Getting your veggies perfectly crispy without burning them can be tricky, but it turns out you only need one ingredient to get the perfect crisp.
Mary Berry has said that the best way to ensure that parsnips have a tasty skin is to coat them with semolina, a pale yellow flour often used to make pasta, pizza or bread.
Mary said in her cookbook “Love to Cook”: “Crispy sweet parsnips – the perfect side dish. The addition of semolina gives them a lovely crispy exterior.
Semolina has a low moisture content and absorbs moisture from the parsnip, so they are crunchy on the outside but remain soft on the inside.
This simple cooking method can be used with other vegetables as well as parsnips, and is perfect to use with roast potatoes to give them a much better texture.
Method
First, peel the parsnips and cut them into five centimeter pieces.
Put the parsnips in boiling water and cook for four minutes. When the time is up, empty the pot and let the parsnips cool.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees (220 degrees fan or gas mark 7).
Add one tablespoon of sunflower oil to the baking dish and put the dish in the oven for five minutes until it is hot.
Meanwhile, add the rest of the sunflower oil to the oil and then add the parsnips, making sure to toss them to coat completely.
Mix the semolina, paprika and thyme in a small bowl, add the mixture to the parsnips and toss them again until the spices are coated.
After five minutes, carefully remove the heated baking dish from the oven and add the parsnips.
Put the tins back in the oven and bake for 20 minutes until they are golden brown and crispy. Remember to turn them halfway through the cooking time.
Your parsnips will be perfectly golden and crispy when they come out of the oven.
