Parsnip-quinoa “rösti”

This is more-or-less the recipe from the Whole Wheat with notes and moderately pointless illustrations.  A rösti seems to be a Swiss version of hash browns or latkes. One that combines yummy garden parsnips with incredibly healthy quinoa?  Worth a shot.

I had intended this to be a side for a salad.  I ran late, ate the salad early, and then discovered this won’t work so well aside a salad.  This parsnip-quinoa thingy is strong.  A rich butter with the quinoa leaves a very nutty flavor, and the parsnips roll around it to fill in some gaps sweetly.  I think these would be great with a slightly spicy, gravy-less meatloaf, replacing mashed potatoes or fries.

My other main observation is that the recipe from the Whole Wheat doesn’t call for a binder.  I think it could use half an egg, or a whole egg if you like eggs.  I made four smaller patties, and they barely held together.  An egg might help crisp up the outside and brown more, too.

But the recipe, adapted from the Whole Wheat:

Ingredients

• 1 pound of parsnips, more or less (think mine was a bit less)
• 1 cup of cooked quinoa, still warm (roughly 1/3 a cup uncooked)
• butter, 2 tablespoons in the mixture then enough to cook
• salt & pepper

Procedure

1. Boil the parsnips with the skin on.  Mine were very irregular garden parsnips and cooked well within 13 minutes.  Cool sufficiently to handle, then slide and slip the skins off.  Next time, I’ll try peeling ahead and steaming them.  I think it’ll be easier.
2. Mix two tablespoons of butter with the still-warm quinoa along with salt and pepper to taste.  If the quinoa’s warm, the butter will melt and mix more easily.
3. Grate, chop, and mash the parsnips.  This is easy with a grater disk in a food processor.  It’s even easier if the working grater disk is in the same state as the person cooking.  Whoops.  I squooshed off the soft outer layers and then grated and chopped the inner layers.  One caveat about grating with a food processor: You’ll also grate any wooden cores in the parsnips.  Those don’t taste or feel as good.
4. Combine the quinoa mixture with the parsnip bits.  Knead it through your fingers a few times, and it will clump together pretty well.  If you want multiple smaller patties, separate the mixture into appropriate balls.
5. Heat butter in a saute pan.  I used a good bit of butter because I used a larger pan.  If you make one solid rösti, you might not need much.  Heat the butter over a relatively high heat to bring out the nutty flavor.
6. Add however many patties will fit, and cook over medium-low for 10 minutes or so.  You’re not going to burn it easily, so don’t stress.
7. Now here’s the “fun” part: Flip the rösti.  For smaller patties, gently flip them with a spatula.  For one big patty, remove the pan from the heat, hold something larger and flat against the top of pan, and flip the pan to invert the rösti.  Then gently slide the rösti back into the pan on the heat again, possible after adding more butter for extra browning on the second side.
8. Cook on medium-low until you think it’s done.  Again, you’re not going to burn this easily, so you can let it brown.  Everything here is already cooked.  If you use egg, you’ll definitely want to cook both sides, but 10 minutes per side should be plenty.

And at the end, you get nice yummies that also prove I’m no food stylist.