F.A. Farm

Last night I made some parsnip puree and we had it on a spiffed-up version of macaroni and cheese. It was incredibly filling. First I took some of my frozen leek stems and boiled them for an hour with a handful of sage and a little bit of dried peppers. When I harvest leeks, I cut off each plant where the leaves spread. This leaves a long shaft which I then cut into the white base for eating right now, and a long green stem which I cut into 5-6 inch pieces, put into a bag and freeze for later. When I want to make soupstock, I just pull the frozen leek stems out and boil them with whatever herb I feel like using (in this case it was sage). It is easy to put them through a strainer and mash them a bit with a wooden spoon. Then you have a wonderful, rich vegetable broth.

After the broth was ready, I  boiled about a pound of trimmed, washed, diced parsnips in 1 1/2 cups of the broth for about 20 minutes, until the parsips were soft. I then strained them into a blender, keeping the liquid back. The reason for reserving the liquid is so you can add only as much liquid as you need to make the puree the right consistency. In this case I used all of the liquid. I also put 1/4 cup evaporated milk and 2 tablespoons butter into the blender. The butter is probably overkill with the evaporated milk. You can also use cream or even milk for this recipe. Also salt to taste, but go easy on it, as there is plenty of salt in the butter. The overall yield was 2 cups and I kept 1 cup for the pasta. We made a cheese sauce (go to Joy of Cooking or any other cookbook for this) and poured that over the pasta and added the parsnip puree. It was quite sweet, which always amazes me. After a freeze, parsnips taste like candy. Even my carrots, which I also leave in the ground over the winter are incredibly sweet. And don't get me started on beets!

Personally, I prefer parsnips as a main ingredient in vegetable soup, but the puree over pasta was dynamite! We made a whole pound of penne for supper and two of us can usually polish it off, but the dish was so rich we had to freeze half for later. Now I will have to think of something for the rest of the parsnip puree. Perhaps on toast, with a side dish of potatoes. Oh, by the way, we also had sauteed kale and onions as a side dish for supper with the pasta, and the color contrasts were quite nice. I have some Tuscan kale that is still in good shape after our below freezing temps and it too tastes quite sweet. I like winter vegetables.