One of the reasons I have a plant-based recipe blog is because I want to explore vegetables. I’m not a vegan or a vegetarian but I do think the average person, myself included, could enjoy a wider range of vegetables in their daily diet.
It’s become clear in recent years with the surge of popular vegetarian cookbooks, restaurants, and trends that vegetables are anything but boring. I want to keep the vegetable loving momentum alive with my blog. All the recipes I create can be prepared as a vegetarian meal or can be complimented with non vegetarian ingredients.
With that said, the vegetable I explored this week was celeriac or celery root. Celeriac is a root vegetable that has a subtle celery flavour. In the past I overlooked it because it looked cumbersome to prep and perhaps because of its unattractive appearance. After eyeing it down at the farmers market I realized it was time to welcome it with open arms into my kitchen. I had the perfect use for it!
I love hummus. I eat it almost every day. I decided it was time to be creative and make a different kind of hummus. I easily swapped chickpeas, used in traditional hummus recipes, for celery root. Once celery root is boiled and blended with tahini it has a wonderful hummus texture but only lighter and smoother! This dip boosts the nutritional benefits of celery root and is a lower carb alternative to traditional hummus. What better way to sneak vegetables into your day?
Move over chickpeas, celery root is here.
- 1 large celery root (about 1.5 lbs.), peeled and roughly chopped into two inch pieces
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp tahini
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for serving
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika, plus extra for serving
- chopped parsley for serving
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Place the celery root in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes, or until celery root is fork tender. Drain the celery root and reserve water.
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Place the celery root, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, kosher salt, cumin, and paprika into a high speed blender or food processor. Blend until silky smooth. If mixture is too thick add 1 tbsp of reserved water at a time until desired texture.
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Serve hummus warm or cold with a drizzle of olive oil, and garnish with parsley and sprinkle of paprika.