Celeriac & Apple Salad

Celery Root or Celeriac, which is it more commonly called, is an odd shaped root vegetable that you most likely looked over while at the grocery store. Surprisingly it is a very popular vegetable in Europe.  In France, in particular, it is commonly used to make Celeraic romeleade.  A basic cole slaw recipe with mayo, mustard, lemon juice and raw shredded celeriac. 

This versatile root vegetable can be prepared raw, roasted, boiled,  or mashed.  It can often be found in salads and soups. 

Celeriac is cultivated for it’s root which means the celery we often buy and eat is not from this root.  It grows a leafy, whimper looking, stronger tasting celery stems on top. If you find the root with leafy greens on top it means it is fresh. (Side note: these leafy greens are good for making stock.)

When I first tasted celeriac it reminded me a little bit of jicama but with much more flavor.  It has a mild celery taste with a hint of parsley and has the crunch of jicama.

I decided a salad would be the best place to start for trying out celearic. It is super easy to prepare. A lot of celeriac salad recipes call for shredding the root or making match stick slices. For the salad below either can be done. Note: If you shred the celeriac then shred the apple as well.

As with most vegetables there are a couple of ingredients that pair well with each particular vegetable. For celeriac, lemon and apple are a common theme. Lemon in particular helps the root from oxidizing and giving off an unpleasant color.

In fact, if you are prepping to use celeriac but not planning on using it immediately then I recommend putting it in a bowl of water and lemon juice or rubbing the entire outside of the root with lemon as you peel it.

For this recipe I recommend making the salad dressing first so that the celeriac can be tossed with it immediately and does not discolor.

Here is what you need to get started:

Celeriac and Apple Salad

Ingredients:

1 small celeriac root

1 green apple

1/4 cup toasted pecans

1/8 cup blue cheese

Dressing:

3 TBSP Olive oil or Avocado Oil

1 TBSP Dijon mustard

1.5 TBSP Lemon juice

1 TSP honey

1/8 TSP salt

A couple dashes of pepper

1. Combine all the dressing ingredients in a bowl, whisk and set aside.

2. Peel and core the apple. Slice into matchstick slices.

3. Next, prepare the celeriac. Start by washing the root with cold water. Use a potato brush to scrub the outside.  Next slice the top of the root off. You can either use a knife to peel the root or a vegetable peeler. I prefer a knife. Cut into matchstick slices.

4. Toss the apple and celeriac with the dressing. Add the toasted pecans and blue cheese.

Note: Check to see how salty your blue cheese is. The one I like in particular is a little salty so I omitted the salt in the dressing.

Alternatives…..

• Don’t eat dairy? Leave it out
• Don’t like blue cheese? Try parmesan instead
• Pecans not your thing? Try walnuts or pine nuts.
• Also you can add some yummy sweet flavor by adding 1/8 cup of dried cranberries.