Foodists

On Celeriac

Celeriac aka Celery Root

Celeriac, for me, is comfort food.

Now, rather than having you rush off to Google, let me link to the Celeriac Wikipedia entry for you. In short, it’s a varietal of celery that is grown not for its leafy top and stalks, but rather the root. Celery root is the common name that you’ll likely hear most often.

Celeriac is comfort food for me because my parents are German, and it is something that my mom has always cooked. She usually makes soup out of it, and I think the cream of celeriac soup is much, much better than cream of celery.

NPR calls celeriac the “unsung frog prince of winter vegetables”, and includes some classic recipes at the end. I like it because it’s in season local wintertime produce, and because it’s not a starch, and yet you can make starch-like comfort food with it – from french fries to mash.

The big “trick” with celeriac is that you should treat it with acidulated water, especially if you’re going to be serving it raw. I’ll save you another trip to Google: that’s a fancy word for water with something acidic added, like lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar. These flavours go well with celeriac, and you can often incorporate it into the cooking process – for example, blanching it in boiling water that has lemon juice in it.

Winter is root vegetable season. Add some celeriac to your list, and come back and tell us how it turns out. Have any celeriac recipes / other links to share? Leave them in the comments here, or join the Foodists Friendfeed room and add them.