Avoid: Discolored parsnips. Parsnips that are darker in spots may have been frozen on the
way to market. Gray spots or soft spots warn of rot inside the root.
Storing This Food
Keep parsnips cold and humid so they won’t dry out. Store them in a root cellar or in the
refrigerator. In storage, parsnips will convert some of their starch to sugar. As a rule of
thumb, the sweeter the parsnip, the longer it has been stored.
Preparing This Food
Scrub the parsnips with a vegetable brush under cool running water or simply peel them—
but not until you are ready to use them. When you peel or slice a parsnip, you tear its cell
walls, releasing polyphenoloxidase, an enzyme that hastens the combination of oxygen with
phenols in the parsnips, turning the vegetable brown. You can slow this reaction (but not
stop it completely) by dipping raw peeled or sliced parsnips into an acid solution (lemon juice
and water, vinegar and water). Polyphenoloxidase also works more slowly in the cold, but
storing peeled parsnips in the refrigerator is much less effective than an acid bath.
You can keep parsnips from darkening in a stew by blanching them before you add them
to the dish. Boil the unpeeled parsnips for about 15 minutes to inactivate the polyphenoloxidase,
then add them to the stew. If you prefer, you can freeze blanched parsnips for future use.
What Happens When You Cook This Food
Heat dissolves the pectic substances in the parsnip’s cell walls, making the vegetable softer.
At the same time, the parsnip’s starch granules absorb water, swell, and eventually rupture,
releasing nutrients inside and making the vegetables easier to digest.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food
Freezing. When parsnips are frozen, liquids inside the vegetable’s cell form ice crystals that
may tear the cells, allowing moisture to escape when you thaw the parsnips. As a result,
when roots like carrots, potatoes, and parsnips are frozen and thawed, their texture is mushy
rather than crisp.
Medical Uses and/or Benefits
Lower risk of some birth defects. As many as two of every 1,000 babies born in the United
States each year may have cleft palate or a neural tube (spinal cord) defect due to their
Parsnips