Parsnip Puree - Sweet Mashed Potatoes?

Parsnips have been a pretty standard item in Grow Alabama's boxes for the past few months, and lately I've been experimenting with them. I only had my first parsnip last year, when I ventured out to Whole Foods to find some that my father and I could cook with a corned beef brisket. Since I have a tiny little crush on Gordon Ramsay, I kept thinking of how he's served parsnip puree instead of mashed potatoes on a few occasions on Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen.

Parsnips are nowhere near as starchy as potatoes, but when they've been cooked, the puree does have the same look and feel. The flavor, however, is divine.

On Wednesday, I cored some parsnips (the centers are much more stiff and have a stringy texture, so I removed them). I tossed them in some melted butter and olive oil, and baked them at 350 for about 45 minutes. In retrospect, it would've been better if I'd roasted them at 300 for a full hour, and I intend to do that next time.

After roasting them, I put them into my food processor with a coffee cup's worth of water, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and pureed them. I then transferred them into a small baking dish and topped it off with a sprinkle of brown sugar, and warmed it in the oven for a bit longer since I found the texture was still slightly grainy.

The results? Very tasty. However, in the future I will probably put them into a pot and puree them with cream instead of water, or I might even cook them down on the stovetop instead of roasting. Either way, parsnip puree has definitely found its way into my springtime repertoire.