Celery Root Purée

It's fall now in the Willamette Valley and that's exciting for me because we're starting to see the return of the root vegetables to the farmers markets. This week marked the return of the celery root, nice fresh smallish ones. And it so happened that I was shopping for something to serve with a lamb stew. Celery root would be perfect.

I had it in mind to cut the celery root into large chunks and braise it in the stew, but I changed my mind. Instead, it ended up as a purée under the stew. Celery root has a very mellow and mild celery flavor and it makes a wonderful purée that is a fairly healthy stand-in for mashed potatoes. Of the root vegetable purées, parsnip is my favorite with celery root not far behind. We served a lot of each at the restaurant where the servers would get the invariable question, "What did you put in these mashed potatoes?"

Celery Root Purée 

I was aiming for low-cal celery root purée, so I thinned it with a dribble or two of the cooking water while blitzing it somewhat successfully in my wife's mother's antique first-generation Cuisinart. It knocks things down, but it doesn't give the ultrasmooth purées we served at the restaurant.

At the restaurant, I would have put the celery root in the big commercial two-horsepower robot coupe, then passed it through a very fine chinois to remove any fibers, and then I would have respun it in the robot coupe with heavy cream to make a decadent mousse. Or rather, I would have been off doing executive chef things such as payroll while one of the cooks made the mousse. ;) Yeah, that chef life rocks!

Celery Roots

These celery roots are just in from the farmers market and are trimmed much closer than I have ever seen them before. The bottoms have a mass of crazy roots which you can see on the left, while the tops have celery stalks and leaves sprouting out. You can see where the top was trimmed on the celery root on the right.

If you're new to celery root, a word of advice. The medium size roots such as these (they're about softball size) are preferable to the larger ones. When you start getting roots as large as pomelos and larger, you'll find that they are often soft and pithy in the center and sometimes stringy to the point of being useless.

Trimmed Celery Roots

Trimming celery root is not rocket science.  All the fuzzy brown skin has to come off. A vegetable peeler is not going to be of much use: use a knife to slice off the skin until you expose bright white flesh.

Cubed Celery Root Ready to Cook

Once the celery root is cleaned, you can do whatever you want with it. It is good raw in slaws, salads, and in that quintessential French bistro appetizer celeri rémoulade, fine julienne of celery root dressed in a mustardy rémoulade sauce. Some people shred the celery root for that dish, but I don't care for the shredded texture. I only shred celery root for latkes and it makes fine latkes. Celery root can do anything a potato can do (baked, boiled, steamed, braised) and it makes outstanding French fries.

But today, we're making a purée and that starts by cutting the raw celery root into roughly even cubes so that they all cook at the same rate. The biggest fail in making a purée is to have hard chunks in it because most but not all of the vegetable was cooked through.

Cover the cubes with water, stock, milk, or cream. Although cream is decadent as hell, I have lactose issues and currently, COVID-induced waistline issues, so I opted for water. Simmer until tender then transfer the cubes to the food processor. Pulse, adding cooking liquid or other liquid as needed, to yield the texture purée you're seeking. Season to taste with salt and white pepper. You may want to add a pat of butter, but I did not.