Spiced Sweet Potato and Parsnip Tian

Thank you, DawnLandau from Atlanta -- followed your version (except no bacon and added garlic) and it was excellent! It was too much work to put together for only mediocre results, and the modifications made it a big hit. Definitely recommend if you have the time to put it together and guests to impress.

• lccmalone

• Paris, France

• 1/2/2021

This is similar to a Southwestern Sweet Potato Gratin that I cut out of the newspaper years ago, with different more modern presentation. That one called for 2.5 lbs sweet potatoes, thyme, pepper and 1.5 c cider, AND 1/2 pound of shredded smoked cheddar. I always pushed the flavor with garlic, cumin, sage, pancetta...... But I found the key to deliciousness was to bake it the day before. The overnight rest made an enormous difference in the flavor. and it actually kept getting better over following days. Just to address some of the comments below.

• Anonymous

• Miami FL

• 11/7/2019

So I've made this a few times and finally pegged it! I agree that the recipe needs some punch so I did the following: cut the cider in half (and I still had too much liquid), added 2T of brown sugar, 1/4 c of cider vinegar, 1 T chopped fresh ginger, 1/2 cup of chopped, cooked bacon and substituted 3 t of smoked paprika + 1.5 t cayenne for the Aleppo. I cooked it in a cast iron skillet which fit the size of the potatoes and parsnips perfectly. Guess this is basically a new dish but it was a hit for NYE 2018.

• dawnlandau

• Atlanta

• 1/1/2019

Beautiful presentation but flavors were not very strong. Guests at Thanksgiving preferred a pureed (but not too sweet) alternative.

• Anonymous

• Boston, MA

• 12/9/2018

I made this for 10 people, thinking I had made plenty, I love left-overs. Left overs were NOT!! I did find that it took forever to bake. Now I'm at 6000 feet, so that had some impact, but I did end up baking it both covered and uncovered, and thankfully had started it the day before. I couldn't find the same size parsnips/sweet potatoes as others had noted. I simply layered them horizontally, it didn't look as beautiful as the photo of them vertically but no one cared-it was DELICIOUS!

• wlpwise@aol.com

• colorado

• 11/25/2018

I served this dish for Thanksgiving 2018. It got mixed reviews. The primary complaint was it was too spicy, and I was one of the people making that complaint. Having never worked with Aleppo pepper, I had no idea of its spiciness. Next time I will certainly cut it back a lot. I don't know if it gets hotter as it sits, as I baked this off the night before and let it sit overnight, that may have contributed. I used pear juice instead of apple due to allergies, and I used roughly equal amounts of sweet potato and parsnip, alternating one slice of parsnip with one slice of sweet potato. I don't have a round pan big enough, so used a rectangular one and arranged the slices into rows. It was still very pretty. I agree with the others that the double baking seems kind of silly. The first baking is to cook everything through. I think that could be followed with a trip under the broiler for browning. Mine did just fine with just the first cooking and a second warming through after the turkey came out. Next time I try this, I'll cut the juice in half, since half of it wound up going down the drain anyway. I'll probably skip the Aleppo pepper, since that was hard to find, and just use some crushed red and regular pepper, which I have on hand. But since we eat these veg regularly, I definitely think we'll be keeping this recipe.

• kcristeen

• Oakland, CA

• 11/23/2018

Giving three forks for presentation and potential to be a better dish than as written. I'm going to keep tweaking this for flavor because it really is very pretty. I needed a much smaller amount so I used 6 sweet potatoes and half the amount of cider liquid...Did not cut back much on the butter though and am not sorry (no parsnips this time; good ones were not available). I like spice a lot so the pepper was fine but I like hit of sweet too so I added a few tablespoons of brown sugar. I found the cooking time to be way off. Took much longer than the recipe said. This could have been my slices (although I used a mandolin to keep them fairly thin and uniform) but think upping the temperature to 350 or 375 would help, especially as it is baking while covered. A sprinkle of flaky sea salt over the top before serving was a good addition.

• twinglet

• CT

• 11/23/2018

This looked fabulous but the taste was unimpressive and I didn't think the flavors came together.

