Have you ever seen this? Meet celeriac or celery root.

I’m not sure I’ve heard of celeriac and I hadn’t seen it until I watched Mark Bittman’s The Minimalist: Creamy Curried Celery Root Soup.  I was stoked to find it at the Saturday Farmers Market.

After a little bit of research, I discovered that celery and celery root are not from the same plant. Though they share similar names, flavors, and family lineage, the likeness ends there. Weird, huh?

I hope to make the soup this week and share a follow up post. Stay tuned.

On to the big *ss celery! This celery was also acquired at the Farmer’s Market and is about 2 1/2 feet long. WOW! It was kind of a pain to carry on our walk home, but so worth it and so beautiful.

Here’s how I handled it.

I chopped off the leafy tops in sections and washed. They were then stored in my pyrex ‘cake’ pan with a paper towel underneath.The leafy tops are destined for smoothies. There is even one in the works on the right side of the pic.

I mentioned the other day that I like to pack my greens in and as you can see I am very literal. Combined with banana, pineapple, apple, orange, and water, it was delicious!

The stalks were washed and wrapped in tinfoil before being stored in the fridge.

How do you store your celery?

I know I’ve tried storing in water (like a flower), ziploc (a little wet with paper towels), and just in the original bag. These methods have always ended in wilted celery.  🙁 I found the tinfoil trick while doing some internet research and it has served me well ever since.

Have you used celery root?