Twice Cooked Roast Potatoes and Parsnips with Rosemary and Garlic

A roast dinner, particularly Sunday lunch or Christmas dinner, wouldn’t be right without roast potatoes and parsnips in my view.  Before you dismiss eating potatoes, they are full of resistant starches which are good for our gut bugs.  The resistant starches increase with heating and cooling.  This method also saves time as you partially cook them in advance and finish off on the day you want to serve them.

Testers and Tasters Feedback

“Husband’s portion all eaten.” 

“Vegetables lovely and crispy and full of flavour.”

“These were so crispy loved them with pecorino and garlic.”

Photo

Judith Cousin, served with individual nut roast in Mains and pea pastry decoration recipe in Baking

Serves    4 with sprouts                                

Plants: 7

Preparation: Step 1: 15-20 minutes    Step 2:  5 minutes

Cooking:  35-60 minutes   

V  NF   DF

Swaps

Flour: use white flour or cornflour

Add: chopped chestnuts or pine nuts 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

Add: Carrots and sprouts for complete roast mixture.

Don’t dismiss sprouts - modern ones are not bitter and roasted they are, in my view, delicious.

125g of sprouts per person

Freezing

Freeze potatoes and parsnips after the first or second stage.

Ingredients

125g of potatoes like Maris Piper, King Edwards per person

125g of parsnips per person

3-4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

1-2 tbsp of semolina or tapioca flour

1 – 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

2-3 Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) or Cold Pressed Sunflower Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Options:

Sprinkle with grated hard cheese like pecorino or parmesan 10 minutes before the end of cooking for extra crispy finish.

Method

Stage One:

1. Prepare the vegetables.  I don’t peel my potatoes but just wash them, but for special occasions and for extra crisp you may want to peel them.  Cut the potatoes into quarters or the size you like your roasts.

2. Peel the parsnips and cut into quarters lengthwise.

3. Prepare the sprouts or other vegetables you are using.

4. Par boil, steam or use another method to cook the parsnips and potatoes until they are half cooked - you want to still have some firmness in them.

5. Leave overnight or longer in the fridge (up to a few days) or freeze the potatoes and parsnips and defrost the day before you want to roast them.

   
   

Stage Two:

1. Heat the oven to 220C, 190C fan, 425F, Gas 7 (or a high heat if you have your oven already on).

2. Put the potatoes and parsnips in a bowl and add the EVOO and coat the vegetables well.

3. Add the flour and salt and rosemary and finely chopped garlic and coat well.

4. Put into a roasting tin ensuring that the vegetables are in a single layer.

5. Roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes

6. If using, stir in the prepared sprouts and roast for a further 20-30 minutes depending how hot your oven is.  Some of the sprouts may go a little dark brown and crispy - I personally like this.  If you don’t you could steam them for 5 minutes first, then add to 15-20 minutes towards the end of cooking.

7. Check everything cooked through.  The potatoes and parsnips should be crispy and golden brown.  The parsnips may begin to caramelise a bit.    

Note:  If using other root vegetables pre-cook them in the same way as the potatoes and parsnips.

Multi Cooker

The potatoes and parsnips work well.  Steam the vegetables, except the sprouts until nearly cooked - about 15 minutes.   When ready to finish off, add the sprouts, sprinkle everything with the flour, EVOO, garlic, rosemary and cheese, if using, and coat well.   Steam Air Fry stirring regularly until everything is browned, crisp and cooked through – about 15 minutes.