I add parsnips to any root vegetable dish. Definitely in stews or any variety, browned for making sauces, and an essential ingredient to chicken soup. It’s my preference over turnips for flavor and ease of preparation.
Parsnips are great in a curry - there’s something about their flavour that is partway to curry already
Oh yeah, turnips are the sad cousin to rutabagas (turnip x cabbage cross).
I describe parsnips to people as “carrots if they didn’t taste so much like carrots” (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
I always thought rutabagas and parsnips were the poor cousin to turnips.
The purity of the turnip stands alone in the land of Roots.
YMMV.
I introduced my daughter to parsnips. She calls them white carrots, since she can never remember their name.
You’re quite right that the flavor of turnips sets them apart from the other more bland root veg. The problem IMO is there’s just too much of it in turnips. It’s pure, it’s strong, it’s positively off-putting.
The more genteel versions of the same general flavor profile to be found in parsnips or rutabagas plays much more nicely both with other ingredients and with my own palate.
As you say, YMMV.
Parsnips are the secret ingredient of my stepmom’s matzah ball soup.
That is it exactly. Turnips are too turnipy.
I’m including parsnips more often just for seasoning. Anytime i would be sauteing onions or garlic I’ll include diced parsnip and I have a notion I’ll be using grated parsnip in dishes also. And rutabagas, what kind of island of Dr. Moreau’s vegetables did that come from?
Parsnips and dill Judaize a chicken soup nicely.
She didn’t use dill but that would definitely work.
I just roasted them with other veg. What I learned is that it should be carrots OR parsnips, not carrots AND parsnips.
Why? I mix them frequently.
Seems like some of you can get pretty parsnipety about your root veg usage 
Too much sweetness for me.
I always have to tell the checker at the grocery store what they are, after seeing their puzzled looks. I typically use them in beef stew and the like, but they’re not always in the store. In the case I’ll substitute a rhutabaga.
Yeah, the root vegetables can be a minefield for some cashiers. These all can get rung up as another, depending on who is working: parsnip, turnip, rutabaga, celery root. There is also the difference between parsley root and parsnip. They are two different vegetables, and the former, around here, is about 4x the price of the latter. But those I only find at the Polish grocery, and they know their produce well there and never mix it up. (When I make broth, my favorite combination of vegetables is celery root, carrot, and parsley root. Most of the time, though, I don’t buy the pasley root and do a mix of carrot and parsnip, at about a 2:1 to 3:1 ratio. I find parsnip fairly strong and sweet in flavor.)
Not to mention kohlrabi and fennel bulb.
Ah, good call on the kohlrabi! One of my favorites! Not sure if I’ve ever had fennel mis-rung, but I may have had it rung up as endive before.
Kohlrabi is a nice break from routine!
One of my favorite Hungarian dishes is kohlrabi stuffed with pork and rice and served in a creamy sauce. There’s a bit of a cheater’s version of the dish I make, as well, that starts with what is best described as creamed kohlrabi, and then the meatballs are made separately, browned, and then cooked the rest of the way in the creamed kohlrabi.