The Secret Ingredient Anne Burrell Adds To Her Mashed Potatoes

If you love mashed potatoes, you probably have your own "go-to" recipe, but Anne Burrell's recipe might make you feel like you've been missing an ingredient.

According to Anne Burrell.com, Burell has worked at some of the most elite restaurants in New York. She studied the culinary traditions of Italy and performed as a sous chef on Iron Chef America. Burell also wrote a cookbook that became a New York Times best-seller. On top of these high-profile bona fides, Burell has been passing on her cooking knowledge for years. The former instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education teaches the at-home cook how to master techniques in the kitchen (via the Food Network) and makes restaurant dishes attainable in her TV show, "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef." 

With all this experience the celebrity cook must be able to teach us a thing or two about mashing potatoes, right? Right. After learning about the simple addition Burrell makes in her mashed potato recipe, you'll probably wish you'd been doing the same. So what's the secret ingredient that Anne Burell adds to mashed potatoes?

Aside from the potatoes and other traditional ingredients that grace most recipes, Burrell also uses celery root, according to her recipe on the Food Network. For the uninitiated, celery root (also called celeriac or turnip-rooted celery) is a large, brown, bulbous root vegetable common in German, Puerto Rican, and northern European cuisines (via The Spruce Eats).

While you shouldn't make the mistake of treating celery root like celery — they have very different flavors — in a mash, you can treat them pretty similarly to your potatoes. After peeling away the tough outer part of the celery root, Burrell cuts them into 1-inch cubes alongside the potatoes, then boils and mashes them together. She finishes them off with heavy cream, butter, and salt.

While bringing a new flavor to a classic dish, adding or substituting celery root to your mashed potatoes is also a good option if you're watching your carbs. MyRecipes says celery root has half the carbs that potatoes do. The root vegetable is also high in fiber, iron, and calcium, including vitamin B. 

Mashed potatoes are just one place you might find celery root pop up. It's a versatile vegetable, which is an excellent ingredient in remoulade and sauces, and can also be mashed, pureed, shredded, sliced, and diced. Who knew?