Portland Veggie Au Gratin

That's what I'm calling this, because I never heard of half these vegetables and ever since moving to Portland I'm addicted to them.

So I went a little nuts at the farmer's market on Saturday and I had a lot of veg around. I went to the gym this morning and felt like making a really good, cheesy, stick-to-your ribs lunch, so I started looking for something to do with these sunchokes I picked up. A lot of recipes were for au gratin sunchokes, and I was just thinking about a Jamie Oliver recipe involving potatoes and celeriac, so I decided to just throw everything into a big damn au gratin dish.

For your enjoyment, here's how I did it. Feel free to substitute whatever veggies you think would be good (damn, I just remembered I have some cauliflower in there too that would've been good in this... oh well, next time). If all you have available is conventional supermarket veg, try potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, or any combination. Even onions would be good here! And now, here's mine...

1 small celeriac root, peeled and sliced
3 small kohlrabi, peeled and diced
3 small potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
1/2 pound (I think) sunchokes (aka Jerusalem artichokes), scrubbed and sliced (do not peel!!)
3 baby leeks, thoroughly washed and sliced

Put all the veg except the leeks into a big pot and add just enough cold water to almost cover. Salt it, bring it up to a boil, and simmer for five minutes. Give the leeks another good wash in the colander, and when the veggies are ready, drain it all into the same colander so the heat from the root veg steams the leeks just a bit. Leave it to keep draining and steaming while you make the cheese sauce. Preheat the oven to 350 F (170 C) and start the water boiling in the bottom of a double boiler or a small pot (see below).

In a bowl, whisk together:

1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/8 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 Tbsp potato starch (or corn starch, or arrowroot powder)
1 tsp vegetarian chicken broth powder (optional)
Sprinkling of salt to taste (I hate it so I don't use much, just the slightest dash)
Paprika to taste (I love it, so it was probably almost a teaspoon's worth)

Once it's all mixed well, whisk in one scant cup of water, and keep whisking it until it's all well-blended and there are no lumps. I know this is probably starting to sound creepy here, but bear with me, this makes one hell of an awesome vegan cheese sauce. Pour this into the top part of a double boiler, or into a small pan you can hold over a pan of boiling water. Cook the sauce, stirring constantly, until it starts to thicken up (just a couple of minutes) and remove it from the heat. If you want you can add a little butter while you're cooking it (I did, but only a little pat).

Once it's off the heat, stir in a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of mustard - spicy mustard is good here if you have it. Add a big dollop of milk, soymilk, or cream. I had some whipping cream left over from Thanksgiving, so I used that. Check the taste here and see if you want to season it; I added some chili powder. Transfer the veggies to a big bowl, pour the sauce over it, and mix it all up. Pour it all into a casserole dish, smooth it mostly flat, and grate some good sharp cheddar cheese over the top. Sprinkle it with a little paprika if you want it to look pretty, and bake at 350 F (170 C) for 20-30 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and browned.

If you're vegan, leave out the butter and cheese and use soymilk. It's good that way too and the nutritional yeast sauce really tastes just like cheese!

So that's my lunch. It's been cooking while I type this and just came out of the oven. So delicious. Definitely worth doing again, I love all these flavors with the cheese!