Celeriac, or celery root, is a well-known vegetable root in France. It’s called céleri-rave in French.
I got some this week at our vegetable CSA (a club we belong to where we pay in advance and get delicious organic veggies delivered from a farm every week).
One way to eat them is to make a salad out of them. You peel the roots first. Then you shred them. According to Suzanne at our CSA, the French eat them with a mustard dressing. That’s how I prepared them for my husband, my teenage son and me. I’ll post that recipe below.
My 7 year old daughter would never go for a celeriac mustard dressing salad! So I took out some of the shredded celery root. I placed it in a microwave safe bowl. Sprinkled a little bit of water over it. Put a little pat of butter on it and a sprinkling of salt. I covered it and microwaved it for one minute. It was quite good! My daughter ate about half of it – which I would call fairly successful considering that she’s a pretty picky eater.
Here’s the recipe for the salad…
Celery Root Salad with Mustard Dressing
2 Celery Roots
3 ½ T. Olive Oil (I prefer using Extra Virgin)
½ Freshly squeezed Lemon (plus more if desired)
Pinch salt (to taste)
Grinding Black Pepper (to taste)
Pinch Sea Salt (if you have it)
2 T. Mustard (Preferably French – like Grey Poupon – you can use less or more depending on if you like a kick or not)
Peel and shred celery roots. I used a food processor for the shredding.
Put olive oil, lemon, salt, sea salt and pepper in bowl and stir well until mixed. Add in mustard. Mix well and adjust to suit your taste. (When my teenage son is eating it with us I put a little less mustard in.)
Add in the shredded celery roots and stir.
Bon appétit!
Many thanks to Suzanne Zoubeck for suggesting the French way of preparing celery root. We really enjoyed it!
-Mama Lisa
This article was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Celeriac Salad, Countries & Cultures, Food and Nutrition, France, Mama Lisa, Parenting, Recipes of the World, Salads, Side Dishes, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
7 Responses to “Check Out Celeriac – It’s Celery Root – Interesting Veggie, plus a Recipe”
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December 5th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Thanks for the yummy recipe. Didn’t know you blogged! Will tell all your fellow CSA members to check it out. It looks pretty interesting so I want to browse around myself. There’s a bunch of parents and new parents in the CSA so I think they’d be interested from what I see listed in your categories (beyond the recipes). I’m not a parent but I like music and folk songs so it applies to me too!
December 6th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Thanks Suzanne! My sites are enjoyed by kids of all ages (even those called “adults”!).
I emailed my friend, Monique, in France to see what she thought about celery root and here’s what she wrote:
“I never eat it though I like it – well, actually I’d say I like the sauce! This is the raw veggie along with grated carrots we get in cafeterias and any canteen (schools, companies, etc…) and the dish is called “céleri rémoulade” because of the sauce. We eat it grated raw then mixed with rémoulade which is a mayonnaise that you start with two boiled yolks + one raw + mustard, at the end you add salt, pepper and vinegar (or lemon juice) then you mix the sauce with the grated celery. A friend of mine once made fries with it instead of with potatoes and it was quite good.”
December 11th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Alfred Roy’s Celeriac Soup
When I first joined CSA, the first celeriac sat in the fridge until it qualified as Expensive Compost. Then we got another–and another! My “share” partner, Alfred Roy and I couldn’t find a recipe we liked, so I invented a soup that I brought to Centers twice. Alfred Roy loved it!
Celeriac 1 onion fresh garlic
2 carrots 3 potatoes 1 turnip
sea salt (optional) black pepper
Wash the celeriac and boil gently in just enough water to cover it for 20 minutes. Remove and discard water. Saute one onion and a little garlic while you re-wash(*) the celeriac and peel it. Cut into fairly small pieces and cook in a soup pot. Caleriac is very flavorful and will result in a surprising volume of tasty broth. add three potatoes, three carrots, one turnip and cook until the veggies are softened but not mushy.
If you like a thicker soup, blenderize the celeriac and the turnip and one each of the potatoes and carrot with a little broth. Then add them back in and stir. Otherwise, you can just cut everyting into small pieces and serve. I add a little salt and pepper. For me, other spices seemed too much, but it’s fun and different any way.
(*) okay, I have a little OCD
December 11th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Sounds great! I’ll have to try it.
-Lisa
February 4th, 2009 at 5:20 am
There are other ways the French prepare celeriac, which is a good substitute for potatoes as it has a much lower G.I.(glycemic index) and fewer calories. Peeled, boiled and mashed as with potatoes, it is a refined mash to serve with steak or finer meats such as venison. It can also be sliced thinly and used as pommes dauphines or fried like potatoe chips. It is a little known vegetable here in New Zealand, but is rather inexpensive in season (although I always have to explain to the checkout person what it is. Bon Apetit
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:15 am
There is a really great recipe for rustic veg soup with celeriac on http://www.knorr.co.uk its by the chef marco pierre white, trust me its delicious!
March 7th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Celery root is quite common in Germany and used as a root vegetable in soups and sauces, much like, and often in addition to, carrots. It can be added to mire poix and can be viewed as both an aromatic and a (thickening) base for sauces.
While contemplating a substitute for potatoes while on South Beach these past few weeks, it struck me to peel them and cut juliennes, toss them with italian seasoning, black pepper and olive or canola oil, then bake in the oven (425F convection). Voila, amazing pommes frites!
A great alternative to the standard faux mashed potatoes made with cauliflower, which we also really enjoy.