Easy to find this time of year, beets and celeriac come together to make this a perfect side-dish to any table.
I am trying something new. Put the recipe first, and talk about it after. What do you think of this new format? Let me know in the comments below!
I have been gardening with a couple of friends (our group chat has been named "gardening gals", which I love) for the past couple of years. We meet once a week at our shared garden space, do everything we need to do, and head home to process the bounty. Especially through covid, this was a perfect excuse to get outside and to regularly see friends.
This year, we grew lots of beets. Which is great because beets are so good in so many things and they store in the refrigerator really well!
Beets are good on their own, great in soup like borscht, and delicious mixed with other root vegetables.
I first came across a recipe that mixed beets with celeriac (celery root) in Copenhagen Food by Trine Hahnemann. This is a beautiful cookbook, filled with photos of her beloved city. Her recipe is actually for "cakes", where the beet and celeriac mixture is fried into individual patties. While this sounds delicious, I do not have the patience to stand there and fry a bunch of little cakes.
So I came up with a solution: adapt the recipe to just dump it all into a pan and bake it.
The recipe above is my adaptation, which is roughly based on her original recipe but changed for my desire for something that is less labor intensive. It's delicious, comes together quickly (especially if you use a food processor to grate all the veggies), and is a perfect side-dish to almost any meal. I've brought it to many a potluck, and am always asked for the recipe.
For people who don't love beets: the fats and addition of celeriac actually really minimize the earthiness of the beets. I'd say even you would probably enjoy this dish.
A note on where to find celeriac: here in the US it is also called celery root. I usually get it at my local health-food store, but have also seen it at Sprouts or Whole Foods. I'd say most well-stocked grocery stores will carry it. If you can't find it, though, parsnips would be a lovely substitute.
A note on the links used in this post: I think it's always best to support your local community by buying items from a locally-owned store like a hardware store or a local kitchen supply store, but I understand that you can't always find what you need or don't always have time to shop around, so I have included the links above for your convenience, and as an example of the item if you don't know what it is!
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