Citrus celery root Salad
Perfect citrus season dish. Juicy, flavorful, grounding, with a bit of a zing. One of my all-time favorites!
Serve this as a side alongside pork roast or steak. Add them to a mezze dinner. Eat on its own.
INGREDIENTS:
1-2 large celery roots peeled and cut into 1-inch thick rounds
1 large grapefruit
2 navel oranges - or any 2 kinds of citrus, peeled and segmented
Fancy it up: add star fruit
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp coriander seed (or fennel seed)
1/4 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
Fresh horseradish root for grating
1 packed cup of bitter greens (radicchio or arugula)
Sliced peperoncini (optional)
Heat the oven to 400F.
Peel and slice the celery root into 1-inch thick rounds.
Spread the rounds on a baking sheet in an even layer. Brush with olive oil, season with salt and coriander seed (can substitute fennel seed or leave it out if you don’t have those on hand). Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes until tender but not mushy. Test with a fork poke: when the fork can pierce the rounds, they are ready.
In the meantime using a sharp knife peel, slice or segment your citrus.
Cut a slice off each end of the citrus to flatten. Stand it on the cutting board on one of its flat sides. Slice away the peel, from the top to the bottom including all the piths - on the sides all around it. Then either slice it and or segment the fruit.
Video here: YouTube
Arrange celery rounds on a plate with the peeled/segmented citrus.
Dress with a bit of olive oil, grate fresh horseradish over it. If you don’t have fresh horseradish, omit it, do not use canned stuff, it doesn’t work well.
Add your choice of bitter salad leaves, hand-torn. I routinely use radicchio or arugula and did use celery leaves when in a pinch.
Finally, if using, chop the pepperoncini and top the plate with it.
Crack black pepper over it to taste and enjoy!
I ate a version of this dish in Copenhagen a couple of years ago. That version had the celery rounds fried (a fried mozzarella stick kinda vibe) and omitted the bitter salad. If you’d like to give that a go, coat your cooked celery rounds in beaten egg, and breadcrumbs. Fry in a pan with a 1/2 inch of oil over med-high heat until golden brown, about 2 min per side. Then assemble as per above.