• allimarx

• New York

• 12/20/2017

Served at Thanksgiving 2017, very good! A bit spicy for many, though, so next time I'll dial the Aleppo pepper down, perhaps to 1 tablespoon. As written, the recipe calls for 8-1/2 pounds of vegetables to serve 8-10 people. That's about a pound of roots per person! I used 3 pounds of sweet potatoes and 1 pound of parsnips, and it easily served 8. I had about half the liquid left over - which I saved and used for reheating leftovers - so the vegetable / liquid ratio as written is about right. I so appreciated this savory prep, which plenty of flavor yet tasted mostly of delicious sweet potato - yum!

• andie1024

• San Rafael

• 11/26/2017

What happened to all the other reviews? Last time I looked there were 42! Making the recipe now and wanted to see other reviews...always so helpful!

• Anonymous

• Los Angeles, CA

• 1/1/2016

Fantastic way to cook sweet Potatoes. Never tasted parsnips until I made this recipe. This is not a particularly sweet dish -more savory -use all the herbs as listed. Do not use more apple cider than called for - mine were swimming because I added more than called for. Would absolutely make this again.

• ewalde

• Lakeway, TX

• 12/4/2015

Lacks taste! Made it over the weekend and would not make it again.

• gsousa

• Bermuda

• 12/2/2015

The dish looked beautiful, but the flavor wasn't there.

• ustruck

• Detroit, Mi

• 12/2/2015

Here are additional notes after the second bake: -------------------- Agree with others that it needs more flavor, and less heat!! We added warm fresh apple cider so that we could remove the spicy pepper infused fat that rose to the top (tilting the pan on it's side to suction it out with a baster), then we added bacon fat mixed with reduced apple cider (2 cups boiled down to 1/2 cup) in equal parts and poured that over the top before the second bake. That made it taste better. If ever made again would make 1/3 of the recipe and it would serve 6-8 easily at a holiday meal. The portions are way, way off on the original recipe. __________________________________________________ These are my notes after the first bake only: Started making this last night for Thanskgiving tomorrow. Have a few notes to tell anyone attempting this dish. -------1. Forget about finding freshly ground and dried Aleppo pepper right now. It almost all comes out of Syria! Found a substitute on the web - 4 teaspoons regular paprika + 1 teaspoon ground red pepper (Cayenne). It seems like a lot of cayenne. It is a little bit spicy but not overly so. If your crowd is heat averse cut the cayenne down to 1/2 tsp or leave it out and make sure to still use the paprika. ---------2. The amount of sweet potatoes and parsnips is way too much if you use small and slender sweet potatoes that are as close in size as you can find. Perhaps the Epicurious test kitchen found mutant parsnips somewhere to go along with fat sweet potatoes however if you use small slender sweet potatoes that are clsoe in size to normal parsnips, you will have a lower height ring of sliced veggies and about 40 to 50% leftover slices. We would recommend 4 pounds slender sweet potatoes and 1 1/2 pounds parsnips and you will likely still have leftover slices. ----------3. We used a 12" wide deep Le Creuset pot (glazed cast iron) and had enough slices left over to fill a white Corning Ware (11 x 8) oval baker with lid. ----------4. We poured the apple cider mixture up 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up the sides. Half way up would not be enough as the tops of the veggies would get dry. You want the veggies to soak up the apple cider and its flavor. ---------5. The cooking time is about right however if you use convection you need to turn the oven to regular bake (no fan) once you take the lid(s) off for the second bake - otherwise you will have charred (or even burnt) tops on the slices. ----------6. To us the flavor is missing something - more sweetness, more fat, something. So we are going to add some bacon fat (sorry vegetarians) mixed with reduced apple cider and pour that over the nearly finished dish during the last ten minutes of the second bake.

• foodsage1

• Chicago sububrs

• 12/2/2015

Not worth the effort at all, the flavored did not meld and there was something just off. It's the type of dish that is a nice presentation and falls flat when it comes to taste. There are other better recipes.

• erhuanga

• Washington, DC

• 12/2/2015