A New Salad, A Variation From "The Modern Menu"

I'm not the type to follow recipes, certainly not exactly follow them, even when I try.  That's what happened when I decided to use up some celeriac, the big knobby celery roots that get stuck and ignored in the fridge.  My husband loves using the strongly flavored stalks in his chicken soup, and I'm stuck trying to find things to do with the roots.

I was very pleasantly surprised to discover a very simple recipe for a salad in The Modern Menu by Kim Kushner, which I had gotten to review.  I don't know why, but even though it's called "Lemon Celery Root Salad with Walnuts" I decided that it needs raisins and bought those to use, not walnuts.  Otherwise, I pretty much followed the recipe, although I didn't add salt and pepper and since those celery roots are of various non-standard sizes, I didn't really measure the olive oil too exactly.  And of course I added lots of raisins. 

Here is Kushner's recipe and my illustrations:

Ingredients

1 celery root, rough outer skin discarded, root halved

Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup chopped walnuts, toasted

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

On the large holes of a box grater or in a food processor fitted with the grater disk, grate the celery root. Transfer to a medium serving bowl. Pour the lemon juice and olive oil over the celery root, add the walnuts, and season with the salt and pepper. Toss to thoroughly coat and serve.

Serves 4 to 6

I brought this salad to our annual Yom Ha'Atzma'ut barbeque at my cousin's and I then made another one which I brought to a neighbor on Shabbat.  The celeriac has a very delicate flavor when grated and eaten raw. 

I also added some leftover salad to my cooked chicken the other night, like a stir-fry, and it is also delicious cooked.  So, if you've made too much to eat and are afraid to keep it too long in the fridge, then sauté it.

Everyone who tasted it agrees that you can substitute or add all sorts of nuts, seeds or dried even fresh fruit to make this salad a totally fantastic one bowl meal. 

I'd like your comments about this recipe, thanks.