Root Vegetable Crumble

I had a small Thanksgiving dinner with my parents this year, and made half-batches of my two favourite sides: Mashed Potatoes & Stuffing. I usually make one more side dish with sweet potatoes or butternut squash, and so with a smaller number of test subjects this year, I auditioned a new recipe combining both: Root Vegetable Crumble.

I think I ripped this recipe out of a magazine at my dentist’s office because it looked so good to me. It’s a mixture of the aforementioned sweet potatoes and butternut squash plus mini yellow potatoes*, cooked in a cream sauce. All that is topped with a breadcrumb mixture with fresh sage that gets super crispy in the oven. I totally loved this, and think it tasted even better a day or two after I baked it. My testers loved it as well!

I halved the recipe to fit in an 8″ round casserole dish (the quantities for this are listed below), but kept the amount of breadcrumb topping the same so it can cover the top completely. You can easily double the recipe for a crowd, which I plan to do for Thanksgiving 2021 when we can all gather together again!

*I made this again in 2021 and swapped out the mini yellow potatoes for sliced carrots and loved it.

Root Vegetable Crumble

Source: Canadian Living

Ingredients

Creamy Root Vegetables

  • 2 cups peeled, cubed butternut squash
  • 2 cups peeled, cubed sweet potato
  • 1 cup peeled, sliced carrots
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup whipping cream
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Fresh Breadcrumb Topping

  • 1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs
  • 2 tbsp fresh sage, minced
  • 1 tbsp fresh parsley, minced OR 1/2 tbsp dried parsley
  • 3 tbsp butter, melted

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°.
  2. Add the butternut squash, sweet potatoes and mini yellow potatoes to a 8″ casserole dish and toss to combine.
  3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then add the flour and whisk together and cook for 1-2 minutes. Slowly add the chicken broth, whisking constantly until smooth, then add the whipping cream. Increase the heat slightly until mixture starts to bubble, then reduce heat and whisk constantly until thickened. Stir in the dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Taste and add more salt if it needs it.
  4. Pour the cream sauce over the vegetables and bake for 1 hour until the vegetables are cooked through.
  5. For the breadcrumb topping, toss together the fresh breadcrumbs, sage and parsley in a small bowl. Drizzle over the melted butter, and toss again until crumbs are MOISTENED. Sprinkle this mixture overtop of the vegetables and bake for another 15 minutes until the breadcrumbs are golden brown.