Tender and meaty with a concentrated celery flavor, slow-roasted vegetarian steaks basted with butter, garlic and herbs is one of the most creative things you can make with celeriac. This is an elegant way to honor root vegetables, but also allows chefs to skip peeling celery root and serve it at a higher price.
A Chef Recipe for Celery Root
Celery root steaks were popularized by Chef Yotam Ottolenghi, but chefs have been serving vegetables as a meat substitute for years in vegetarian and vegan recipes.
This technique was taught to me by a chef who worked for Charlie Trotter and Dan Barber, and I suspect one of them taught it to him. We would use the method on different root vegetables in the Winter.
Why it Works
Roasting celeriac whole wrapped in a pastry crust with herbs steams the root in its skin, concentrating the celery root taste. This is a very old technique, similar to cooking meat wrapped in clay.
Slow roasting saves on prep time as the celery root doesn't need to be peeled before cooking. People often ask me how to peel celery root, and they're surprised when I say it isn't always necessary. The outer skin becomes tender and adds a special contrast to the flesh.
How to Make Roasted Celeriac Steak
You make a simple dough, adding fresh herbs and salt. The whole knob celery is wrapped in the dough and baked in a slow oven until tender.
The crust is discarded and the root is cut into thick slices. When it's time to serve you cook the roots golden brown, basting with butter, garlic and herbs like a piece of meat.
What to Serve with Celeriac Steak
Serve with some kind of acidic, herby sauce or compound butter like Cafe de Paris. I used my ramp leaf salsa verde, made with basil, tarragon and an egg yolk. For simple home cooking, serve them with mashed potatoes and gravy or garlic-lemon aioli like celeriac remoulade.
In the Winter, I might serve them with a buttery puree of canned tomatoes. Celery root piccata with lemon caper sauce is good too. Like other recipes for vegetable steaks they pair well with mushrooms.
Celeriac Substitute
You can substitute parsnips in recipes like celery root soup. For steaks, you'll need to use other hard root vegetables like rutabagas or beets. If you can find some, parsley root is the best substitute for celery root's taste.
Whole Roasted Celeriac Steak
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- Large non-stick skillet or frying pan
Ingredients
- 1 large celery root about 1 lb
Pastry Crust
- 3 Tablespoons cold water
- 1 Tablespoon cooking oil
- 2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup flour
- ¼ cup chopped herbs like rosemary, sage and thyme
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Serving (optional)
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil or light olive oil
- 4 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 large cloves garlic
- 1 medium shallot chopped
- Handful of fresh thyme sprigs
Instructions
Herb Pastry
- In a stand mixer, combine the water and salt and stir to combine. Add the flour and herbs and mix with the paddle attachment until a soft dough forms. Wrap the dough in cling film and allow to rest for 15-20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Wash and roast the celeriac
- Inspect the celery root for any dirt, wash with warm water and dry. Most celery roots from the grocery store will be very clean.
- Roll the dough out into a thin sheet ¼ inch thick. Wrap the celery root in the dough, covering the entire surface. Patch any holes with extra dough.
- Put the celery root on a baking tray (or a cast iron skillet) and bake for 15 minutes, then turn the heat to 300 and cook for 2-2.5 hours, or until the root is tender when pierced with a cake tester.
Remove the pastry crust
- Remove the celery root from the oven, cool and remove the crust and discard. From here the celery root can be made ahead of time and reheated for a quick meal.
Serving
- Cut the celeriac into thick, 1 inch steaks.
- Heat the cooking oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Season the steaks lightly with salt and pepper and put steak in the pan. You can use a bacon press to help them brown evenly.
- Cook the steaks until golden brown on one side. When you flip them, add the butter, garlic, shallot and thyme. Baste the steaks with the melted, foaming butter for a few minutes until the house smells delicious. Remove the steaks to a warmed dish and serve with your choice of sauces and accompaniments.
