Celery Root Salad with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Celery root, or celeriac, may not be part of your usual salad routine. With a few quick steps, however, you can throw this fall salad together with some fresh produce from your local farmers’ market. Or, you can cheat, as I often do, and buy the pre-shredded organic celery root from Coop or Migros, all ready to go!

While a raw celery root does not have the most pleasant appearance, it’s apparently a good source of vitamin C and potassium. Once the vegetable is shredded, it has quite an appealing taste and texture, in my opinion. Then, when you add the apples to the salad, it helps to sweeten it a bit, and the pumpkin seeds (Kürbiskerne in German, and graines de courge in French) give it some crunch.

You can serve this salad separately as a side dish, or you can include it as part of a Swiss-style mixed salad (Gemischter Salat in German, or Salade mêlée in French). Rather than an American-style tossed salad, these Swiss salads have small bunches of vegetables arranged separately around the plate.

Recipe adapted from cuisine de saison.

Dressing:

2 Tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 Tbs olive oil
3 Tbs sour cream (sauer Halbrahm in German and demi-crème acidulée in French)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Salad:

400 g grated celery root (celeriac)
2 unpeeled apples, grated
1-2 Tbs toasted pumpkin seeds, coarsely chopped (graines de courge in French)
1 Tbs chopped parsley

1. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a small frying pan over high heat, stirring frequently. Remove from heat right away, once they become fragrant, and let them cool. Coarsely chop the seeds.

2. Whisk together the dressing ingredients: lemon juice, olive oil and sour cream. Add some salt and pepper to taste.

3. Put the grated celery root into the large bowl and mix it with the dressing right away.

4. Grate the apples directly into the same bowl and toss immediately with the celery root and the dressing, to keep them from turning brown.

5. Finally, mix in the pumpkin seeds and parsley and serve. Best when it’s fresh, this salad should be eaten the day you prepare it.

Text and images by Heddi Nieuwsma

Heddi is an American writing about Swiss food, drink and culinary travel via her blog, Cuisine Helvetica. She has been living in the canton of Neuchâtel with her husband and two children since 2012.

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