Gordon Ramsay's honey-glazed carrots and parsnips recipe

Gordon Ramsay’s honey-glazed carrots and parsnips recipe combine two humble root vegetables, simply cooked. The addition of a few choice spices elevates the dish to something really special.

Golden parsnips and bright carrots tossed with aromatic spices and sweet honey for a moreish side dish. Fantastic alongside festive roasts like turkey, beef, or ham, the delicate flavours also complement alternative centrepieces like a side of salmon or vegetarian nut roasts. You can even swap out the honey for maple syrup for a vegan-friendly version. Rather than roasting on a baking tray, this dish is cooked entirely on the hob. It's ideal if you’re short on oven space. It’s also much quicker than roasting - you can have it on the table in only half an hour.

Ingredients

• 500g parsnips
• 500g carrots
• 2–3 tbsp olive oil
• Few thyme sprigs
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in two
• 3 star anise
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1–2 tbsp clear honey
• Splash of water
• Few knobs of butter

Method

1. Peel and halve or quarter the parsnips and carrots so that the pieces are of a similar size.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, then add the carrots and parsnips and toss to coat in the oil. Add the thyme, cinnamon, star anise and some seasoning.
3. Cook over a medium heat for 15–20 minutes, turning the vegetables frequently, until golden brown and almost cooked through.
4. Drizzle over the honey and cook until the vegetables start to caramelise. Deglaze the pan with the water and increase the heat. Cook for 2–3 minutes, until the liquid has evaporated and the carrots and parsnips are cooked through.
5. Stir through a few knobs of butter to glaze.

Top tips for making Gordon Ramsay's honey-glazed carrots and parsnips

If you don’t have fresh thyme sprigs you can substitute them with rosemary, or use half a teaspoon of dried thyme. Star anise is a very popular spice in Chinese cooking, though it’s often overlooked in Western food. It adds a peppery liquorice-like taste to savoury dishes, a bit like fennel seeds. The pods remain very hard and woody even during cooking so they can’t be eaten. It’s nice to keep them in the serving dish as they look attractive but make sure guests know not to try and eat them.

Should you peel carrots and parsnips before cooking?

With young, fresh parsnips and carrots, there is no need to peel them before cooking. Simple give them a good scrub with a hard bristle vegetable brush to clean off any dirt. Rougher skin will be removed at the same time by the brush anyway. Older, larger parsnips can have quite leathery skin, so you can peel these ones if you prefer. 

Do you remove the core of parsnips before cooking?

Further into the season, after the first frosts, parsnips become larger and sweeter. At the same time, the cores can become a little tougher. There is no need to remove the core of parsnips, unless it has become fibrous. Even then, it's not harmful to eat, you just might find it a little chewy. 

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