Celeriac Gratin
With passion fruit salad
Just a super comforting meal that is loved by everyone. And the good thing is, you can really change things up according to the season. For example, try and make a pumpkin gratin in autumn, or a turnip gratin in summer. Serve with one or two simple salads, or some roasted veggies to go along. See the ingredient list for tips if you want to keep it vegan.
Ingredients
1 kg of potatoes
1 celeriac
2 shallots
6 cloves of garlic
small bunch of fresh thyme
Few sprigs of rosemary
+-700 ml full fat cream (or a non-dairy cream to keep it vegan)
Salt, pepper, olive oil
2 to 3 handfuls of grated cheese (I like to use a mixture of old cheeses, pecorino, parmigiano or something nutty like Gruyére). If you wish to keep it vegan, add a heaped tablespoon of nutritional yeast to the cream.
Passion fruit salad:
Salad of choice
1 passionfruit
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons nut vinegar
1 tablespoon of honey or liquid sweetener
pepper and salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 190 C. Start by cleaning the celeriac, then cut in quarters or eights. Then cut the potatoes and celeriac (leave the skins on) in thin 1 or 2 millimeter slices. I’d use a mandoline for this, but be careful with your fingers!
Next up, the cream. Finely chop the shallots, garlic, fresh thyme and rosemary. Gently fry with some olive oil in a saucepan on medium heat. Then add the cream, along with a good pinch of salt and pepper. When the cream is hot, turn the heat down to low and let the flavours infiltrate into the cream for a few minutes. Then add half of the grated cheese.
Mix the potato and celeriac slices and spread in a nice baking dish. Pour over the cream and finish off with the rest of the grated cheese. Place in the oven for about 45 minutes and everything will be fine.
In the meantime, make the salad vinaigrette by spooning out the inside of the passion fruit and mix with all the other ingredients. Check for taste balance – sweet, sour, salt.
As soon as your big Gratin friend is ready to go, mix the salad with the vinaigrette and serve up! Cheerio.