The beauty of a vegetable gratin is that it can be made with virtually any veggies you wish. I made a gratin of potatoes, carrots, leeks and baby spinach last month when the gray, rainy weather set in after our all too brief summer season in Paris. A week later it was back on our table by popular demand. The veggies are steamed, bathed in a Béchamel sauce, topped with grated cheese and baked until golden and bubbly. Easy.
Gratin de légumes / Veggie gratin
This is French vegetarian food at perhaps its most classic. When I first arrived in Paris in the mid-70s, there was a little vegetarian restaurant on Rue Vieille du Temple in the Marais that served up the most delicious veggie gratins — a discovery for me. But, you may well ask, what makes it so French? Well, first of all the Bechamel, a quintessentially French sauce made of butter, flour and milk, with a hint of garlic, a dash of nutmeg and a spoonful of cream. Second, the cheese — usually Comté, Gruyère or a similar cheese from the eastern edge of France, near or in the Alps.
The key in this recipe is to choose veggies that marry well and suit the season. Potatoes, carrots, leeks and spinach work well in early autumn. As the weather turns cooler you could include butternut or pumpkin, or cauliflower. Broccoli and/or mushrooms may be added at any time of the year. (Other gratins on this site feature a single veggie: zucchini gratin, Swiss chard gratin, leek gratin, cauliflower gratin and eggplant gratin.)
The mixed veggie gratin may be served as a main course with a salad alongside for a simple meal, or as a side dish for a more elaborate meal. In autumn, you could begin with a seasonal starter, like a salad of lamb’s lettuce and beets or a pumpkin soup, and conclude with an apple dessert — for example, apple tart, tarte Tatin or baked apples.
This is generally a cool-weather dish, so it was perfect for pre-autumnal Paris. But after making the veggie gratin twice in September, I escaped to Washington, D.C., where the glorious sunshine was a delight. It wasn’t gratin weather there yet. Still, winter is coming — literally, of course, but in this danger-fraught political season, not figuratively, we hope.
Happy cooking.
