The surprise of roasted celery

celery skeptics, stay with me

Roasted celery is something I’ve eaten for as long as I can remember. Growing up, it would appear on our table regularly: mixed with matchstick ginger and lemon as a perch for baked fish; bound together with eggs and herbs to make a fridge-clear-out frittata; as part of a Sunday roast; and so on.

As is often the case with familial habits, I had completely normalised this way with celery and thought little of it. Until a few years ago when I had a group of friends over for supper. I served roasted celery alongside various other bits and bobs and everyone at the table, celery lovers and celery skeptics alike, honed in on the celery. They assured me this was not as normal as I thought it was, they had never had roasted celery before, but the platter was passed round greedily and finished before any other. In fact, it was the celery skeptics who were most enamoured. As a badge-holding celery lover, I simply cannot relate to their reasoning, but I take their word for it that the grassy, bitter flavour they find challenging when celery is in its raw form transforms upon roasting.

So please see today’s newsletter as an enthusiastic invitation to try roasted celery, if you haven’t already.

The recipe below uses both raw and roasted celery because - like I said - I am an ardent lover and therefore see this as the best of both worlds. If you are a skeptic, you could try the roasted celery (I hope you feel the same way as my converted friends!) and substitute the raw slices for another suitably crunchy veg such as shredded white cabbage or thinly sliced carrots.

Just a few of the many ways to enjoy this salad:

~ With a roast chicken, a baguette and good butter. Nothing else needed. A perfect way to mark the weekend.

~ Packed up in a lunchbox alongside a mound of pebbly lentils. A working lunch to look forward to.

~ Scooped up with crackers as a standing-staring-into-the-fridge snack.

~ As a source of crunch alongside gentle late-winter food such as soft polenta, ragu, soups, and stews. Crunch is key at this time of year, when snoozy bowl after snoozy bowl can become tedious.

Raw and roasted celery salad