Washing and Cutting Your Parsnips
Put your parsnips in a bowl of cold water for 1 hour. Once you've bought your parsnips or pulled them out of the ground, fully submerge them in a bowl of cold water. By doing this, you keep the green tops of the parsnip in a healthy state. You also remove some of the dirt from the vegetable itself. If you don't have a bowl large enough, use a large pot or pan.
Wash your parsnips under cold water. It doesn't matter if you bought your parsnips at the supermarket or grew them in your own garden, you have to wash them. Run the parsnips under some cold water and use your fingers to scrub the dirt away from the surface of the parsnips. You probably won't be able to get rid of all the dirt by doing this. Even if you do, your parsnips are not fully clean, so don't skip ahead in the process.
Scrub the parsnips with a small nail brush. Use a brand-new nail brush to gently scrub the roots of the parsnips to remove any leftover dirt or other debris. Don't worry if you start scratching the surface of the parsnips. Once the parsnips don't start peeling from the friction, you can keep scrubbing with the same amount of pressure. Don't use a nail brush that you've used on your nails before. Keep the nail brush for scrubbing your parsnips in future.
Peel large parsnips with a peeler or a sharp knife. Generally, you won't need to peel young or small parsnips. Use a peeler to thinly peel the parsnips. You don't need to take big chunks out of the root. Small, thin strips down the root of the parsnip will do. If the core of the parsnip feels very fibrous, use your knife to slice it off.
Dice the parsnips into 1 in (2.5 cm) cubes. You don't need to be exact with this measurement but try to get as close as possible to it. You can buy a vegetable dicer at your local supermarket or cooking store. With this device, you place your parsnip on a grid with 1 inch (2.5 cm) squares and push down on the lid to dice the parsnip. If you don't have a vegetable dicer, use a sharp knife. You don't have to cut exactly 1 in (2.5 cm) cubes with the knife. Just try to cut them close to this size. You can cut your cubes bigger or smaller than this. However, 1 in (2.5 cm) is the best size for freezing parsnips.
Blanching and Freezing the Parsnips
Boil a pot of water to blanch your parsnips. Fill a pot of water and turn on the burner on your stove. When the water starts to bubble, add your parsnip cubes to the water. Parsnip cubes of 1 inch (2.5 cm) in size need around 2 minutes in the boiling water to blanch. Blanching is a very necessary process before you freeze any vegetable. It stops the parsnips from losing their flavor, color, and texture when you place them in the freezer.
Remove the cubes from the pot and put them in a bowl of ice water for 5 mins. Get a large bowl, fill it with some cold water, and add a few ice cubes to the bowl. Use a ladle to scoop the parsnip cubes out of the pot of boiling water when the 2 minutes of blanching are complete. Transfer the cubes of parsnip to the bowl as soon as you can after removing them from the boiling water. Your parsnips will have just been starting to cook in the pot of water. By putting them in the bowl of ice water, you bring the cooking process to a halt.
Lay out a towel and place the parsnips on it to let them dry. After 5 minutes or so in the bowl of ice water, remove the parsnip cubes and put them on a towel. Use the towel to pat the cubes to get them to dry.
Put the cubes in a freezer-ready or vacuum-packed plastic bag. Place your cubes in the bags and seal them when you're finished. Put the bags in your freezer as soon as you can. Put a label on the bag with the date on it. This will let you know how long the parsnips have been in the fridge when you check them. If you used a freezer-ready plastic bag, you can leave your parsnips in the freezer for 9 months. If you used a vacuum-packed bag, leave your parsnips in the freezer for up to 14 months. If you don't want the parsnips to freeze together in the freezer, tray freeze them first. Place them apart from each other on a tray in the freezer. Then when they've frozen, place them into the vacuum-packed bags. Freezing parsnips could cause a slight change in texture and taste. The longer you leave them in the freezer, the more the texture and taste will change.
Thaw the parsnips when you want to use them. Take the parsnips out of the freezer bag and place them on a plate when you want to use them. You can leave them out at room temperature to defrost or you can put them in the fridge. If you thaw them at room temperature, place a paper towel under the parsnips to collect all the moisture from the thawing process. For fridge thawing, put the plate in the fridge and let the parsnips thaw overnight.
Comments
0 comment