Celeriac remoulade
This classic French pairing of celeriac with a mustardy mayonnaise creates a creamy, crunchy salad with bite. It is typically served as part of the mixed vegetable plate known as assiette de crudités, but it has enough star power to stand on its own as a starter, and also works well as a side dish with roasted meats, roast chicken or poached fish, warm or cold.
You will have by far the best results if you make the mayo yourself. This is actually quite simple — if you’ve never made homemade mayonnaise before, check out this video. But if you’re in a rush, or prefer not to embark on homemade mayo, you can use a good-quality store-bought variety — preferably with no sugar listed among the ingredients.
As for the celeriac, the size of the root can vary widely, so it’s best to weigh it to determine how much to grate. The recipe below uses about 2 cups of grated celeriac. To obtain this quantity, begin with about 12 ounces (350 grams) of unpared root, or about 9 ounces (250 grams) once the root has been pared. The resulting salad will serve three as a stand-alone first course or up to six as part of a more elaborate starter or as a side dish.
When I made the salad shown above, I needed only one-quarter of a large celeriac to get 2 cups of grated root. That left me with quite a lot of extra celeriac. What to do? Leftover celery root can be used to make soup, roasted veggies or various salads. There are a number of recipes on the site. See below for a list of ideas.
1/2 cup mayonnaise, preferably homemade
4 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 celeriac (celery root)
1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp. salt
freshly ground black pepper
fresh herbs or tender leaves for garnish
Begin by making the mayonnaise. The recipe on this site makes 1 cup of mayo. You will only need 1/2 cup for the remoulade sauce, so either halve the recipe or store the extra mayo in a clean glass jar with a cover. It can be kept in the fridge for a week.
To make the remoulade sauce, measure out 1/2 cup of mayonnaise. Add 4 tsp. Dijon mustard. Stir to blend.
Now pare the celeriac. The easiest way to do this is to cut it in quarters and then into pieces about one inch (2.5 cm) wide, using a very sharp kitchen knife. Trim away the thick brown outer peel to leave only the white interior.
Squeeze the lemon half through a sieve into a medium bowl. The lemon juice will prevent discoloration once you have grated the celeriac.
Grate the pared celeriac using an electronic shredder or the wide holes of a hand grater. Continue until you have about 2 cups of grated root, packed fairly tightly.
Transfer the grated celeriac to the bowl with the lemon juice and stir. Add the salt and grind in some black pepper.
Stir the remoulade sauce into the grated celeriac. Taste and adjust the seasonings. If it’s not sharp enough for your taste, add a little more mustard.
Serve the celeriac remoulade as a starter, garnished with fresh herbs or on a bed of tender leaves. It will serve 2-3.
Or serve it as part of an assiette de crudités (mixed vegetable plate), or as a side dish, in which case it will serve 4-6.
If have extra raw celeriac and would like to try another recipe, here are a few ideas:
Celeriac soup
‘Underground’ salad of grated root vegetables
Caramelized celeriac with walnuts and greens
Roasted winter vegetables
