Parsnips are great roasted, baked and they also make comforting soups. But what to do if your recipe calls for parsnips and you don’t have any in the pantry?
We used to get a vegetable box from a local farmer’s shop, which was a great way to get different types of vegetables each week.
Although I loved our food subscription box, it was sometimes tricky to cook a recipe I planned, as the box might not include all the ingredients. Which is why I ended up experimenting with different vegetables to replace the one that were missing.
There are lots of ways you can replace parsnips and the best replacement depends on what the purpose of parsnip is in the dish.
You’ll need to choose the best replacement based on the texture and the flavour of parships and what you are trying to cook.
Before we get into more details about each parsnip substitute, here is a quick list of what to replace parsnip with:
- carrots – any kind including baby carrots
- salsify root
- turnip
- celeriac – celery root
- sweet potato (or regular potatoes)
- sweed – rutabaga
- butternut squash
- radishes – white radishes
- Kohlrabi – german turnip
What is the easiest substitute for parsnip?
From experience I’d suggest that the easiest and safest (flavour wise) replacement for parsnip in cooking is potato. It’s also the most available type of vegetable and very cheap to buy.
The easiest and again safest (because of the flavour and texture) substitute for parsnip in baking is carrot. This is because a lot of baking recipes were originally developed with carrots in mind and then adapted to use with parsnips.
How to replace parsnip in your recipe
Use the same amount of your replacement vegetables as you would with parsnips.
Can I just leave out parsnip from the recipe?
I always wonder with these vegetable substitutions, why bother! If the parsnip is just a small amount in your recipe, it’s very unlikely that you’ll miss the particular flavour of parsnip in your dish unless you are a trained chef with impeccable taste buds!
If you don’t have any of my parsnip substitutions on my list, please don’t worry. Add a little bit more spice or more of other vegetables that are in the recipe and I’m sure you’ll be fine.
If, however, you ment to be preparing a festive dinner and you meant to be roasting a whole tray of parsnips, then you’ll need to make something else instead. In that case carrots or sweet potatoes would be the best option.
What is parsnip
In case you are not familiar with parsnips, they are white root vegetable which is mainly used in savoury dishes or as a side dish.
Parsnips belong to the same family as carrots, celery, dill, parsley or fennel, which gives you an idea what type of vegetables are suitable for parsnip replacement.
Parsnip is probably more popular in the UK and Europe than in the USA.
In the UK, roasted parsnip is part of Sunday Roasted Dinner and it would be perfect with something like a Lemon Roasted Chicken. You can also find it in the shops as crisps (often with other root vegetables like carrots and beetroots).
Parsnip is also great mashed with potatoes or pureed and made into a hearty vetegable soup.
Similar to potatoes you can make parsnips into chips, crips or even make a homemade flour.
What do parsnips taste like?
When cooked parsnip has a mild sweet taste, which is deepened when roasted. It’s has a savoury taste, but it doesn’t taste salty. Some people are not overly fond of parsnips as they can taste a little bland when cooked just in water.
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1. Carrots – any type, including baby carrots
Carrots are probably the easiest parsnip replacement, not only it’s a budget friendly vegetable, you’ll also find it available in any shop or vetegable stall.
It has much sweeter taste than parsnip, but texture wise, it does behave in exactly the same way. You can even get white carrots which will look like parships, if you are for example making a soup.
Carrots can replace parsnips in baking, especially if you are making a parship loaf cake or parsnip biscuits. These recipe were originally based on carrot recipes, so the carrots will fit right in!
RECIPES WITH CARROTS
2. Salsify Root
Salsify root is probably not something you will readily find in your local shop, but I wanted to list it here if you do come across it.
Salsify root is white (when peeled) like a parsnip and has a similar dense texture. It can be used in exactly same way as parsnip, but I’d recommend that you use it mainly for roasting or soup making.
Whilst it’s not completely unsuitable for sweet baking or cakes, it does have a kind of fishy taste (similar to oysters), which can be a little overpowering in sweet baking – other than that it’s a perfect parsnip replacement for savoury dishes.
3. Turnip
Turnips are firm in texture and white in colour, so they can be used exactly in the same way as parsnips.