Timothy Baxendale
This recipe is quite good and I found that adding the left over pastry to my bag of bread scraps make a really good bread pudding - the rosemary bursts you get made the pudding a great sweet/savory and helped avoid the cloying aspect of sweet only.
So now I'm hoping if you could expand more on coating meat in pastry / clay to cook it - my mind says that since this forms a sturdy crust, a browned lamb shank with seasonings could slow roast inside and come out good - but searching meat+pastry seems to generally point to beef wellingtons or fully roasting the shanks then at the last minute wrap in pastry and bake the pastry golden. Seeing how you might do it with clay would be cool too, but I don't readily have clay available. (I assume most sturdy root vegetables could get the same pastry treatment without problem)
Alan Bergo
Hello. Any slow cooking cut of meat can be prepared this way. It was likely done with lamb and goat in the Mediterranean long before it was done with beef.
Timothy
Besides just being a fairly plain pastry crust, there's no reason not to eat it or incorporate it as a thickener for soups, or into an everything goes bread pudding right? It's just not meant to be the star of the show.
Alan Bergo
It is too salty to eat like that IMO. As some people have mentioned aluminum foil makes a decent substitute. I like to include traditional methods when I can though.
Timothy Baxendale
Note to the world - try your crust. You might like it (I did). (an easy way to make a bit less salty is to measure the same volume of salt but use Kosher or Flakey Sea Salt - lower volumetric density so you reduce saltiness some).
Alan Bergo
Hey Timothy, that’s been mentioned a few times so I think I need to make it again this fall. The original recipe actually had more salt. I think if it’s tasting decent you could cut the salt way down, using the same proportions for a savory crust and just hit the celeriac with a pinch of salt after it’s sliced and cooked, like a steak. Cool idea. Thanks for commenting!!
Paolo
I've made this recipe a few times and love it. I've had to make an adjustment to the dough. You list 1 cup (120g) of flour, 2 tablespoons (30g) of water, and a tablespoon of oil (15g), which is about 38% hydration. I know a lot depends on the flour. When I bump the hydration up to 55% I find it easier to work with. I'm wondering if there's a typo in your recipe.
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks for catching that Paolo. It was supposed to be 3 T/45 g-so you're right on the money there.
Isabella
Wish I could give this more stars. Absolutely delicious. At first I was skeptical about eating the skin but, it might actually be one of the best parts. Can't wait to make this again. Thank you for this recipe.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Isabella. And I agree, the skin is so much fun.
Catherine Vitale
So. Good. Thank you!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Catherine, glad it worked for you.
Joe Wiercinski
Thanks for giving me another reason to order celeriac seeds from Johnny's or growitalian for the coming gardening season. I'm gobsmacked to learn that the skin is edible and tasty. I'm beyond pleased to see how simple it is to coat-steambake-saute celery roots. I found one bigger than a softball at a nearby Italian grocery and now I know how I'm going to enjoy it. Cheers.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Joe, just remember your home-grown celery root will need a thorough cleaning compared to the ones from a grocery store that are pressure-washed and usually very clean.
Eben Lenderking
Great post. I just shot something similar to this for my upcoming book...only we used a crust that was salt and wood-ash based...though I also use a pastry crust blend with it to keep the skin edible and without grit. Love the no peel benefits, and I imagine the nutritious quality goes up. I quite like it with the Yotam spicy Maitre de Paris sauce, a curry, or my favourite is a vermouth-driven, juniper-laced sauce with anchovies...Will have to try your version with mushrooms. Can't wait.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Eben. Yes, I've done the salt-roasting a few times. It was really hard for me to get the roots to not be inedibly salty. I really like the sound of juniper and anchovies too.
Emily
Interesting recipe, especially the thing about not peeling! Could I replace the pastry cover with some tin foil with herbs tucked inside?
Alan Bergo
Yes that'll probably work.
gavin
Still have so much leftover celeriac, so I'm excited to give this a try!
Alan Bergo
I'm here if you have any questions.