Conscious Food Choices

Creamy Parsnip “Fettucine” with Marinated Mushrooms (Raw)

This is blow your mind delicious alternative-to-pasta dish. Its easy to make but you have to get into the “Zen of Parsnip Peeling”…or have a couple of kitchen helpers around – it’s fun to do with friends!

Parsnip Pasta (Serves 4)

I love parsnips! They seem to be a very under-rated vegetable since no one seems to know much about them. They are wonderfully sweet and have a mellow wintery satisfying flavor and if you peel them into Fettuccine-like noodles with a simple vegetable peeler, they develop a delicious silky mouthfeel that is completely satisfying with a rich creamy nut sauce.

Texture Trick: the trick to the vegetable pastas is in how you cut it. You much slice or peel with the grain of the parsnip (or zucchini, or goldbar squash). DO NOT use one of those cool spiral slicer gizmos to make a vegetable pasta. Cool as it may look,  those slicers will cut through your vegetables against the grain, resulting in a rough and mealy mouthfeel which is not good for a pasta dish.

• 8 medium sized parsnips,  thoroughly peeled to take off all the tough skin.
• 1 zuchinni or goldbar squash, very lightly peeled, just to take off the smooth outer skin
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2 T olive oil
• freshly ground black pepper

Peel the parsnips into fettucine shaped “pasta” the same way you would peel a carrot, rotating the parsnip by small turns until you run into the core. Keep peeling away as long as the parsnip is sweet and tender. Depending on the parsnip this might be the whole thing, or you might have to stop at the core which is sometime woody. (yes – you will have to keep munching on the raw parsnip as you prep… watch out, it’s habit forming).

Peel the zucchini into fettucine the same way, stopping short of the seedy core. We are just going for texture here.

Add salt and gently massage into the tangled mass of shredded veggies until they begin to soften and get slippery. This helps to break down the viberous nature of the vegetables and to give it that nice, smooth “cooked” feel in your mouth.

Now add the wine and the olive oil and massage in for a minute or two. Taste for salt, add pepper.  It should be completely delicious even at this stage.

Let sit at room temperature for at least an hour for vegetables to soften and marinate in the wine. You can do this up to  24 hours ahead.

Marinated Mushrooms

• 1/2 lb brown crimini, king oyster, or mix of other fresh wild mushrooms, cleaned.
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1/4 c olive oil
• 1/2 t finely crushed garlic
• 1 T finely chopped fresh parsely
• course salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Cut mushrooms into thick slices or bit sized chunks and toss with remaining ingredients- massage marninade into mushrooms gently with your hands for one minute. Adjust for taste (it should already be delicious at this stage).

Warm in dehydrator for 1 – 3 hours until mushrooms are soft and sauteed tasting. (Dehydrating is optional – you can simply leave out at room temperature and it will taste great).

In a large serving platter, top pasta with  Raw Rosemary Cream Sauce, and finish with a heap of mushrooms in the center. Enjoy!

Note: any leftover parsnip pasta can be made in the base for the Warm Winter Carrot Soup.

January 16, 2010 - Posted by Jorin Hawley | Low Carb Recipes, Main Courses, Pasta, Raw Food Recipes, Recipes, Vegan Recipes | marinated mushooms, parsnip pasta, raw, raw pasta, raw recipe, texture trick