Parsnip pathia
A delicious way to bring some heat and agni digestive fire into winter root vegetables with this hot and sour curry.
Health benefits
Parsnips are rich in fibre content for digestive and heart health, antioxidants like Vitamin C to support the immune system and combat chronic disease, essential B vitamins for immune, liver and nervous system function, Vitamin K for healthy blood clotting, bone and protein metabolism, and minerals like potassium for heart and blood vessel regulation. Whilst they taste ‘sweet’ they have less than 5g/100g sugars, moderate carbohydrate, virtually zero fat and their fibre rich texture helps us feel full and absorb nutrients at a steady pace – feeling fuller for longer with less calorie and volume consumption.
Combined with cooked tomatoes in this spice filled recipe nutrients, antioxidants and lycopene absorption are easily absorbed, further helping gut, skin, and eye health and cancer risk reduction.
Turmeric, garlic, fenugreek, and lemon have anti-inflammatory and cleansing properties that help to improve our defense against infection and disease. Whilst the warming spices like chilli, ginger, cumin, and chili aid digestive fire and boost internal heat to increase metabolism and absorption of nutrients from our foods
Recipe
- 2-3 med-large parsnips, peeled and cubed (ish) – remove any woody stem that may not soften with cooking
- 1 onion sliced or chunks according to your preference (I like to keep a little crunch in onion chunks in this curry)
- 2 small lemons cut into 8ths with seeds removed
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 2 garlic cloves or one large elephant garlic clove chopped/crushed
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 1-2 fresh red chillies sliced (remove seeds if you prefer less heat)
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 – 1 tsp ground chilli (again pick your heat – I use a hot chilli, whereas Kashmiri chilli powder gives a beautiful deep red color and milder, slightly smoky flavor)
- 2 tsp garam masala
- ground sea / himalayan salt to your taste
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 can crushed tomatoes / equivalent in fresh tomatoes chopped
- up to 1 tbsp brown sugar (I forgot to add last time I made this and it was still delicious)
Method
- Dry fry seeds until fragrant
- Add a little neutral oil, ghee, or water to saute onion until slightly soft
- Add garlic, ginger, chillies and ground spices
- Add parsnip and coat with spices (add water if required)
- Add tomato puree, crushed tomatoes and lemon 8ths
- Simmer until the parsnip is cooked to your liking
- Optional – add sugar to create a good hot sour balance
Serve
- Garnish with fresh coriander as an option
- Serve with uttapam, roti, or brown basmati rice
- Warn diners that there are lemon 8ths in the dish – I eat them but you may prefer to leave them to the side as you devour
- There is no need to relish with this dish as all 6 Ayurvedic flavours are well an truly present
