The Tale of Two Roots - Part 1
Continuing with our celery root series, our dear friend Basia and I wanted to bring you two options for using this yummy and healthy root vegetable for your holiday meal. If you are cooking a traditional sit-down meal featuring roasted meat or playing to pescatarian tastes with yummy fish, you may find Celery Root with Thyme to be a perfect complement. And if you are making more of a buffet spread of a variety of yummies, you may find this Creamy Celery Root Salad to be a perfect dish to include.
In Part 1, I’ll cover Celery Root with Thyme. And in the next post, Part 2, we’ll continue with the Creamy Celery Root Salad.
If you missed the original post featuring the story behind how the crazy-looking celery root became a core part of our cuisine repertoire, check out Celeriac - like a pug, so ugly, it’s cute….I mean delicious! If you want a traditional holiday classic using celery root, check out Perfect Holidays Celery Root and Potato Mash.
Basia and I had been talking for some time about starting to make recipes together, so our passion for celery root finally inspired us to start doing this. Recently, she came over on a weeknight, and we cooked up a storm with these two favorite celery root dishes (in masks of course).
Celery Root with Thyme can be the perfect alternative to potatoes for this holiday’s meal or for any time this winter. It’s a mild dish that packs its punch in herbs, specifically, fresh thyme. I continue to love dishes that let me use the herbs in my garden (about the only thing we cultivated this year during the renovation) into the winter time. Thyme is one of those hardy herbs that just keeps on keepin’ despite temperatures in the 20’s and 30’s at night.
Celery Root with Thyme is a hearty dish that will fill you up, too. I’ve enjoyed leftovers for my lunch. And it keeps well for several days with the combination of celery root and thyme still tasting like you just took it off the stove once you reheat it.
Thanks to one of our favorite cookbooks for the foundational recipe: The Cook and the Gardener by Amanda Hesser. And thanks to Ryan and Julia McMahon for adding this delightful book of yummy recipes to our cookbook collection.
Celery Root with Thyme
Ingredients at the ready
Ingredients:
1-2 celery roots - depending on how much you want to make and how large your celery roots are
8-12 sprigs of thyme - or more if you are like me and love herb tastes
1 bay leaf
1 32 ounce carton of Chicken broth - veggie broth works great too
small container of heavy whipping cream - non-dairy alternative would work fine too
extra thyme for garnish
water - as needed to fully immerse the celery root sticks as they simmer
Instructions:
Slice the celery root: first halve the root lengthwise. Laying each half cut-side down on a cutting board, slice crosswise as thin as possible. Stack four or five slices at a time and cut these into long 1/4-inch slivers. You are essentially creating matchsticks of celery root..
Tie the bay leaves and thyme together with kitchen string. In a medium or large saucepan combine the celery root and the herbs. Add the stock and water as needed to ensure the vegetable is fully covered with liquid. Season lightly with salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until just tender but still slightly crisp, 10-12 minutes. Meanwhile, strip the leaves from the additional thyme and reserve for garnish.
When the celery root is done, fish out the herbs and discard,. Drain enough stock so you have about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of stock left in the pan (depending on how much celery root you used). Pour the cream over the celery root and stir to incorporate. Heat through over medium heat. The desired result is that of tender strands of celery root in a loose cream sauce. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Stir in the reserve thyme leaves and serve.
Peeling the root with a knife
Cut each root in half.
Cutting each half into thin slices
Cutting those slices into julienned sticks
Basia and I finish the cutting together
Simple bouquet garni - bay leaf and thyme
All cinched up nice and tight
Basia makes a 2nd bouquet as we like lots of herbs
Celery root matchsticks ready to go
Ready for cooking
Celery root into the pot
Stock in!
Water in!
Bouquets garni in!
Salt in!
Simmering away!
Stirring a few times during the process
Discarding much of the broth
Cream in!
Dish garnished with more fresh thyme!
We continued our evening of cooking fun with Basia’s celery root recipe for Creamy Celery Root Salad followed by a delicious dinner featuring our two yummy celery root dishes.
Click here for The Tale of Two Roots - Part 2. Or use the Newer button at the bottom of the blog to advance to Part 2 of this yummilicious post.