It has a distinct celery flavour as it is a relative but is a plant grown for its root rather than the more well recognised celery which is grown for it's stalks and leaves.
My first recipe is a new one for me, a recipe that I saw recently in an issue of BBC Good Food magazine for baking a whole celeriac in the oven.
They are quite large and rather ugly but have a sweet flavour reminiscent of delicate celery
Soak the roots in water and then scrub off all the dirty bits and cut off the straggly bits.
Rub the root with about 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil and place on a piece of foil.
Scatter with a bulb of garlic broken into cloves and sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme (from my allotment!). Tightly wrap the foil around the root and bake in the oven at 180oC/350oF/Gas 4 for about two hours and possibly another 30 minutes if a knife doesn't go through the middle easily.
When the vegetable is soft slice off the top and squeeze the garlic cloves on top, sprinkle with salt&pepper and a know of butter and mix in.
Let everyone help themselves.
The next recipe is my own, I often make a Sunday soup and wanted to use up the leftover celeriac. I started with chopped onion, 3 small carrots and a potato and sauteed them in olive oil until the onion started to go translucent.
then chucked in the remainder of the celeriac after I had peeled the outside skin off.
I also added the beetroot tops from the bunch of beetroot I got in the market yesterday and some of the red chard form the rainbow chard from the allotment.
I topped the vegetables with vegetable stock water and added salt&pepper and let it cook until the carrots and potato pieces were soft.
Take the pot off the heat and let cool for 4-5 minutes then I used my stick blender to blend the soup, stopping before it was too smooth so that there was a little bit of texture. A few drops of smoked chipotle Tabasco sauce and taste!
This made a really warming and tasty soup which will be taken to work by Mr R and myself for lunch this week.
Celeriac is sold by the kilo and this one cost me £1.20 which made a vegetable for Sunday lunch and the basis of the soup.
Next week I shall be reporting on another celeriac recipe and a few more facts about this rather unknown vegetable. Would you try this versatile vegetable? Please leave a comment below whether or not you would and what you would use it for.
It looks rather ugly but I like celeriac! It is great in soups and stews.. I shared a few recipes when I first discovered it last year. I look forward to seeing what else you make with it. :)
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