Celery is a rather underused vegetable often served in the 80s as a crunchy accompaniment to cheese. Its almost medicinal flavour provokes a “Love it” or “hate it”response. For those of you who fall into the latter camp, I find that blanching or even roasting as in this recipe mellows the flavour. A good hearty salad.
Ingredients
1 head of celery, trimmed
4 eggs
3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
400 gr can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons capers, drained
2 tablespoon sherry vinegar, plus extra to serve
1 teaspoon ground cumin
90 gr rocket
Method
Preheat the oven to 200˚C, gas mark 6. Cut the celery stalks on an angle into 5cm lengths, reserving any leaves. Put the lengths into a large pan of boiling salted water, bring back to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the celery to a bowl. Add the eggs to the boiling water and cook for 6 minutes. Drain and plunge the eggs into cold water. Once cool, peel and halve.
Meanwhile, put the blanched celery in a roasting tin with the olive oil and season. Roast for 15 minutes, then add the chickpeas, onion, capers, vinegar and cumin; season and toss together. Return to the oven for another 10 minutes, until the celery is golden and mostly tender.
Layer the rocket, reserved celery leaves and roasting tin contents on a large serving dish, with the eggs tucked in among the leaves. Drizzle over a little more olive oil and sherry vinegar; season. Serve immediately.
A word of warning please remember to serve the eggs, because if you add them afterwards you lose the effect!
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