Root Vegetable Gratin

Made with a medley of fresh root vegetables, this is a real comfort dish. Each bite is a burst of flavour, with the smoothness of the rich sauce complementing the root vegetables. Whether you’re a vegetarian or simply looking to add more vegetable goodness to your meal, our root vegetable gratin is a must-try baked on the Big Green Egg.

The first time we cooked this, we used parsnips, sweet potato and beetroot. The second time, we added some celeriac. The choice of vegetables is endless; you could use swede, turnips, or carrots. Just ensure the vegetable rounds are all approximately the same size.

Cooking surfaces

BBQ Temperature

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato, peeled
3 parsnips, peeled
3 small beetroots, peeled
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp thyme, fresh
200ml double cream
110g parmesan
25g gruyere cheese
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Method

Setup your Big Green Egg for an indirect cook with the stainless steel grid on top of your ConvEGGtor. To that, add your baking stone. Set your Egg to 180°C.
Take each of your vegetables, trim the ends off and slice into very thin rounds. You could use a mandoline but if you’re cutting by hand just aim to cut them all to a similar thickness to allow even cooking.
Place each vegetable rounds into its own bowl and pour over 50ml of double cream and some grated parmesan with a bit of thyme. Add salt and pepper to season. Give it a stir; you’re looking for the vegetables rounds to be well coated. Be slightly less generous with the cream when coating the beetroot as this will ensure that the pink colour does not bleed as the beetroot cooks.
Take the first vegetable and create a stack, place them in the baking dish, repeat this with the remaining vegetables, creating rows of vegetables until your dish is full.
Pour the remaining cream and sprinkle the remaining parmesan over the vegetable rows. Cover with foil.
Place in the Egg and cook for about 40 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
Uncover the dish and sprinkle over the grated gruyere. Bake for a further 20 minutes, until vegetables are ready and the top of the gratin has lightly browned.
Remove from the heat and sprinkle with some fresh thyme leaves.

This dish can be the star of the show or served as a side dish.