Is This Vegetable THAT Uncommon?

[Kellykins1218]

Definitely parsnips

 

[Meriweather]

parsnip for sure......I don't get them often, but they are in all the grocery stores.

 

[lynxstch]

I knew it was a parsnip immediately, but it's not something I've ever eaten or cooked with

 

[North of Mouse]

I've been eating these since my mother fed them to me as a kid. I buy them five or six times a year, usually for a stew, but sometimes to roast with potatoes and carrots. More often than not, it seems the supermarket cashiers, either young kids or even older adults, have no idea what they are and they have to ask me or another cashier.

I already stumped a cashier for 2016 earlier tonight. Nowadays I'm disappointed when they CAN identify them.

Here's a nice corkscrew one I bought last year.

Well, looks like parsnips to me, have eaten them occasionally, but truthfully prefer carrots to them, even though they are more like turnips or rutabagas, which I also don't eat very often.

 

[kamik86]

I would not be surprised that the cashiers didn't know what they are. I was asked recently if the onion I was buying was a yellow onion. I'm sorry I thought that one was pretty obvious since the peel is well... yellow.

I don't think I have ever eaten a parsnip. If I have it was in a dish at a resteraunt or something, I have definitely never cooked with one.

 

[Kitty 34]

That's a parsnip......DH eats them all the time.

 

[NewRVLady]

It's a parsnip. I love them. I put them in soups and stews all the time.

I am always kind of sad when people cannot identify fruits and vegetables, or when people don't know where their food comes from. I really believe that food/nutrition/agriculture/basic culinary skills should be a core part of schooling.

BTW-I know lots of obscure veggies....never saw a parsnip in any store
BUT I live in the Deep South and I am guessing this is maybe a Northern Veggie?
I grow turnips.....we have this AMAZING one Tokyo Cross that is super sweet-yum!

WE also don't see rhubarb ....I see recipes for it-but not here

Oh....I just thought of a veggie many might not know....grown in the south......

 

[NewRVLady]

This is a popular veggie in Louisiana-never see in stores...just at Farmers markets......any guesses??

 

[tzolkin]

My mother used to regularly inflict boiled ( wayyy overcooked) parsnips on us when I was a child. Mostly because like other root vegetables, they kept for long periods in the cellar in the winter. As an adult I avoided them for years, until I tasted them roasted, with other vegetables. They're so much better that way.

I think most vegetables are best roasted.

There were a lot of things DH thought that he didn't like, but it's just that his family overcooked everything.


And, just for the record... there are white carrots, but they are not the same as parsnips.

 

[ronandannette]

I would not be surprised that the cashiers didn't know what they are. I was asked recently if the onion I was buying was a yellow onion. I'm sorry I thought that one was pretty obvious since the peel is well... yellow.

I don't think I have ever eaten a parsnip. If I have it was in a dish at a resteraunt or something, I have definitely never cooked with one.

Sweet onions have yellow skin too and are often priced differently than "regular" ones.

This is a popular veggieView attachment 143805 in Louisiana-never see in stores...just at Farmers markets......any guesses??

I'm taking a wild guess that it might be a pawpaw, but even if I'm right I have no idea what you do with it or what it tastes like.

ETA: Nope...just googled pawpaw - that's not it.

 

[Micca]

My first guess was turnip, but I have eaten parsnips. I had a recipe a year or two ago that called for parsnips, might have been a stew. Do some people cook them and mash them up--sorta like a substitute for mashed potatoes? Roasted parsnips sounds like a winner to me. Most veggies take on a much better flavor when roasted.

 

[leebee]

Chayote squash... although I have no idea what to do with it or what it tastes like.
Kohlrabi- recognized this one, too, but have no idea how to cook it or what it's like.
Parsnips? Grew up with them and love them. Mom would parboil them, then finish them off in a frying pan with butter. Yum, yum. I usually roast them, and love them that way, too.

Anyone want to tell me what chayote or kohlrabi taste like, how to cook them, what to serve them with?

Turnip vs. rutabaga: I grew up eating "turnip" and love it. Only as an adult did I learn that what my family calls turnip is really a rutabaga. I am not sure I've ever had REAL turnip!!

 

[MataHari22]

This is a popular veggieView attachment 143805 in Louisiana-never see in stores...just at Farmers markets......any guesses??

Chayote. My mother lives in Louisiana.

I'm not sure if parsnips is mostly a northern thing.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

My mom used to put parsnips in her homemade chicken noodle soup. Yum!!!!

I recognized it right away because of that. But I'm not sure my kids would know what it is, though.

 

[RedAngie]

I grew up eating parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, etc. Mostly cut up in stews or soups. Also mashed. Grandmother and mother knew just the right point to stop boiling them so they didn't become mushy. Then they would mash them, while still leaving it a bit chunky. Mmmmm. The best combo was mashed carrots and parsnips.

I didn't know about roasting such veggies until I was an adult. Now I roast those root vegetables three or four times every winter, and still use them in soups and stews. But I gave up on mashing them. DDs and exH looked aghast the first time I served them mashed, and said "I'm not eating THAT."

Didn't know what kohlrabi was until maybe 20 years ago, and I never tried it.

I think NewRVLady's photo is a chayote squash. I've seen them around occasionally, but never tried one.

Recently I started noticing this in one market. Romanesco, or broccoliflower. I suppose it's a hybrid between broccoli and cauliflower, and I like the fractal shapes it forms.


Every Christmas season I see this in the same market. Have no idea what to do with it. Cardone.

 

[LetsTalkWDW]

Turnip on left, Parsnip on right

 

[RedAngie]

I would not be surprised that the cashiers didn't know what they are. I was asked recently if the onion I was buying was a yellow onion. I'm sorry I thought that one was pretty obvious since the peel is well... yellow.

.

Sweet onions are often more expensive than standard yellow onions. Occasionally I notice on the receipt that the cashier charged me for cheaper yellow onions. Some places call them Vidalia onions year round, but I'm pretty sure that's a propriety name for onions grown in a certain part of Georgia for just a short period each year.

The market I frequent most often puts stickers from an old-fashioned pricing gun on the parsnips and other less common produce items, so I never stumped a cashier on them. They also put stickers on all the 15+ varieties of apples in the fall. Can't expect the cashiers to distinguish among them.

I DID stump a cashier with a zucchini once. I think she knew what it was, just didn't know the code, and couldn't find it. I suggested "green squash" but no luck. Finally she asked me if I knew the price. I THINK it was $1.29 per pound, so she just weighed it and hit the MISC PRODUCE key. (I really should have messed with her mind and told her it was a "courgette." )

Many years ago, I asked for cole slaw at the supermarket deli. The young kid was confused and asked me to point it out for him. I think you need to be 18+ to operate the deli slicer. In his 18+ years he never heard of cole slaw????

 

[Kogo Shuko]

I have a wonderful recipe for mashed turnips with a breadcrumb topping that's super sweet......... It's my special dish I bring to a Robbie Burns party each year!



But I have never ever ever liked parsnips. My mother would sometimes put them in the stew alongside the carrots, and she tried to convince me it was just a white carrot, but I knew better. I found them much more bitter.

So by that logic, any child that I help raise is probably never ever going to see a parsnip, at which point they won't know what they are! lol

 

[NewRVLady]

Chayote. My mother lives in Louisiana.

I'm not sure if parsnips is mostly a northern thing.

We call it Mirliton....also called Vegetable pear...I can't stand it- just mushy and bland

 

[tnkr_bell]

Just curious, can anybody describe what parsnips taste like? Never had one, need to try new things.