Every Wednesday since March, a box, full of local, organic vegetables lands on my doorstep. It feels like Christmas every week when I open it up and see what’s inside. I realize that it’s a strange person who gets excited about vegetables, but I do. I really do.
The last few weeks I’ve seen these guys in the box.
The first week one showed up, I’ll admit I had to do a double take. Getting vegetables from a CSA is much different than the grocery store. In the grocery store everything is neatly labeled, helping you navigate all the produce variety. With a CSA, you are on your own to figure out what’s what. (Remember the kohlrabi?)
With the help of my visiting in-laws, I finally realized I was dealing with parsnip. Good grief; how did I not realize that? The first week it was roasted with maple syrup along with some carrots and potatoes. Easy and good.
The second week I decided to go with baked fries. It was a good decision. These cheesy baked fries are addicting. I was generous with the parmesan cheese, and I think you should be, too.
We are talking about a vegetable fry, after all. Parsnips are high in vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, copper, and potassium. Go ahead and coat ’em in cheese. (That might be the pregnant me and not the regular me talking. But even the regular me knows that these are darn good and worth every single bit of cheese.)
Edited to Add: I have since learned that these were, in fact, not parsnips, but daikon radishes. Silly me! I have since made these with parsnips and they are good with both. I’d imagine them to be good with a variety of vegetables.
These are fantastic on their own, but are also delicious when dipped in ketchup or marinara sauce. You really can’t go wrong. Now watch your family devour their vegetables.
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Baked parmesan-crusted parsnip (er-daikon radish) fries
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
A healthier alternative to fries!
Ingredients
- 1.25 pounds parsnips
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1 1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Coat a baking sheet with 1 tablespoon olive oil and set aside. (If you have enough room in your oven for side-by-side sheets, you can do two baking sheets at once. I did mine in batches.)
- Now you can prepare your parsnips. Start by peeling them, removing the ends, and cutting them into equal length pieces.
- Now you want to cut them into a fry shape. The goal is to get them as uniform as possible as this helps with even baking. I cut the pieces in half, then sliced the halves, then cut those pieces in half. Get it?
- Once you have your parsnips cut, you’re ready for the coating. But first, put your oil-coated baking sheet in the preheated oven to heat up the oil for a few minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, beat the egg with the dried thyme and dried mustard. Put your parmesan cheese in a separate bowl.
- Take the baking sheet out of the oven.
- Dip a parsnip fry with the egg mixture and then roll it in the parmesan cheese until it has a nice, thick coat. Place it on the baking sheet and repeat until you have a full pan.
- Bake the fries for 10 minutes, and then take them out and use a spatula to flip them over. Bake an additional 7-10 minutes, until the flip side is just golden brown.
- Repeat this with a second batch, if necessary. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 20
- Category: Side Dish
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 382
- Sugar: 6.8g
- Sodium: 799mg
- Fat: 22g
- Carbohydrates: 25.8g
- Protein: 23g
Keywords: Healthy side dish
I love this recipe! I cut the daikon into 1/4 a 1/2 inch discs. Makes it easier to cut them uniform. I also use this recipe for mushrooms and zucchini.
Mushrooms?! Yum! That sounds fantastic. 🙂
I knew these were not parsnips when I bought them but for some reason I called them parsnips and convinced myself they were parsnips (I love parsnips and know them well, can’t believe I was confused!) Anyway, my husband cut off the tip for me to taste and yes, they are the daikon radish! Anyway, there were DELISH as parmesan coated fries…thanks so much for your confusion and introducing a new veg for my favourite type of fry!
I’m glad you benefited from my mistake! 🙂
Love this recipe!! Thanks!!
You’re welcome!
These are not parsnip
Yes, I know. Please read my edits. 🙂
those are totally daikon radish !
parsnips are skinny at the end of the root and have that inner tap root thang like carrots, they are in the same plant family:) bet they are delicious either way
Those portabellos look AMAZING! YUM!
They are one of my husband’s favorite vegetarian meals. 🙂
Not currently getting a CSA box but used to and always got parsnips. You made better lookin’ parsnips than I’ve ever seen. YUM!
When I first looked at the photo of the parsnips/radishes I thought they were a different looking parsnip, perhaps a different variety than I’ve seen before. I’ll be interested to hear what you find out from the farm.
Regardless, this recipe sounds delicious. Anything coated in parmesan and baked until crispy can’t be bad anyway! Love that first photo!
Those are daikon and not parsnips. 🙂 Either way they looks really good!! I love any kind of veggie fries!
As a previous coach of of your volleyball team it is always interesting to see what you girls are doing. Maryea, I am now working in the Maternal /Infant education program for new mothers at the health department now,,, and I always give them your site to read!!!
Thank you for your your website:) Clara James
Hi there coach! 🙂 Thanks for commenting and thanks for passing on my site to the new mothers you work with. So good to hear from you!
I get *super* excited about vegetables but I have to admit that I have never put one of those in my shopping cart of grew them in my garden. I’m just so unfamiliar with what I would do with one- you made it seem totally less intimidating, tasty actually!
hot dang, these look GOOD, parsnips or daikon!! 😉
oh, and – “I realize that it’s a strange person who gets excited about vegetables, but I do” – okay. so I’m strange too. 😀
Can you believe I’ve never had a parsnip? This recipe looks perfect for me to introduce myself!
I could be completely wrong here (and I probably am!) but those don’t look anything like parsnips to me. They look like daikon radishes (we had an explosion of these in our CSA last year). Thoughts?
I just did a google image search for both parsnips and radishes and they look very similar to me. That would be pretty funny if I thought I was making parsnip fries but actually made radish fries. Funny and embarrassing. :-0
Actually, that would be fantastic if you were wrong, because then I would have a good recipe to use the darn things!
I’m going to have to get in touch with my farm and get to the bottom of this. 🙂
Maybe it’s just a really really big parship… 🙂 Agreed though—It does look like daikon!
Yes, I was totally wrong. Now I need to edit this post. Silly, silly mistake.
It’s ok— we forgive you! I made this tonight with what I had on hand: some random rainbow carrots, parsnips, and sweet potatoes, and it was delish! 🙂 I’m kind of curious to try it now with daikon —you’re silly mistake is a happy accident on my end, so thanks!