water, rubbing it, which is what takes off most of what settles there, organic or not.

Molecules

Fructans (inulin, FOS) · Falcarinol · Insoluble fibers

Did you know?

In the Middle Ages it did not yet have today's sweet taste; dethroned by the carrot and the potato, it only returned to French market stalls in the 1980s.