We had JTs family for Easter brunch again this year and I wanted to change it up a bit and serve some different sides. I recently started following John over at Kitchen Riffs and he posted a fantastic update to the traditional scalloped potato dish…he added celery root! Can you believe it? This change was very appealing to me because although scalloped potatoes are not considered healthy, this version is slightly healthier than the traditional version. While potatoes have almost 1 calorie per gram, and a glycemic load of 29, celery root has 0.4 calories per gram with a glycemic load of 6! While it may not make this a healthy dish, it does help mitigate some of the other not-quite-so-healthy ingredients in this dish.
I was also inspired to add some thyme to this dish as I was preparing the béchamel sauce and it was fantastic; the thyme really played into the celeriac flavours beautifully. The celeriac also made this dish a lot less starchy than one made exclusively with potatoes. I’m definitely keeping this version for future family dinners.
The original recipe came from my trusty Five Roses Cookbook which is now falling apart at the seams, but that’s OK, it looks well-loved!
Scalloped Potatoes with Cereriac
Serves 10-12 small servings
Ingredients:
- 3 medium sized potatoes (Yukon Gold work very well), peeled and sliced very thinly
- 1 small celeriac (celery root), peeled and sliced very thinly
- 1/2 Vialia onion, sliced very thinly
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 cups skim milk
- 1/4 cup AP flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme, plus one sprig for garnish
- 1/2 cup grated yellow cheddar cheese
Directions:
- Prepare an oven-proof baking dish with non-stick cooking spray (I like to use one pretty enough to serve from and that way I’m not messing around plating the dish). Preheat the oven to 190°C (350°F).
- Melt the butter in a sauce pan over low heat, increase the heat a little and add the flour, mixing well to combine. Cook this mixture for a few minutes making sure not to burn it. Slowly add the milk into the cooked flour and whisk to combine and remove all lumps. Add the chopped thyme and salt and whisk well; cook the béchamel until thick (should still be pourable).
- Beginning with the potatoes, layer a single layer on the bottom of the prepared baking dish and cover the bottom fully. Next layer the onions over the potatoes and then the celery root. Cover these three layers with the thyme béchamel sauce. Repeat the layering process with the béchamel sauce until you have used up all of the vegetables, leaving a small amount of béchamel to pour over the very top of the layers.
- Place the baking dish onto a cookie sheet (you’ll thank me later) and sprinkle the cheddar over the béchamel. Bake uncovered for 1 hour 30 minutes or until a cake tester flows into the potato, celery root easily. Serve hot.
Notes:
- Béchamel thickens as it bakes so don’t worry if you feel your béchamel is runny, it will be fine made with the proportions in this recipe.
- This dish may be made in advance, cooled and refrigerated. Reheat with additional cheese (broiling may be necessary).
- When you reheat, make sure the béchamel bubbles up.
Wow, talk about a dish of deliciousness – creamy, golden, irresistible! I find it hilarious that in a country as obsessed with root vegetables as here, my local store sells only quarters of celeriac roots. I’m used to picking up great big knobbly spherical roots. Perhaps they have the “full size” ones in the larger stores in town.
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That’s quite interesting Charles, is it expensive so maybe they think the price is more reasonable as a quarter! I really loved the flavour the celery root brought to this old favourite.
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Nah, I think it’s just demand. People around here maybe don’t use it in the same way as other countries do. It’s a bit like garlic – 30 years ago they used to sell garlic here by the clove. Never by the bulb. When my father-in-law arrived here (from Tunisia) and went shopping to make some Tunisian food they thought he was crazy for wanting to buy “Oh my God TWENTY CLOVES!” 😀
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That’s interesting! It’s pretty cool the way our cultures have changed to adapt to new immigrants, Canada is a great example if this.
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I’ve made mashed potatoes with celeriac and it was a wonderful side dish with beef pot roast.
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I can well imagine Maria, celeriac goes great with potatoes.
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[…] – HERE’S what she did […]
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Lovely looking gratin! I love the inclusion of thyme — one of my favorite herbs! I’ll bet rosemary would work nicely too. Great recipe, and thanks for the link love!
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Hi John, thank you so much, your kind words are much appreciated. Rosemary would be wonderful too, it would work very nicely with the celeriac.
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You set a lovely table, Eva, and love the bunny napkins. I really like the wood of your kitchen cabinetry. It adds a richness to the rooms. Doesn’t John have a great blog? There’s a wealth of delicious recipes to peruse and I see you’ve chosen a good one. I somehow missed it, so, seeing it here gave me the opportunity to run over there and correct my oversight. Needless to say, this is a beautiful dish and so very fitting for a holiday dinner. You’re right, a gratin may not be the healthiest dish to serve but adding celeriac will make it a bet less unhealthy and will add a nice dimension to the dish’s taste and texture. I think it’s a great idea, one I’m anxious to try in my own kitchen.
Have a great week, Eva.
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Whenever I make scalloped potatoes they turn out awful! This looks great!
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I can’t help but also admire your kitchen. Yes, we just remodeled! But of course the table and the potatoes look fantastic.
