Sweet Parsnip Muffins
These Parsnip Muffins are moist, tender, made with whole wheat flour, rolled oats, warm spices, and are perfectly sweet! Mixed in one bowl and done baking in under 20 minutes, these hearty muffins are perfect for a healthy breakfast or quick snack.
Veggie muffin recipes are kinda what I’m known for. You love them. I love them. And muffins are just a magical way to not only get more veggies into your life, but also to try vegetables that you might be trying to warm up to.
Like parsnips. Do you love them or do they make you feel all kinds of iffy? If you are in the parsnip-iffy group like I have been for years, you simply MUST try them in muffins. Really. Parsnips grated into muffin batter is a total GAME CHANGER in all the best ways.
These Parsnip Muffins are perfectly sweet and full of incredible warm spices. Rocking 1 cup of grated parsnips and sweetened with applesauce and a little brown sugar, these muffins are fluffy, tender, moist, and mixed all in one bowl. Made with a combination of whole wheat flour and rolled oats, these muffins are as hearty as they are delicious. This recipe makes a dozen and only takes 20 minutes to bake, so make a quick batch today and enjoy the leftovers for the most magical of breakfasts and snacks for days to come.
Bonus: these Parsnip Muffins are dairy-free for those who need it and can easily be make gluten free and egg-free with a few changes.
Let’s make these muffins together. Just you and me….
Sweet Parsnip Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup peeled and grated parsnips
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup olive oil, or vegetable oil or avocado oil
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1¼ cups whole wheat flour
- ¾ cup rolled oats
- ⅓ cup raisins, or dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375℉. Line a standard muffin tin with paper liners or grease with oil.
- Add grated parsnips to a large bowl, along with applesauce, eggs, oil, vanilla and brown sugar. Whisk together well.
- Add baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the bowl with the parsnip mixture. Whisk together again to incorporate everything.
- Add the flour and rolled oats to the bowl. Stir until just combined. Do not overmix, as this can result in dense muffins.
- Finally, add in the raisins. Fold them into the batter.
- Spoon the batter into the 12 prepared muffin cups, filling about ¾ of the way.
- Bake until the tops of the muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-22 minutes. If you have a kitchen thermometer, cook until the muffins have an internal temperature of 200℉. This will ensure they are cooked through, but not overcooked.
- Allow them to cool in pan for 15 minutes before enjoying. Once cooled completely, store in an air-tight container in the fridge for 4-5 days or in your freezer for up to a month.
I am/used to be in the parsnip iffy group too. Hadn’t cooked anything with parsnips in ages. So this new recipe was the perfect opportunity to give them another chance! : ) And of course the muffins did not disappoint! Love the subtle sweetness. Perfect with some natural peanut butter and a cup of coffee. The rest of the bag I oven roasted together with carrots. Really like them that way, brings out their tasty flavors and mutes some flavor notes I personally don’t enjoy.
Yay! So glad you enjoyed this one, Eva! From one parsnip-iffy eater to another, I am delighted that these muffins helped you find a way to eat parsnips that you enjoy.
I was so excited to see a recipe for parsnips – as they are a very under-rated vegetable that I wouldn’t think of using in muffins. I didn’t have brown sugar so I swapped brown coconut sugar and it worked great. I also added dried cherries and chocolate chips. These are so good! Try them today!! Thank you for the continued variety of veggie-loaded muffins.
I’m so glad you enjoyed these as much as I do, Valerie! Love the addition of chocolate chips and dried cherries!
These are delicious! The whole family loved them. Added chocolate chips in about half of them – they were great both ways!
Wondering – your muffin recipes often use maple syrup in place of sugar. Would that work with these or best to stick with the brown sugar?
Hi Laura! You are right, I have made most of my recipes with maple syrup or honey. I started to make some with brown sugar because maple syrup and honey are expensive ingredients and wanted to make recipes that might be a bit more affordable for people. I haven’t tested these with maple syrup, but I bet they would work! Since the syrup is a liquid, you’d probably want to reduce the applesauce to 3/4 of a cup to help balance out the dry ingredients : wet ingredients.
Loved the recipe, but omitted the dried fruit and added an extra tablespoon of sugar.
So glad you enjoyed them, R!
There’s finally a use for weird-tasting parsnips! I had some riced parsnips from a failed recipe that I froze, not knowing what to do with them since I don’t like them. I thawed them out and gave these muffins a shot, thinking there’s no way to disguise the strangeness of parsnips, and I was incredibly surprised at how delicious they turned out to be. I was a little short on applesauce, and didn’t want to open a new jar, so I used a little pumpkin puree to fill in the shortage. I used only 1 Tbsp. of oil and added 3 Tbsp. of nonfat Greek yogurt, used slightly more than 1/3 cup golden monkfruit/allulose to compensate for the missing applesauce, and used gluten free 1-1 flour and oats. They are moist, not gummy, sweet without being cloying, and mildly reminiscent of oatmeal raisin cookies. I think I’ll add even more cinnamon next time to play into that, and maybe some ground cloves. I used the If You Care muffin liners you mentioned in a post somewhere and those are incredible and truly nonstick when you bake with little to no oil. Thanks for another terrific recipe that will definitely be made again!
I always love when I see you’ve made and reviewed a recipe, Rene! So glad these were a pleasant surprise (always my goal!). Love the pumpkin swap, the yogurt tweak, and your cinnamon-oatmeal-cookie vibes (yes please to more cinnamon and maybe even some raisins next time?)….. and YAY for those If You Care liners. Aren’t they the best? 💛
I made these a couple weeks ago and really loved them! The subtle flavor, the spices, just like a warm hug. Perfect with a cup of coffee in the morning. The taste reminds me of something I just can’t quite put my finger on so I’ll have to keep making them until I figure it out 😉 plus I do love parsnips so was excited to see another recipe with them!
So glad you took a chance on these, Katie!