For a few months when I was student teaching, I had a roommate who was a fruitarian. This means that, like some species of bats, he only ate fruit. He was tall, oracular, and skeletally thin. He explained to me that fruits were the only food that truly wanted to be eaten. Vegetables defend themselves with thorns and natural insecticides; animals with tooth and claw. But fruits spend all their energy making themselves sweet and desirable, hoping to be picked so they can eventually spread their seed.
I said by that logic we should all eat supermodels, but he was too far gone to have a sense of humor. Starved of protein, he fell off the wagon a few months later, ate some raw eggs, and got salmonella. He had a rough time for a while but eventually recovered and became a normal vegetarian. I expect he was able to spread his seed.
I agree that fruit really is tops on the list of things that want to be eaten, but root vegetables come in a close second. Even if they’re not storing all their starchy goodness underground specifically for us humans, they don’t seem to mind sharing so very much. This is especially celebrated in France, where every cheap prix-fixe meal starts with a little salad of grated celery root, grated carrots, and maybe a few beet cubes or radishes, generally tossed with mayonnaise to make a remoulade.
This was on my mind the other day when I decided we needed a wintry salad to round out the twice-weekly vegetarian dinners I had resolved myself into for New Year’s. Celery root (aka celeriac) and beets both look lovely in the market right now, as jacked and bulbous as water towers. And I like buying vegetables that still have a little dirt.
If you don’t eat much celery root, consider it. The brown exterior moonscape skin may be off-putting, but even if you don’t trust your knife skills, a sharp vegetable peeler will work. You don’t have to take off too much. I usually grate it for salads, but it can snuggle itself into mashed potatoes to reduce the carbs and calories, and has much more flavor than cauliflower. In a just world, celery root rice would be a thing.
But anyway – Bird’s Nest Salad. It just came out looking that way, especially when I switched to red beets from golden. The idea was to have alternating bites of creamy, shreddy, sharp, savory and crunchy. “A Waldorf salad surrounded by cole slaw” was one of the comments, but, oh, it is so much more than that. Waldorf salad doesn’t have beets. Cole slaw isn’t made with celery root. Celeri remoulade is made with mayonnaise, not vinaigrette. And what about the blue cheese, huh?
Seriously, don’t listen to my family. This is a wonderful salad, filling but relatively low-cal if you go easy on the cheese and mayo, lots of different flavors and textures, easy to make, perfect for not-too-cold winter days and a nice craft bread (one of my other resolutions). It’s a salad that wants to be eaten.
Recipe: Bird’s Nest Salad
A root vegetable salad with shreds, cubes, crunch, creaminess and wild colors.
-Full Post-
Halve the celery root and peel with a sharp knife or vegetable peeler. Cut into large chunks and shred by hand or in a food processor. You should have about four cups. Sprinkle with the vinegar and toss thoroughly, then add the rest of the ingredients - the dill, pepper, salt and olive oil - and toss once again. Taste for seasoning and set aside.
To roast uncooked beets, trim the leaf ends, coat with olive oil, and roast in a foil-lined pan at 450 degrees F for thirty minutes. Turn the beets and continue roasting, 15 - 30 minutes more, until pierced fairly easily with a fork. Remove and let cool. The skins should mainly slip off at this point, but might need a bit of help with a paring knife (if you don't want temporarily red fingers, use a glove and/or work under cool running water). The whole beets can be stored at this point, peeled or unpeeled, for several days.
Dice the beets, apple and celery. Toast the pecans in a dry pan or toaster oven for a minute or two and chop coarsely. Add to a bowl with the mayonnaise, mascarpone, and salt, and stir up well. To assemble the salad, make a nest out of the shredded celery root, sprinkle it with the crumbled blue cheese, and add a scoop of the beet mixture in the center. Garnish the beets with pepitas or sunflower seeds for a little extra crunch and serve with a good loaf of bread.
This study in contrasts makes a good vegetarian weeknight dinner. The beets can be done days ahead, but the celery should be shredded near meal time. Assembly is easy, and you can certainly sub in whatever cheeses or herbs you like. This would look cute as a duck in small doses on little plates, as an appetizer or side salad for six or eight.
Ingredients
Directions
Halve the celery root and peel with a sharp knife or vegetable peeler. Cut into large chunks and shred by hand or in a food processor. You should have about four cups. Sprinkle with the vinegar and toss thoroughly, then add the rest of the ingredients - the dill, pepper, salt and olive oil - and toss once again. Taste for seasoning and set aside.
To roast uncooked beets, trim the leaf ends, coat with olive oil, and roast in a foil-lined pan at 450 degrees F for thirty minutes. Turn the beets and continue roasting, 15 - 30 minutes more, until pierced fairly easily with a fork. Remove and let cool. The skins should mainly slip off at this point, but might need a bit of help with a paring knife (if you don't want temporarily red fingers, use a glove and/or work under cool running water). The whole beets can be stored at this point, peeled or unpeeled, for several days.
Dice the beets, apple and celery. Toast the pecans in a dry pan or toaster oven for a minute or two and chop coarsely. Add to a bowl with the mayonnaise, mascarpone, and salt, and stir up well. To assemble the salad, make a nest out of the shredded celery root, sprinkle it with the crumbled blue cheese, and add a scoop of the beet mixture in the center. Garnish the beets with pepitas or sunflower seeds for a little extra crunch and serve with a good loaf of bread.
This study in contrasts makes a good vegetarian weeknight dinner. The beets can be done days ahead, but the celery should be shredded near meal time. Assembly is easy, and you can certainly sub in whatever cheeses or herbs you like. This would look cute as a duck in small doses on little plates, as an appetizer or side salad for six or eight.