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Spicy roast parsnips with barley, raisins and walnuts

PARSNIPS are delicious with curry spices, particularly when roasted so that their thin, tapering ends turn delectably sweet and caramelised. Here, spicy roasted parsnips are tumbled with nutty wholegrains, raisins and a scattering of walnuts to create a dish with satisfying textures. I like to add some crisp leaves for contrast, too.

SERVES 4

150 g pearl barley, pearled spelt or whole spelt grain

500 g parsnips

2 tbsp curry paste

3 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil

Sea salt and black pepper

50 g walnuts, roughly chopped

75 g raisins

A bunch of leaves, such as watercress, rocket or flat-leaf parsley

Juice of ½ orange or lemon

SOAK the pearl barley or spelt in cold water for anything from 20 minutes to a couple of hours, then drain and rinse well. Put the grain into a saucepan, cover with plenty of cold water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until tender. This will take about 20 to 25 minutes for spelt, more like 35 to 40 minutes for barley. Drain. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190 c/fan 170 c/gas 5. Peel the parsnips, then trim the base and tip from each.

Cut each parsnip in half lengthways, then cut each half from top to bottom into long batons, no more than 2 cm at the thick end. Don’t worry if they are a bit wobbly and uneven — this all adds to their charm!

Put the curry paste and 2 tbsp of the oil into a large bowl and mix together. Add the parsnips with a pinch of salt and a twist of pepper and toss them in the curry paste so they are all coated — you may find a pastry brush helpful for this. Scatter the parsnips in a large, shallow roasting tray.

Roast for about 40 minutes, stirring once, until starting to caramelise. Add the chopped walnuts, raisins and cooked spelt or barley to the roasting tray, stir everything together and return to the oven for five minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool slightly for five minutes, then toss with the leaves and transfer to a platter or individual plates. Squeeze over a little citrus juice and trickle over a touch more olive oil before serving.