As you may know from reading my blog for a while, I’ve been going through my mom’s old recipe file boxes. It’s been fascinating and I’m enjoying rediscovering and veganizing old family favorites. But I’m really loving finding some wonderful treasures, like the Best Corn-Oat Waffles and some other recipes I’ll share in the future! One surprising discovery was a recipe for Parsnip Mock Crab Salad! Really—Parsnips! That recipe, with my updates, comes at the end because first I want to share information about the parsnip, a vegetable I don’t think a lot of people use, but should!

All About Parsnips

I think parsnips are very underappreciated! Now I didn’t grow up eating parsnips (my mom wasn’t a fan), but I do distinctly remember my grandmother making mashed carrots and parsnips once when I was staying with her for spring break and just fell in love with them. Parsnips are sweet, earthy, and have a herbal taste to them. It’s like a carrot, potato, and celery root had a baby! They look like big white overgrown carrots and can be intimidating if you don’t know anything about them. Note, these are NOT white carrots—there really is a white carrot, and it tastes like a carrot—parsnips taste completely different.

Parsnips grow an entire year before harvesting. They are planted in spring and left in the ground throughout the winter where the cold temperatures actually make the parsnip root sweeter. Oddly, the bigger the parsnip, the better, and they can get HUGE. Even though these roots are big, they are still tender, unlike most other vegetables.

Picking the Best Parsnips

Choose larger sized parsnips that are more white; avoid yellowing or brown parsnips. Pick ones with greens still attached, if you can find them, as they will be freshest (greens wilt quickly, so fresh greens indicate fresh picking). Greens should be bright and not wilted or yellowing. If greens have been removed, avoid parsnips with blackened ends or new sprouts growing where the greens were. Some stores coat parsnips in wax—avoid those as they conceal bad spots!

Storing Parsnips

Parsnips are long-storing vegetables. Keep them in the refrigerator for up to 5 weeks in the vegetable crisper, either loose or wrapped in a damp cloth. They store beautifully in a root cellar, if you have one.

Ideas for Using

I love to roast chunks of parsnips with other root vegetables. Just peel them and cut into chunks the same size as the other veggies, like potatoes, beets, carrots, rutabagas, turnips, yams, etc. My favorite way is to roast them with the gravy from Karissa’s Vegan Kitchen recipe for Whole Roasted Cauliflower without the cauliflower (you may recall I use her gravy recipe to make Vegan Campers Stew)! I’ve been known to make up a HUGE pan of this and eat it all week. The parsnips are my favorite bite out of all of it.

I also include parsnips in root veggie hash. Just dice them up the same size as potatoes and roast them on a silicone-covered sheet pan, coated with a little vegetable stock, at 400°F for about 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Or, like my grandma, simmer chunked carrots and parsnips in water or broth until tender. Drain and then mash with a potato masher. Season with salt and pepper. So simple yet so good!

Mock Crab Salad

This was a new one on me! My mom doesn’t even recall where this recipe card came from and it wasn’t marked. It was simply a parsnip salad with mayonnaise, celery, and green olives. But it inspired me to see if parsnips would make a great mock crab. I amped it up with some powdered sea vegetables to give it more of a seafood flavor.

To start, peel 1-2 parsnips, depending up on how big they are. Then grate them on the small grate of your grater. This is important. I tried using the large grate and I tried using a microplane grater, and the small grate is perfect, with the best texture and makes it taste less like a parsnip salad and more like mock crab.

Combine plant-based mayonnaise of choice, some grated onion or granulated onion, powdered anori and dulse sea vegetables (I just pulverize these in my Vitamix or high-speed blender), lemon juice, soy sauce, date paste or maple syrup, and salt. If you want it spicy, like for a spicy crab sushi roll, add a little Sriracha sauce. Mix well and combine with the grated parsnip. Chill at least overnight, but it’s better if it’s chilled a couple days, stirring occasionally, as the sea vegetables infuse their flavor and the grated parsnip softens.

Use any where you would use crab salad. It’s delicious in a sandwich, on an English muffin topped with my Vegan Queso (leave out the adobo sauce so it’s not spicy) like a crab melt, stuffed in cherry tomatoes, and it’s awesome in a California roll or spicy crab sushi roll.

If you’re looking for more whole food, plant-based sushi ideas, check out My Oooh-Nagi (Vegan Unagi) recipe.