CELERIAC VEGAN RECIPES RECIPES

1. Heat half the oil in a large pan. Slice the onions and roughly chop the celery, and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes until soft.
2. Chop the celeriac, core and quarter the apples and add to the pan. Pick in the thyme leaves and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add the stock, season, and simmer over a low heat for 30 minutes until the celeriac is tender.
4. Remove from the heat and blitz with a hand blender until smooth. Stir in half the crème fraîche.
5. Heat the remaining oil in a pan and fry the sage leaves until crispy.
6. Spoon the soup into bowls and top with the remaining crème fraîche. To serve, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with the crispy sage leaves and hazelnuts or grated horseradish.

For the whole roasted celeriac:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C fan.

2. Pierce the celeriac with a fork all over about 40 times and place on a parchment-lined baking tray. Mix the oil and 3 teaspoons of flaked salt, then rub the celeriac generously with the oil mixture. Roast for a minimum of 2¼ hours, or up to 2¾ hours, depending on the size of your celeriac, basting every 20 minutes or so, until the celeriac is deeply browned, soft all the way through and oozes a celeriac caramel.

3. Leave to rest for 15 minutes, then cut widthways into 2½cm-thick steaks, brushing each cut side with the oil and caramel left on the tray (you may need to add a little more oil if there isn’t enough to coat the cut sides).

For the Café de Paris Sauce

1. Put the first seven ingredients for the sauce and ¼ teaspoon of flaked salt into a small saucepan on a medium heat. Cook for about 6 minutes, swirling the pan until the shallots have softened and the butter has melted and become golden and caramelised. Add the capers, herbs and a very generous grind of pepper and continue to cook for 1 minute, then remove from the heat.

2. Turn the oven to its highest grill setting. Arrange the celeriac steaks, spaced apart, on a large, parchment-lined baking tray big enough to fit the slices in a single layer. The steaks should have been brushed with their cooking oil and celeriac caramel by this point, but if not, brush with some olive oil and a little maple syrup or honey (see p. 54). Make sure there is no overhanging parchment that could burn. Grill the steaks on the top shelf of the oven, until they are golden-brown on top, 6–8 minutes. Turn the oven off, keeping the tray warm in the oven until you’re ready to serve.

3. Return the sauce to a medium heat and gently cook for a minute, then add the cream and lemon juice. Swirl for another 2 minutes or until warm, but don’t mix it too much – you want the sauce to be split, not emulsified.

4. Pour the sauce on to a large platter with a lip and arrange the celeriac steaks on top (or plate individually with some sauce poured on top and the rest served alongside). Sprinkle the steaks with a little flaked salt and black pepper, and serve.

1. This is the most underrated vegetable in the whole of the United Kingdom. It's available in every single supermarket, we walk past it all the time, and yet we still take no notice of it. It's an incredible vegetable, it's really good for you and you only need to use 2 or 3 ingredients to bring it to life and blow people's socks off.
2. Shave off the celeriac ends and throw them away, then use your knife to peel away the outside skin, cutting away any cracks and crannies as you go. Once you've cut the edge you’ll be able to see the thickness of the skin you need to peel away. Chop the celeriac up into slices, then into rough 1cm cubes.
3. Put a casserole-type pan on a medium-high heat and add a lug of olive oil. Rip in the lemon thyme - the smells from this will be outrageous – then go straight in with the diced celeriac and a generous pinch of salt. Turn the heat down to medium, pop the lid on and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tender. Make sure you keep it moving - you want it to fry lightly from the bottom, and kind of steam in its own moisture.
4. At this stage, you have two choices. You can either serve it up blonde or you can take the lid off and fry for a further 4 minutes or so, to take the colour much darker. This is such a flexible recipe, you can make it the day before and reheat when you need, or you can blitz it up with some stock for a delicious soup. Give it a try.

1. Heat half the oil in a large pan. Slice the onions and roughly chop the celery, and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes until soft.
2. Chop the celeriac, core and quarter the apples and add to the pan. Pick in the thyme leaves and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add the stock, season, and simmer over a low heat for 30 minutes until the celeriac is tender.
4. Remove from the heat and blitz with a hand blender until smooth. Stir in half the crème fraîche.
5. Heat the remaining oil in a pan and fry the sage leaves until crispy.
6. Spoon the soup into bowls and top with the remaining crème fraîche. To serve, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with the crispy sage leaves and hazelnuts or grated horseradish.