If vegetables could have cousins, that might be how we would dub the relationship between celery—the familiar-looking stalks we love to eat—and the celery root. Technically called celeriac, other names for this gnarly beauty include knob celery and turnip-rooted celery. To add to its mystery, it isn’t even really a root. Instead, it’s a base of stems that swell up into a round mass. 

If someone has never seen a celery root before, its appearance might be hard to describe. So, we’ll go about it another way. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a helpful video must be worth even more. So, here, Farmer Lee Jones digs up a celery root with a pitchfork. 

Farmer Lee (justifiably) calls the celery root one of the most underrated veggies around as he displays its incredible root mass. He encourages viewers to chop one up into small pieces and add it to mashed potatoes. You haven’t had a good mash, he says, until you’ve tried mashed celery root!

Using a rustic cutting board, Farmer Lee demonstrates how the inside of celery root is nowhere near as tough as the outside—having a crunchy texture that can be reminiscent of both celery and turnip. Magical!

So, What Does Celery Root Taste Like?

Flavor is mild and, being a cousin of traditional celery, it kind-of, sort-of tastes like celery: slightly sweet and slightly nutty with no bitterness. Some people mention that they can detect a trace of parsley flavor. As it's cooked, it can gain a mellow sweetness. This may be especially true when it’s roasted. Celery root pairs particularly well with chervil, dill, and fennel. 

Besides mashing your celery root, you can shred it, grate it, slice it, cube it, roast it, fry it, grill it, grate it, steam it, bake it, boil it, pickle it, sautée it, puree it, add it to delicious soups, transform it into a sauce, serve it raw, and more. This large and lumpy vegetable really is quite versatile. 

Where can you buy celery root? You know the answer! Reach out to your product specialist to ask for celery root, and we’ll be happy to harvest some for you.