Kari of all Trades...Master of Some: Celeriac, Sweet Potato and Hazelnut "Stuffing"

This is a dish I made recently for Thanksgiving. This year I wanted to prepare food that I could eat, I know that is selfish, but I felt that if I was going to cook, I wanted to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Thankfully the people I spent Thanksgiving with are great people and did not mind a few changes to the traditional dishes that are usually served. Because I could not eat the traditional bread filled stuffing, I wanted to recreate something that at least had some of the same moistness and crunch. The addition of celeriac gives it that lovely celery flavor that my stuffing would normally have.

No this is not a picture of a space alien. This ugly root vegetable is the tasty celeriac. Underneath all that ugliness is an intense celery flavored vegetable that can be used in place of celery. What I love about it is that it is a storage vegetable grown by my local CSA. I do not need to buy celery grown elsewhere for my winter recipes.

Ingredients

1 Cup diced celeriac

1 Cup diced sweet potato

1/2 Cup diced red onion

2 Tablespoons cooking fat

1/2 Cup chopped hazelnuts

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: Garlic salt

Directions

-Cook celeriac, onions and sweet potato in cooking fat over medium heat in a large skillet for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Watch closely and adjust heat and/or time if vegetables start to brown too quickly.

-When almost browned to your liking (about 10 minutes), add in hazelnuts and season with salt and pepper (and optional garlic salt).

-Cook mixture for a few more minutes until hazelnuts start to get lightly brown, stirring occasionally.

-Serve as a side, or on top of a bed of fresh spinach.

-Makes 2-3 side servings.

Note: If you would like to double or triple this recipe, you can also roast the vegetables (coated in your cooking fat of choice and salt and pepper) in the oven at 450 degrees for approximately 30 minutes, flipping the vegetables after 15 minutes. Add in the hazelnuts for the last 5 minutes. Make sure the vegetables are in a single layer, use multiple pans if needed.