Parsnips have a unique taste worth exploring, Igor. They smell out of this world good when they are roasted or sauteed. My current favorite way to eat them is to chop about a pound of them into 1/3" pieces, saute them in 2-3T of unsalted butter for about 10 minutes, add 1C buttermilk plus 1/3C water, 1/2t salt (to taste) and 2T honey and simmer for another five minutes or so. Pour the contents into a blender and blend until smooth.
This is actually a very slightly bastardized recipe for the parsnip puree portion of Parsnip and Black Pepper Biscuits from a cookbook called Smoke and Pickles (highly recommended, btw). The biscuits are great but the puree works as an accompaniment for a nice sauteed pork chop, braised beef or whatever...if it even makes it to the dinner plate. You can substitute winter squash for parsnip and it's just about as good (wife thinks it's better) in both the biscuits or as a vegetable puree on the dinner plate. I may just whip some up as a surprise dish along with the salad I'm supposed to make for Christmas dinner with my extended family at my brother's house tonight. And, hey, this way you can try parsnips without offending Jon's fig sensibilities.