The taste is slightly sharper, spicier and closer to radishes. Peel them and use them instead of parsnips in your recipe.
4. Celeriac – celery root
Celery root is quite hard and you need to cook it for much longer than regular parsnip. If you are replacing parsnip with celeriac, I would recommend to pre-cook it and then use it in the recipe (and carry on cooking or baking.
Because celeriac has quite a strong flavour, I wouldn’t use for cake or biscuit baking.
5. Sweet Potato
Sweet potatoes are much softer and sweeter than regular potatoes. They are perfect for roasting, mashing and making sweet potato chips.
They do have a different flavour to parsnips, but you can use them to compliment a recipe that requires sweetness or orange colour.
Sweet potatoes are not going to be that great replacement when it comes to replacing parsnip in baking, as they won’t keep their shape and will go very soft quickly.
They are also naturally gluten-free and although not as starchy as regular potatoes they do contain starch, which can make cakes softer than the original recipe with parsnips.
6. Sweed – Rutabaga
Sweed can be easily swapped for parsnip, because it’s the same firmness and colour. The type of sweed you want to buy is called rutabaga, which is the best type of sweed to substitute for parsnip.
Whilst, you can you substitute rutabaga for parsnip, it can taste a bit bland. Once you’ve cooked the recipe, adjust the flavour by adding more spices or black pepper or salt to your recipe if needed. Check that the rutabaga is thoroughly cooked through before serving or cut the rutabaga into smaller pieces before cooking or baking.
7. Butternut Squash
Butternut squash is a great replacement for parsnip if the recipe is for roasted, pureed or baked parsnip.
You can also use butternut squash instead of parsnip in soups, but it depends on what other ingredients you already have in your recipe.
Butternut squash is similar to pumpkin, but it has a milder taste and it’s not as sweet as a pumpkin. It’s usually available during autumn, winter and early spring.
To replace parsnip in your recipe, use the same amount of butternut squash (peeled).
8. Kohlrabi – German Turnip
Another hard turnip like vegetable, which like radish can be eaten fresh and uncooked. It’s usually white or lightly green and sometimes you can also see darker purple ones too. It taste similar to radishes, but it’s not always as spicy.
I’ve only started to notice kohlrabi in specialist vegetable shops (and certainly not in a regular supermarket).
In Europe, it’s a common root vegetable, which is used for salads, soups, baking, frying or just eating as it is. My grandfather would always grow some for me, because I really like it when I was little.
My grandmother would slice it to a very thin slices and then sautee it with butter and served it as a side dish with roasted chicken.
Parsnip substitute in soup
As rule of thumb, you can replace parsnip with the vegetables below without any problem. The quantity should be the same as the original recipe.
- carrots – any kind including baby carrots
- sweet potato (or regular potatoes)
- sweed – rutabaga
- butternut squash
The parsnip substitutions below are a lot more spicier and because of that I’d either mix them with potatoes or use a lot less of them than the parsnip amount in the recipe.
The will also need a lot longer cooking time, so you might need to cook them separately or plan it into your recipe (and start with these before you add the rest of your soup ingredients).
- salsify root
- turnip
- celeriac – celery root
- radishes – white radishes
- Kohlrabi – german turnip
The type of parsnip substitute in soup will depend on the overall flavour of the soup and also how much parsnip is in the soup recipe.
Let me explain. If you are making Creamy Parsnip & Cheese Soup and the main ingredients is parsnip, the best substitute would be potato. Potato goes well with the cheese and it will give you the same type of consistency. You could mix in a little bit of kohlrabi, celeriac or turnip to spice the soup up a little, but I would keep the proportions of 75% potato and 25% of the other vegetable (it doesn’t have to be that precise).
Like with other parship replacements, think about the recipe you are trying to cook.
If it’s something like Parsnip & Carrot Soup, replacing the parsnips with another lot of carrots won’t give you much flavour (it will be just a carrot soup), so go for something like a turnip or a kohlrabi, which will work great with the carrots instead of the parsnip.
Another example is a Parsnip & Chicken Soup recipe. The best substitute for parsnips in chicken soup would again be part potatoes and part spicey turnip replacement such as celeriac, salsify root or turnip.
This blog post was originally written on 11 July 2021 and last updated on 12 November 2022
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