Celery Root Mashed Potatoes

This is one of my favorite side dishes because it takes the familiar comfort of classic mashed potatoes and adds an upscale twist. When there’s a scoop of rich, creamy, and just a little vegetal celery root mashed potato next to a steak, pork chop, or even just a chicken breast, I feel like I could have spent 4x as much in a restaurant to get the same thing.

One of the tricks here is that celery root and mashed potato have different cook times, so just add the celery root 8 mins before adding the potato and they’ll both be tender and delicious when you’re ready to mash.
I also like preparing my mix-ins ahead of time and getting them warm so they don’t drop the temperature of my mash when I add them. Simple mix-ins like heavy cream or milk, butter, salt, white pepper and starchy cooking water are my preference to really let the bright celery flavor come through.

Ingredients

Potato: The choice of potato is really important and can change what type of mash you get. I like Yukon Gold here because they’re pretty starchy and have a buttery flavor and texture. Russet is also a good backup. Avoid waxy potatoes like reds.
Celery Root: I can’t find these at every grocery store but they’re pretty common. A small one is good for a 2 person batch but if you’re making more mash get a big celery root.
Heavy Cream: Nothing beats the rich flavor and texture you get from heavy cream (35% or higher milk fat) but if you’re making a lighter version milk will do fine.
Butter: This recipe uses less butter than you’ll see in restaurant kitchens but we still get a beautifully rich and creamy result.

Starchy Water: Don’t throw that cooking water away! Just like with pasta, the starchy cooking water helps give us a great texture with less butter.
Salt: It’s salt!

White Pepper: This stuff is strong so don’t freehand it! I like it better than black pepper in a mashed potato so you don’t see any black specks.