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I love the idea of using celeriac root! I’ve also added cauliflower and pumpkin just to increase the vegetable content to it 😀
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Yum! Scalloped potatoes is always such a crowd pleaser, this sounds like it would go down a treat too. I wonder, what other roots could be cooked in this way? Maybe all of them? I’m thinking scalloped parsnips might also be nice.
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Eva, this is one of the most beautiful dishes I have ever seen on your blog! I think you might convert here many celeriac haters (I know too many of these…). Beautiful table too!
It’s funny: I remember seeing a 100% celeriac gratin in a book by H. Fearnley-Whittingstal and I am now finishing a post about a recipe from another book by the same author.
I must say I share the same tendency to slim down dishes mixing them with healthier or less caloric ingredients (as long as the taste is good of course, but here I’m sure the result was excellent; I love the French celeriac and potato purée).
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Thank you so much Sissi for the lovely compliment, I am very flattered. Celery root is indeed one of my favourite vegetables and it really gave this dish a lovely flavour. I am going to search around the net for that recipe you mentioned, it sounds delightful! I too adore celeriac purée, I mainly make it with cauliflower.
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I’m sure your family enjoyed your lightened version of scalloped potatoes with celeriac…that way they could have more dessert. 😀 All kidding aside, your dish looks delicious.
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Thank you so much Karen, it was very tasty indeed.
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I saw this on John’s blog and isn’t it a great dish. I started making something very similar a few years ago when Jamie Oliver released a recipe using celeriac this way. It’s great to have a ‘potato bake’ that’s a little more healthy. I love your table setting – it looks very stylish and elegant yet fun with those bunny eared napkins xx
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Thank you so much Charlie, I really enjoyed the dish and it was slightly more flavoursome with the celery root than just potatoes. Those bunny napkins were a hoot, for sure, thank you for the compliment.
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This dish and your photos of it look stunning, Eva! And I’m also surprised at how rich it looks when I read the ingredients. Next time I make a potato gratin I’m trying this for sure! Love your bunny-eared napkins. 🙂
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Thank you so much Betsy, the celery root certainly added a wonderful flavour to the dish. I do hope you enjoy it. Yes, those bunny napkins were the culprits that caused my iPhone to plummet to the cement floor in our basement and shatter…causing a $100 trip to the repair store. Expensive napkins.
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Expensive indeed! Have a lovely weekend, Eva. 🙂
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I saw John’s post, too, but knew it wouldn’t fly around here. I would be happy with some celery root added, but I think everyone else would balk. I made the traditional high fat, high glycemic index version 🙂 Yours looks fantastic!
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Thanks Liz, the celery root definitely took it up a notch.
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Two of my kids are coming to visit in a few weeks and I am planning to get a smoked ham from the Smoke Haus your scallops potatoes would make a lovely side. I still have celeriac in storage (from last fall harvest), thyme and leeks (overwintered) in the garden (would leek make a good substitute for the onion?) need to buy potato.
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Thank you Norma, I was actually thinking about using leeks instead of the onions—leek and potato go very well together so I think the three would be awesome! Do let me know how it works out.
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I really love the use of root veggies in this traditional scalloped potatoes. Love your Easter table set up…so relaxing and beautiful.
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Thank you so much Angie, it was a very tasty dish.
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What a great variation on traditional scalloped potatoes and clever use of this root vegetable! Does the celeriac retain any of its crunchy texture or does it soften much like the potato in the finished product? I bet the thyme was gorgeous here. Beautiful addition. Sounds like you had a great Easter celebration Eva and this recipe is a keeper for sure! The bubbly cheese looks irresistible too.
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Thank you so much Kelly, the thin slices do get rather soft from baking but not as soft as the potato.
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Eva this must have been amazing. Celery root and potatoes are fantastic flavour buddies. If I can get it I always add a half a root to the potato salad and to french salad [the accompaniment to the kaszino tojas]. I convinced the local safeway to carry them. Smaller cities are reluctant to supply celeriac. Almost every time I go through the checkout either the cashier or someone behind me asks ‘what is that thing’. Hail to the celery root, its an amazing vegetable and North Americans for the most part are unfamiliar with it. It should be a standard item and not so expensive. We have not been successful growing it, it took us a long time to grow a few anorexic roots one year so we gave up on it. Sometimes a descent root can cost 8 dollars.
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Hi Zsuzsa, it’s one of my favourite vegetables too, I just can’t get enough of the taste. Adding it to potato salad is a great idea too; I love it grated as a slaw as well, it’s so fresh tasting. I am able to get celery root anytime from our green grocers but it’s definitely not often available at the chain grocery stores. Our neighbourhood is made of of Ukranian and Polish people so I’m not surprised the green grocers carry it. It can be expensive too.What a shame that you didn’t have success growing it, I won’t even bother trying as I’m not a very accomplished gardener.
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Now that is clever. Certainly never a bad thing to incorporate nutritious ingredients into an old favorite. I’m glad it worked out so well too. 🙂
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Thanks so much Kristy.
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Wonderful, we should all eat one of these every week.
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Thank you kindly David.
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It looks wonderful Eva and great that it’s just that little bit healthier for all of us.
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How delicious!
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