Finnish swede casserole – Lanttulaatikko

I begin the Christmas recipes with this iconic Finnish Christmas dish. This style of swede casserole, Lanttulaatikko, is hardly missing from any Finnish Christmas feast. It's a very good addition to any vegetarian Christmas meal and it's easy to make. The only problem is that the making process is fairly time consuming. That is why it's typically prepared before Christmas and then frozen or refridgerated to be reheated on Christmas.

This recipe only makes a small amount of casserole. Feel free to double the amounts if you want to have more casserole. On my family's Christmas table we tend to have many different things so that not such huge amounts are needed of each.

Ingredients

1 large swede

1dl oat cream

1dl breadcrumbs

2tbsp maple syrup

25g butter

½tsp ground ginger

½tsp white pepper

½tsp salt

Method

Peel the swede and cut it into small pieces. Boil the swede pieces in salty water until they are soft. This takes about 20 minutes.

Puree the swede and add little butter. Then also add the cream and 2/3 of the breadcrumbs to the swede and season the mix with maple syrup, ginger, white pepper and salt. As a result you should have a puree that is slightly more moist than regular potato mash.

Put the mix into small ramekins or a larger oven dish. Sprinkle the rest of the breadcrumbs on the top.

Bake at 180C for about 2 hours. For the last hour you can reduce the temperature to 150C.

Serve as a side dish at the Christmas table.

Your VegHog

Swede and seed rolls

Now this is what I call a rustical and autumnal and even a very healthy meal. These are quite basic seed rolls with some added grated swede. Adding vegetables to bread is always fun and makes such a tasty result. These are also extremely easy ta make, no heavy kneading is required!

Ingredients for about 15-16 rolls

300g grated swede

800ml wheat flour

5dl water

25g yeast

2dl oat and barley flakes

2dl mixed seeds (poppy, sunflower etc.)

1dl flaxseed

1dl margarine

3tsp salt

2tsp sugar

Method

Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water. Melt the margarine and grate the swede. Add the grated swede, the seeds, the flakes, salt, sugar and the melted margarine to the yeast water.

Slowly add the flour to these ingredients while mixing. Once you have an even dough let it rise under a teatowel for about 30 minutes. Shape small rolls of the dough and place them on a greased baking tray. Let them rise again under a teatowel.

Before baking brush the rolls with water and sprinkle some seeds and oat and barley flakes on them. Bake them at 190C for about 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy the fresh rolls just with butter and cheese or use them as burger rolls. I loved having these as little breakfast rolls on the next day.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog