When I travel, I bring a stack of food magazines to read for inspiration. On a particular cross-country flight, I was prepping for a new season of my TV show and saw a recipe for a parsnip gratin. I thought, “Well, parsnips are root vegetables. I love root vegetables in general. What if I just do a bunch of root vegetables all together in a gratin?” A few days later, I was basking in the creamy, cheesy glory of my latest creation. You’ll do the same. You can slice your root vegetables with a knife, but I recommend using my favorite kitchen utensil, the mandoline, and then taking care to spread the thin slices evenly. This dish transforms a quartet of ordinary roasted root vegetables that might not otherwise cohabit the same baking dish into old-fashioned, crowd-pleasing comfort food. Later, you can ask, “When was the last time anyone asked for more parsnips?”
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 2 hr 5 min |
| Active: | 20 min |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 large russet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled
- 1 large golden beet (about 1 pound), peeled
- 1 large fennel bulb (about 12 ounces), trimmed
- 2 large parsnips (about 10 ounces), peeled
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese (6 ounces)
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Using a mandoline or sharp knife, cut the potatoes, beet, fennel and parsnips into 1/8-inch-thick slices. Toss together the vegetable slices, salt, and 3/4 cup of the cream in a large bowl.
- 2. Spread half of the mixture evenly in the prepared baking dish. Top with 1 cup of the Parmesan. Top evenly with the remaining vegetable mixture. Pour the remaining 3/4 cup cream over the vegetables, and top with the remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan. Cover loosely with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
- 3. Uncover and bake until the vegetables are tender and the cheese is golden brown, another 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; cool for 15 minutes before serving with some black pepper ground over the top.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 12 servings |
| Calories | 228 |
| Total Fat | 15 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Carbohydrates | 17 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Sugar | 5 g |
| Protein | 8 g |
| Cholesterol | 50 mg |
| Sodium | 444 mg |
Reviews
Good recipe! Made it with just potatoes and beets since that’s what we had. Will make again.
Love Valerie and love this recipe! Love the opportunity to try something new!
Made this with gruyere instead. It was soooooo yummy! Everyone in the family loved it. Also added a turnip as an extra root veggie
I substituted the russet potatoes for yellow/white sweet potatoes because of wanting a gluten free dish and it turned out to be an incredibly ooey, gooey, delicious dish. Very flavorful. I will defiantly make this again.
Loved the flexibility and ease of this recipe, have made it several times and it’s always a hit. Tonight’s variety adds red beets, carrots and sweet potatoes to the recipe. I also add a white pepper, nutmeg and cumin blend and an herbed butter panko topping for the extra crunch.
Quarantine day 20. I just tried this recipe today, it’s delicious. I had a surplus of parsnips and needed to figure out what to do with them. Not difficult. I did substitute the Parmesan cheese with Gruyere, I also used half-and-half and sour cream instead of heavy cream to make it a little more low fat. I also added some paprika. I used the delicate fennel leaves to decorate for presentation. Much more interesting than plain scalloped potatoes, which never interested me much. The root vegetables are a fantastic addition, perfect companion for the potatoes. I originally got turned onto scalloped potatoes with caramelized fennel in a bon appétit issue. I will use heavy cream when the holidays come around. Thank you Valerie for another awesome recipe.
I made this for a Friendsgiving and it was a hit a friend who never has more than 1 serving had three. I will make this dish for family and it will be a staple every year.
I made this today and I used the weight measurements and it was WAY MORE than a 13×9 pan even when it was stacked. I used a larger pan and it came out great. I had a little extra cheese so I used it but you can never have too much cheese. This is very good and next time I make it I will mix up the root vegetables just for variety
I made this today after I watched Valerie make it on the Food Network. I used what I had on hand – turnips, parsnips and sweet potatoes. I didn’t have cream so I mixed a heaping tablespoon of flour and some thyme into 2 cups of milk and poured that over the vegetables. Also used Italian cheese blend since I didn’t have just Parmesan. It was delicious. Next time I will use her vege mixture but will add a sweet potato.
I gave this 4 stars because I had to add spice but it was amazing after that. This was so good I will attempt to make a lower calorie version and smaller so I can eat it more often.
I thought without spice was good but with spice was a ten.
I measured all the veges on a scale and found the recipe fit perfectly my pan. I had to use a red beet along with some golden and it was wonderful. No negative results to sub all red you can’t find golden.
I added: I added about one loose palm full of fennel leaves, three big tablespoons of minced garlic from jar (next time I will roast and add). About 10 sprigs of thyme. OH and ten fresh sage leaves. Blended in food processor with salt and pepper. Allowed to soak in the cream for several hours. I served with lamb so the flavors went nice.
Everyone got seconds.