Serves: 2 adults
Preparation time: 15 minutes; cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
Lentils
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
splash sunflower oil
1/4 of a celeriac, peeled and finely chopped
200 g dried puy lentils
400 ml boiling water
50 g sultanas or raisins
few sprigs of fresh thyme (or a pinch of dried thyme)
Waldorf Salad
1/4 of a celeriac
1 Granny Smith apple
juice of 1 lemon
small pinch salt, pepper
75 g walnuts
French dressing
1 generous teaspoon of sharp mustard (I used dijon)
3 T good olive oil
1/2 T maple syrup
juice of 1 lemon
dash of water
salt and pepper
Method
Boil 400 ml of water in the kettle.
Prepare the celeriac. Chop the celeriac in half and put one half in the fridge to be used another time, you only need half for this recipe. Trim the head and roots off, then peel the celeriac well with a vegetable peeler, until all the scaly skin has been removed, revealing its white insides. Chop a lemon in half and rub it over it so that it does not brown as it oxidises. Dice half of the peeled celeriac (i.e., 1/4 of the original root), reserving the rest for the salad.
Heat up a generous splash of sunflower oil in the saucepan that you will cook the lentils in. Add onions, garlic and celeriac root to make a mirepoix (the French version of a sofrito). Cook for around ten minutes on a low heat, stirring as needed, until onions are soft. If it begins to catch or brown at the edges, turn the heat down.
Add 200 g dried puy lentils to the saucepan, along with a few sprigs of fresh thyme (or a pinch of dried thyme if you have no fresh) and 400 ml of boiling water. Place lid on it and leave to cook on a low heat for 20 minutes until the lentils are cooked but still have bite. At this point, all the water should be absorbed, but drain any additional (I used a little extra so that it did not risk burning, but the trade off is that you then lose a little of the flavour by draining it).
Meanwhile, take the other 1/4 of the peeled celeriac and the apple. Cut into tidy matchsticks. Note that you could also grate them, which will be quicker, but will end up a bit mushy. Place in a small bowl and coat with juice of one lemon and a sprinkle of salt and leave to sit. You’re aiming for a 1:1 ratio of celeriac to apple, so adjust the quantities accordingly depending on their size.
Make the dressing. Mix all ingredients until smooth, seasoning well. Add half of the dressing to the apple and celeriac matchsticks.
Roughly chop and then toast the walnuts in a pan until lightly toasted, around 3-4 minutes. Keep an eye on them to ensure they do not burn.
After 15 minutes of cooking the lentils, add a small handful of sultanas or raisins (around 50 g) for the remaining five minutes to allow them to plump up a little. Once the lentils are cooked, drain any additional liquid, remove thyme sprigs if using, add the remaining half of the dressing and mix well. Allow to cool.
Serve the salad warm or cold. Garnish with the walnuts, good olive oil and a few additional thyme leaves. Bon appétit!
The story behind the recipe
Le céleri rave, as it is known in France, or celeriac in English, is the ugly duckling of French cuisine. Its hessian coloured roots are like a tumorous growth on a tree trunk or strange dried funguses. Granted, it doesn’t exactly look appealing. But this is a seriously undervalued vegetable. It is a winter vegetable and one of the few roots (along with carrots) that can easily be eaten raw. It has a strong flavour with a hint of celery or fennel, but it is earthier, mellower, more aromatic. It is a cultivar of the celery plant (Apium graveolens), grown for its root instead of the stem (Apium graveolens var. rapaceum).
I was just starting to believe Spring was coming. Purple crocuses were beginning gingerly to raise their heads. I snapped the most perfect new snowdrops in the woods the other day. Then the weather turned wild again. On Friday, Storm Eunice hit The Netherlands, felling trees, ripping the roof of a nearby stadium, throwing roof tiles and chimneys down to the footpath. A tree on our street fell overnight, but through the miracle that is Dutch efficiency, was cleared by morning. Teams of people must have worked out in that storm through-out the night to clear roads, bicycle paths. Respect. I ended up stranded at a friend’s place in Amsterdam for an impromptu sleepover since trains weren’t running and it wasn’t safe to drive in winds of up to 140km/h (not as impressive as the UK, where record breaking winds of up to 200km/h were recorded). Needless to say, it is feeling very wintery. We’ve had non-stop rain all day today and the wind just keeps howling. Spring once again feels like a far-off dream. But despite the storms, I don’t want heavy wintry food. The days are getting longer, lighter, I want something crisp and fresh.
So this week I took a cue from the French and dared to have a rave with un céleri rave. (The very literal Dutch name, knolselderij, translates to tuber celery.) The recipe was inspired by remoulade, a French classic made with raw celeriac (Nigel Slater’s recipe here, David Leibovitz’s here; see also The Guardian’s “perfect remoulade” recipe here). I also had in mind a Waldorf salad, but with dried sultanas instead of fresh grapes. And I wanted to use puy lentils, since they are so quintessentially French and hold their structure best in salads. You can add dressings without fear of them disintegrating. A word to the wise: I have been known to overcook lentils and you definitely don’t want mush here. So while I am not one to insist that something has to be done a certain way in the kitchen, can I recommend setting a timer for the lentils and keeping an eye on them? It will depend on the heat and the size of the lentils how long they need to cook, but exactly 20 minutes on a low heat was bang on for me.
This recipe has the earthiness from the lentils and cooked celeriac, bites of sweetness from the swollen sultanas, crispness from the raw apple and celeriac, additional crunch from the toasted walnuts, and a sharp, mustardy dressing that ties it all together. Serve it hot or cold. Whatever you do, add the toasted walnuts at the last minute so they stay crisp.
Thanks for reading. See you next week!
Amelia.