Finnish Carrot Casserole

Growing up in Scandinavia, we always had very distinctive Christmas dishes. The obligatory Christmas ham of course, but also a spread of different casseroles. There always was potato, rutabaga, and carrot casseroles and sometimes even a liver casserole. It was customary to cook for several days before Christmas so everybody had plenty to eat for the festivities.

This year cooking for the holiday I had a pleasure to host a vegetarian guest and went back to the vegetable casseroles of my childhood. While I didn’t think we would consume several different casseroles between the five of us, I settled for the Carrot Casserole. It turned out to be a hit in the Christmas dinner table so I decided to share the recipe. While every family has their own recipe for this, I modified the recipe from Finnish dairy company Valio’s website.

The recipe makes 8-10 side servings or 4-5 main course servings.

Hope you enjoy it and get a taste of my childhood.

INGREDIENTS:

1 kg Carrots

5 dl Water

1 tsp Salt

1 1/2 dl Arborio rice

2 dl Heavy Cream

1 dl Milk

1 Egg

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 dl Maple Syrup

1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg

1/2 tsp Freshly Ground White pepper

1-2 tbsp Bread Crumbs

1-2 tbsp Butter

STEPS:

1. Heat the water and add the salt. Peel the potatoes and cut to bite size and add to boiling water. Simmer until tender.

2. Remove the carrots from the water and add the rice to the same water and cook on low heat about 15 min.

3. Meanwhile puree the carrots. Add heavy cream, milk, egg and the spices to the mixture. When the rice is done add to the mixture and stir together.

4. Pour the mixture to an oven safe baking dish (either butter the dish or add baking spray) and even out the mixture. Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs and add couple specks of butter on top.

5. Bake in 200 C/ 395F for about 45 min.