Because celeriac a.k.a root celery is severely underrated.

The other day I was going through my food posts and I realised that they really don’t reflect what le boyfriend and I normally eat at all, because I tend to post the experimental creations rather than the usual meals. Contrary to my recipe posts, we eat a lot of soups, pasta and salads, and I don’t make elaborate desserts very often outside of the seasonal staples. However, there are already so many great recipes for “classic” foods everywhere that I mainly want to share my creative ones and inspire you to try something new too.

To continue with the trend, this will be my third risotto recipe, even though we don’t eat risotto that often and I used to be really bad at making rice dishes. In contrast though, today’s recipe will be very simple and very on brand for us, featuring celeriac or root celery, which is one of my partner’s favourite vegetables and we actually do eat it quite often. I already wrote a whole ode to root vegetables in another risotto recipe post in 2020, so I will spare you here, but I will reiterate that root vegetables and root celery in particular are severely underrated. Just wait till I start rambling about beetroot, another of our favourites. Also, today’s dish photo includes a sneak peek at our custom-made epoxy beer coaster kitchen tiles.

Celeriac & Parmesan risotto recipe

Ingredients

• 400 g (2 cups) brown or white rice
• 2 large celeriacs (about 4 cups diced)
• 1 large white onion
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 tablespoons fresh chopped celery leaves (or 2 tablespoons dried)
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• water
• salt

For 4 people

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Instructions

Peel and dice the onion and celeriacs. Put both in a large pot with the salt and olive oil and roast until the onion turns glassy and the celeriac becomes tender. Stir often. Meanwhile, roughly chop the celery leaves.

Add the rice, chopped celery leaves, nutmeg and a cup of water into the pot and let it simmer. No need for soup stock here, because celeriac has a very strong taste, but you could also use that. Stir often and keep slowly adding water until the rice is cooked (check the instructions on the rice package to get an estimate of the cooking time), but take care not to turn your risotto into a soup.

Grate the Parmesan cheese. Once the rice is soft and cooked, stir in the Parmesan and let it rest for a few minutes, then serve and enjoy! Add a bit more grated Parmesan cheese on top, because life is too short to not eat extra cheese.

And that’s it! I hope you liked this celeriac & Parmesan risotto and will give it a try. If you want a more balanced meal, you can also add some grilled chicken, tofu or turkey for an extra source of protein.

How do you feel about celeriac a.k.a celery root?

Download printable PDF here