introducing...the celery root

I've seen celery root at farmers markets and on various food blogs, but I’d never actually purchased and tried to cook it…until now! We were at the Ballard Market a week ago and while chatting with the guy from Full Circle Farms about his super yummy carrots, a big basket of celery root caught my eye. Never one to shy away from a cooking challenge, I decided to buy a couple of these inexpensive root vegetables!


What in the world do you do with a knobby and ugly thing such as this? Well in our case, what I did was stick it in the fridge and forget about it for a week. :) But then on Sunday, armed with this recipe in hand, I tackled the not-so-daunting task of cooking with celery root and I made a gratin as an accompaniment to our veggie burgers.


The verdict? Peeling the suckers wasn't the easiest chore in the world, but that’s to be expected based on their shape. The first thing I was struck by was the overwhelming celery scent as I peeled them. I guess that’s to be expected, too, based on their name…but I was still kind of surprised by it! Once I got them peeled, they basically handled just like a potato or a turnip. The baked gratin had a sweet and slightly celery flavor to it, and we both quite enjoyed it. I like adding another vegetable to our repertoire!

And since I have half of a wedge of fontina cheese left over, I’m going to make my favorite calzones for dinner tonight. I use whole-wheat pizza dough from Trader Joes, and the dinner comes together very quickly. Couldn't be easier!