Recipes › Parsnip › Honey and Thyme Glazed Parsnips with Hazelnuts
Honey and Thyme Glazed Parsnips with Hazelnuts
These are the parsnips that disappear fastest off the Sunday roast tray, and frankly they deserve their own moment. Parboiling first guarantees a fluffy interior; the honey and thyme glaze caramelises beautifully in a hot oven, and the toasted hazelnuts give exactly the right kind of crunch against the soft root. Straightforward enough for a Tuesday, good enough for Christmas Day.
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Ingredients
- 1000 g parsnips, peeled, halved lengthways, large ones quartered lengthways
- 3 tbsp runny honeyor use maple syrup to make vegan
- 30 g unsalted butter, meltedor use 2 tbsp olive oil
- 6 fresh thyme, sprigsor use 1 tsp dried thyme
- 50 g blanched hazelnuts, roughly choppedor use walnuts
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt
- ½ tsp black pepper, freshly ground
Contains: milk, nuts.
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200°C fan. Bring a large pan of well-salted water to the boil. Add the parsnips and parboil for 5 minutes — they should be just starting to yield at the edges but still firm in the centre. Drain thoroughly and leave to steam-dry in the colander for 3 minutes.About 10 min
- Mix the melted butter and honey together in a large roasting tin. Add the drained parsnips and toss to coat them all over. Arrange them cut-side down in a single layer — don't crowd them or they'll steam rather than roast. Tuck the thyme sprigs among the parsnips and season with salt and pepper.About 3 min
- Roast for 20 minutes until the undersides are deeply golden. Turn each parsnip using tongs, then scatter the chopped hazelnuts over the top.About 20 min
- Return the tray to the oven for a further 8 minutes until the parsnips are caramelised all over and the hazelnuts are toasted and fragrant. Watch the last few minutes — the honey can take the nuts from toasted to burnt quickly.About 8 min
- Transfer to a warm serving dish, discarding the thyme sprigs if you prefer. Scrape any sticky glaze from the bottom of the tray and drizzle it over the parsnips. Serve immediately.
Tips
- The steam-drying step after parboiling really matters — wet parsnips going into a roasting tin will stew rather than caramelise. Give them a full 3 minutes in the colander.
- If your parsnips are very wide at the top, quarter them lengthways so they're roughly even-sized. Uniformity means everything cooks at the same rate.
- These can be parboiled up to a day ahead. Store drained, cooled parsnips in the fridge overnight and roast from cold — just add 5 minutes to the first roasting stage.
Ring the changes
- Swap the honey for maple syrup and the butter for olive oil to make this vegan — it works just as well.
- Use rosemary instead of thyme and add a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard to the glaze for a more savoury, punchier version.
Keeping it
Best eaten immediately. Leftovers can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days and reheated in a hot oven (200°C fan) for 8 minutes, but they won't be as crisp.
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