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Vegetable Love—Celeriac

Plants & Gardens News | Volume 22, Number 3 | Fall 2007/Winter 2008

by Christopher Nicolson

Celeriac (Apium graveolens var. rapaceum), stalk celery's subterranean relative, is an unassuming star of the autumn vegetable set. The cool, earthy fragrance and the knobbly ivory-brown exterior of celeriac are amiable and unpretentious—there is a sense of truth about this root and its aroma. A freshly scrubbed, unpeeled head of celeriac is a masterpiece of sculpture, its skin a map of innumerable nodes, crevices, and fine hairs, radiating muscularly around a pale green crown, trimmed to the quick.

Celeriac (Photograph by Murray Stanley)

Photograph by Murray Stanley

The substantial, grapefruit-size celeriac is understated—especially in comparison to stalk celery's bright green, fibrous, and crunchy bravado. Like celery, celeriac offers a keen, refreshing taste. Unlike celery, celeriac has warm undertones of fennel, mustard greens, and sometimes hazelnut. Raw, peeled celeriac delivers its satisfying warmth in a lovely pale interior reminiscent in texture of turnips or kohlrabi. Cooked and peeled celeriac is as smooth a base for soup or mash as any potato and as comforting, but with a markedly lower glycemic index.

Celeriac is a biennial with a long growing season, up to 200 days, which for cool-climate gardeners means early-spring germination indoors. The extra indoor time and the wild appearance of the root's aboveground stalks and leaves apparently cause North American gardeners to shy away from growing celeriac, and it's yet to become a household staple here. European, and particularly British, gardeners seem more willing to plant it—they've long appreciated celeriac's culinary charms. The Royal Horticultural Society has "knighted" several celeriac cultivars for their taste, shape, external texture, and the like. In the 2006 "Award of Garden Merit" rankings, RHS selected 'Monarch', 'Prinz', 'Ibis', 'Kojak' (which is smooth and rounded like the eponymous TV icon), and 'Diamant'. Of these, 'Monarch', which is white-skinned and has a bold flavor, and 'Diamant', a medium-size root, are easiest to come by in the U.S. Otherwise, 'Giant Prague', 'Brilliant', and 'Snow White' remain commonly available to New World gardeners. We would do well to plant—and to eat—more of this noble root.

Celeriac With Roasted Walnuts and Pippin Apples in a Mustard Vinaigrette

  • 2 large heads celeriac
  • 3/4 cup shelled walnuts
  • 2 medium Newtown Pippin apples
  • 1 small lemon
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
  • 1/8 cup cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup (or a little less) roasted walnut oil or neutral salad oil
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon or flat-leaf parsley
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 275° F. Roast the walnuts until lightly toasted, let cool, chop, and reserve. Bring a medium pot of cold water to boil. Meanwhile, fill a bowl with cold water and the juice of half the lemon.

Peel the celeriac and immediately cut it into matchsticks roughly 1/4 inch wide and 1/8 inch thick. Place the matchsticks in the lemon water as you cut them.

Prepare a second bowl of cold water with the juice of the other half of the lemon, but add a handful of ice to this one. Set aside.

Next, carefully place the celeriac matchsticks in the pot of boiling water. Bring the pot back to a boil and cook the celeriac for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Immediately drain the pot and empty the celeriac into the bowl of iced lemon water.

Wash and finely slice the two apples, placing the slices in the un-iced lemon water as you work.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the maple syrup, vinegar, mustard, black pepper, and tarragon or parsley. Whisk in the oil by drops until the vinaigrette becomes creamy. Season to taste with salt.

Thoroughly drain the celeriac and apples and toss them with half the chopped walnuts in the vinaigrette. Refrigerate, and one hour before serving, let the salad sit at room temperature until cool but not cold. Garnish with reserved walnuts.

After all, celeriac does not require the greedy, diva-worthy attention that its cousin, stalk celery, demands. According to experienced growers, however, celeriac does require patience. Celeriac seeds should be germinated indoors beginning in late February. They require plenty of light and adequate (but not excessive) moisture. After seedlings have developed a few small "true" leaves, they may be transplanted to pots. Be careful not to disturb their delicate root systems—your dinner hangs in the balance.

Due to celeriac's biennial nature and its tendency to become confused and bolt, mid-May is usually the earliest that celeriac should be transplanted to your garden. In the garden, celeriac likes moist, rich soil that isn't too cold. Harvest can begin in early fall and continue late into the season. Celeriac keeps seemingly forever; trimmed roots can hibernate in a refrigerator for three to four months.

Once in the kitchen, celeriac can be transformed to accompany every course except dessert, and even that may be possible—celeriac sorbet, perhaps. A salad of briefly blanched then chilled celeriac, accompanied by roasted walnuts and apple slices and lightly dressed, is a little bit of autumn heaven. A soup of simmered, peeled, and pureed celeriac (over a base of onions and leeks) with a scattering of crisp bacon or pancetta is a meal in itself. And celeriac simmered and mashed with one small turnip and a potato, is a delicious match with roast chicken.

Celeriac—handsome, delicious, and straightforward—is waiting in the wings for its full entrance into the North American garden.

(A note to cooks: Whether it is eaten raw or cooked, as soon as celeriac is peeled of its protective exterior, it must be staged in a bath of lemon water to prevent oxidation until it is dressed or cooked.)



Christopher Nicolson, a freelance writer, lives in Brooklyn and Alaska. In Alaska, he and his family fish commercially for wild sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay.