🍽️ Serves: 8-10
🔪 Prep Time: 20 - 25mins
🔥 Cook time: 40 - 50mins
⚖️ Net Carbs: 2.9g per serving
🚫 No Sugar or Seed OiIs
Gratin!
Just want to get cooking? Scroll down for recipe!
At this time of year, who doesn’t love a bit of comfort food. The festive season is in full swing and the thought of spending a cosy afternoon cooking at home for my family fills me with joy. It’s one of the many reasons I love this time of year!
When I first cut back on carbs, I was a bit lost about what sides to serve with my main, especially if I wanted a festive fare, and it wasn’t until I unlocked the possibilities of a gratin and started to replace the classic potato with an endless supply of options - I felt my world was more open and I felt excited again to create dishes with much more variety. And trust me here, the alternatives are good.
There are 2 main categories for gratins - cream or stock based.
Often the cream one has a mixture of milk and cream, so simply remove the milk and you are on a good road to lowering the carbs. Super tasty and pretty damn good for you, if like me, you consider fats to be your friend! Stock based ones are easy to recreate, I just now try and use a good quality bone broth to help add a little extra boost to the nutrition as well as being super yummy - what’s not to love!
You now just need to decide if you add cheese (and if so, what cheese), what direction you want to go with herbs and if you want a crunchy top, or a creamy spoonable finish - the world is yours!
Now to decide what you want to gratin! Here is the long list of veggies that you can use (rather than being stuck on what you can’t use!):
- Spinach
- Chard
- Kale
- Cabbage (all types!)
- Cauliflower
- Sprouts
- Broccoli
- Courgette
- Leek
- Fennel
- Mushrooms
- Spring onion
- Celeriac
- Swede
- Turnip
- Pumpkin*
- Sweet potato*
- Asparagus
- Artichoke
As you can see, the list is long and you really can go to town with combinations!
To help pick the direction I want to go in, I personally start with a few questions.
1) what am I serving it with
2) what mood am I in.
So let’s say I’m serving a nice fatty pork chop that’s grilled on the bone (mmm), maybe a nice creamy gratin (finished with mustard and some sage) of some charred greens would be delicious. As would a turnip gratin (poach the turnips in butter milk Scandi style for an extra vavavoom) with garlic, cheese, chives and a dash of wholegrain mustard to sit proudly on any table!
Give me steak and then a spinach, mushroom and celeriac gratin packed with butter, cheese and garlic would be banging.
Roast chicken? No problem, how about a stock-based gratin with a mix of pumpkin, celeriac, courgette and onion flavoured with garlic and thyme - yum yum YUM!
Anyway, I think you get the point and as today we want a festive feast, I’m going to make an indulgent, super creamy, incredibly morish cream-based Gratin with some seasonal root (mostly low carb) veg to get you started.
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1-2 bay leaves
- Small bunch of thyme
- 600ml double cream
- Salt and pepper
Veggies
- ½ Celeriac, peeled
- ½ Butternut squash or pumpkin, peeled
- 1 medium size turnip
- 200g cheese such as cheddar, gruyere (or whatever cheese you like!)
- Whole or ground nutmeg
Let's begin!
Step 1
Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C. Butter the inside of an ovenproof dish, around 30cm x 20cm (or thereabouts – cooking times may vary if you use another size)
For the sauce
Step 2
Add all the sauce ingredients to a heavy based saucepan over a medium heat and bring to a simmer. Season to taste with salt and pepper and simmer for 2 mins before turning off to infuse and set aside.
Prep your veg
Step 3
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil
Step 4
Prepare your veg. Using a mandolin, or a sharp knife, finely slice the veg into thin discs – watch those fingers if using a mandolin!
Step 5
Once boiling, blanch the sliced veg in batches to prevent overcrowding and cook for 1 min or until just tender with a sharp knife – they don’t need to be fully cooked here!
Step 6
Meanwhile, prepare a baking tray lined with a tea towel and once the veg is tender, transfer it to the lined baking tray to dry and cool. Repeat this step with the remaining veg until everything is blanched.
Finishing the dish
Step 7
Coarsely grate your cheese and set aside
Step 8
Start by layering your dish with a single layer of sliced veg and a drizzle of sauce. Sprinkle with a handful of cheese and repeat these layers until all the veg is used up. Finish with a good coating of sauce, the remaining cheese and a good rasp of nutmeg and cover with foil.
Step 9
Bake in the oven for an initial 30-35mins. Remove the foil and bake for a final 10-15 mins or until golden, bubbling and tender to a butter knife.
Step 10
Leave to stand for at least 10 mins until serving.
*Chefs tip*
To get ahead, steps 1-8 can all be done 1-2 days before with the final bake on the day! You could even do weeks before and freeze, defrosting overnight before baking!
