It sounded interesting when I planted it earlier this year - a mutant form of celery with a large celery-flavored knobby root.
I tried the recommendation for cutting up the root and adding it to salads, which was edible but not much more than that.
I still have two of these things out in the vegetable garden, now swollen to the size of giant Holy Hand Grenades. I was thinking of saving them for a cooked Thanksgiving dish, if anyone has a sure-fire recommendation - otherwise they’re headed to the compost heap or a possible short career as Labrador chew toys.
Celeraic is amazing boiled and mashed together with potatoes. I hope it goes without saying, but cut away all the skin and cut it up into reasonable sized chunks, don’t just boil the whole hand grenade. Same cooking time as potatoes cut into similar size pieces, so you just boil everything together in one pot, drain, and mash.
The other day I wanted to make a cream-of-potato soup, and I only had one potato, so I used part celery root, and it was teh yumz.
That French salad of shredded raw celeriac dressed with a mustardy dressing is supposed to be great, but I made it once and wasn’t very impressed with it. And I love celery and celery flavors.
I think I’ll try it cooked and mashed with potatoes, like you suggest, Hello Again.
I like it in scalloped potatoes; it adds an interesting flavor and lightens the dish up. And in mashed potatoes, definitely. I actually like it quite a bit, so you can send 'em to me if you don’t want to use them yourself.
1 large onion, sliced
6-8 large ribs celery, sliced
1 large celery root, peeled and cubed
2 bay leaves
Sweat the onion in 2-3 T of butter until soft and translucent. Add celery, saute til softened a bit. Add bay, celery root, salt and pepper. Cover with a inch of water. Throw in a handful of rice for thickening purposes. Simmer until celery root is soft. Use immersion blender or actual blender to puree. Swirl in 2 T of butter as a liaison and to enrich flavor. Autumn in a bowl.
Some people want to use chix stock and heavy cream, but the simple vegetable flavor is what I like. This is very French, which I also like.
We found them to be the scurvy-avoiding vegetable of choice when travelling along the Oregon trail, as they store forever and travel well. Pickle jars tended to break.
I’ve never tried raw celeriac, but my thinking is that you might as well just use celery if you need a raw salad ingedient.
But cooked, celeriac is a favourite of mine - I often mash it as mentioned, with or without added potato. It doesn’t mash as smoothly as potato though, so will likely remain a bit granular, though you could try using a food blender.
As with celery, it goes well with cheese, so you can add some to the mash, and celeriac works well in a ‘Dauphinoise’ or gratin, with cream, garlic and grated cheese on top.
I use it in soup and stew regularly. It’s common in Eastern European dishes where celery root is far more common that celery stalks. In fact, when I lived in Budapest a decade ago, it was quite difficult finding green celery, but the root was ubiquitous. Also great boiled and mixed in with mashed taters.
Yeah, try it cooked. I know it’s used in salads, but I’ve never used it raw myself. When I said above that I use it in soups, I meant as part of the vegetable mix (or mirepoix) for the stock. Eastern European style chicken soup, for instance, usually contains carrots, parsnips, and often celery root as the “soup vegetables”'that lend flavor to the broth.
I’ve tried it mashed on its own and find it a bit too much of a one-note dish. Much better to mix it in with other root veg - for example, you could throw some carrot in with the potato-celeriac (or parsnip-celeriac) mash for a bit of color and extra flavor. Or some rutabega (that’s “swede”, for the UK peeps).
Meh - celeriac with sauce remoulade. I had it as a late lunch component after a long and turbulent flight Boston to Paris, and it really turned me off of the dish. Nothing like wilty julienne of celeriac root with lukewarm remoulade for nasty.
