I love winter root vegetables – especially parsnip!  The Parsnip is a root vegetable related to the carrot and parsley. It was interesting to learn that parsnip contains more sugar than carrots, and has a calorie count equal to a banana!

At the same time it is an excellent source of dietary fibre, and is full of vitamin C, and other healthy minerals like iron, calcium which we all need.

So last week when I was sitting in the North Shore hospital waiting room for my follow-up appointment, I was delighted to find a recipe using my favourite root vegetable in some very old but fancy magazine!

Ingredients:

• 100ml vegetable oil
• 75ml olive oil
• 3 eggs
• 60g brown sugar
• 60g liquid honey
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1 orange, finely grated zest
• 100g each: plain and wholemeal flours
• 1 tsp each: baking soda, baking powder,ground ginger and cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 50g ground almonds
• 200g parsnip, peeled and grated
• 50g macadamia nuts, lightly toasted, & roughly chopped

Topping  (optional):

• 1 tbsp melted butter
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 20g macadamia nuts, roughly  chopped

1. Heat the oven to 160°c. Grease and line a 23cm x 12cm loaf tin.
2. Place oils, eggs,brown sugar, and honey in a bowl and beat until thick and pale (about 5 minutes)
3. Stir in vanilla paste and zest.
4. Sift over the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the ground almonds, chopped macadamia nuts and parsnip. Mix well, and spoon into the loaf tin.
5. Combine topping ingredients (is using) and sprinkle over the loaf.
6. Bake 45-50 mins or until the cake skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow the loaf to cool for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
7. Serve warm from the oven with a dollop of Greek Yoghurt

**The topping which is optional was quite delicious, but the Loaf can stand up to not having this extra if you want to reduce the sugar content.

I’m heading back to the waiting rooms of the publich hospital so I will rummage through the old magazines and see what else I can find to share!

Happy baking xx