Salt-baked Celeriac Roast Salad with Creamy Miso Mustard Dressing

This recipe is really a two-in-one recipe, as it’s partly a recipe for how to make a delicious whole celeriac roast, in the simplest possible way, with just salt and olive oil, It really doesn’t need much more. The second part, is my favourite way to eat roasted celeriac, - as a salad.

Roasting the Celeriac slowly is the way to create celeriac magic. The juices are coaxed out producing both sweet and deeply moorish flavours. I like roasted celeriac very thinly sliced and then spread out like a salad, much like an Italian veal carpaccio or a plate of Vitello Tonnato, though, I much rather prefer this meat-free salad and it’s a great one to serve friends and family who are new to plant based cooking.

As a whole, this salad compliments the celeriac with a palette of briney, nutty, fresh, crisp and creamy components to play with. I’m inspired by nordic and Italian tastes this holiday so hence the toasted pine nuts, green apple, capers, tender green rucola leaves and leek. The creamy dressing combines mustard, Japanese miso and mayonnaise, giving an extra deep base to back up the savoury celeriac. The sweetness of the the green apple, mayo and balsamic vinegar adds a lovely balance to the salad as whole.

This recipe uses a rough outline when it comes to measurements and there’s no need to be too precise, you can easily add and subtract and substitute for similar ingredients if you don’t have all the ingredients at hand.

I make this kind of salad as a starter, or a side/sharing dish for 2-4 people. You won’t use up a whole celeriac head for this recipe, rather less than a quarter of a medium sized head. When you’re serving a bigger crowd you can easily multiply the recipe, and if you’re on budget, you’ll be happy to know celeriac root is your friend, often not costing more than a euro even in organic stores.

If you are looking for an alternative roasted celeriac recipe, or just want to have a more grandma style-roast dish, then you’ll find a recipe for my “Hasselback Celeriac Roast, with Mushroom and Shallot Gravy” in my third book Feasts of Veg. If that’s what you’re going for you can also just skip the salad-making part of this recipe and serve the salt-baked celeriac with gravy and mash, or however you like it.

A great tip for using up the whole celeriac roast, is to use the salad, or just the sliced celeriac on bread, just like it would be ham or pastrami! It will keep for a few days stored in a sealed container in the fridge.

Without further ado! Here’s the recipe:

Recipes

Whole roasted celeriac

1 roasted Celeriac Head
1 tablespoon olive oil
a handful of quality salt

Instructions:

Rub the whole celeriac with olive oil and salt. Prepare a dutch oven (that can fit your whole celeriac) with a thin layer of salt on the base and place the celeriac on the salt. Place a lid on the pan and bake the celeriac in the lower middle part of the oven on 160 ℃. Check on the celeriac and turn it around every 30 minutes. After 2 hours, remove the lid and bake for another 30-45 minutes.

a note: If you don’t have a dutch pan, use tin foil or other oven proof way to cover the celeriac.

Salt baked Celeriac Salad with Mustard Miso Dressing

serves 2-4 as a starter onside/sharing dish

¼ of whole roasted celeriac head, thinly sliced (I use a mandolin)
¼ of a green apple, thinly sliced 9can be substituted for other fruit, like pear
1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts
1 teaspoon small capers or 3-4 Sicilian fruit capers
a handful of fresh baby rucola
½ tablespoon of thinly sliced leek or red onion
Salt and Black pepper to taste
1-2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar (optional)

Mustard Miso Dressing

1 teaspoon dijon mustard
½ tablespoon brown or yellow miso
1 ½tablespoon mayonnaise (use vegan if you can)
1 tablespoon water

Instructions:
Blend the dressing ingredients and set aside. Arrange and layer the salad ingredients on a plate or bowl. Drizzle with dressing, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Tip for leftovers:
Use leftover celeriac and salad on breads, its really delicious with dressing. I used sourdough toast on the photo.

Vegan and gluten-free notes

VE Use vegan mayonnaise.
GF  Use gluten free for toasts ( the tip)

Ceramic Crush!
White ceramic from Birdtsang Ceramic Studio, links below:

birdtsang.com
on Instagram @thebirdtsang

The grey plate is from Milou Broersen Ceramics (you also find her bowls and cups in my web shop)
miloubroersen.com