I love to try new vegetables, cooking with them is a fun new experience and challenge. I recently found the cookbook Perfect Vegetables by Cooks Illustrated (part of America’s Test Kitchen). It was at one of my favorite antiquing stores; it’s an older book that smells like used paper, printed in black and white with a couple of laminated color-printed pages in the middle. It contains a gold mine of information—a compendium of all vegetables and how to prepare them, how they are best cooked, and what flavors they pair well with. Well-loved and ready to serve its second owner, I excitedly began reading about different vegetables.

With spring here, it’s time for salad season. I was talking to my mom the other day and she mentioned how much she likes kale salads because they keep well and maintain their crunchiness as leftovers. So, I started working on a kale salad and experimenting. When thinking through what other vegetables to include, I thought about celery root, a vegetable I’ve been meaning to cook with for a while. I pulled out my cookbook, and it talked about how it’s great when grated fresh and dressed with mustard. So, I decided to land on those three main ingredients for the salad: celery root, kale, and a mustard-based vinaigrette. The rest of the ingredients serve to add a certain crunch and sweetness to round off the salad.

This recipe makes a very large salad. It is great for picnics and meal prep, and it keeps very well in the fridge. Feel free to scale down as required. This is without doubt one of my new favorite recipes; I hope you have the pleasure of trying it for yourself soon.

Active time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

Dressing

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp strong mustard
• 1 tsp salt (more to taste)
• Freshly cracked black pepper

The Rest

• 1 bunch large kale
• 1 medium-sized celery root, grated (see note below for how to prepare)
• 1 white onion, thinly sliced
• 2 unripe pears, cores removed and diced
• 1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
• 4 Persian cucumbers, diced
• 2/3 cup walnuts, chopped
• 150g Greek feta
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• Salt, to taste

Directions:

1. Make the dressing: In a small jar or bowl, combine the olive oil, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, and strong mustard with 1 teaspoon of salt and a generous amount of black pepper. Whisk or shake vigorously until the dressing is well incorporated.
2. Prep and massage the kale: Remove the tough stems from the kale and chop the leaves into thin strips. Wash the kale thoroughly and dry it. Place the kale in a large salad bowl, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and massage the leaves with your hands for a few minutes until they become dark green and tender.
3. Assemble the salad: To the bowl of massaged kale, add the thinly sliced white onion, grated celery root, diced pears, thawed green peas, and diced Persian cucumbers.
4. Add toppings and dress: Add the crumbled Greek feta, nutritional yeast, and chopped walnuts to the mixture. Pour the prepared dressing over the salad and toss thoroughly until every ingredient is evenly coated.
5. Adjust and serve: Taste the salad for salt and acidity levels, adjusting as needed. Serve fresh and enjoy!

Note: How to prepare celery root

For those of you who have never cooked with celery root (like myself before this recipe), here is the easiest way to prepare it:

• Cut 1–2 cm off both the root end and the stalk end.
• Stand the celery root flat on the cutting board and begin to cut off the thick exterior skin with a paring knife, working from top to bottom while rotating the root.
• Flip it over and repeat the process to ensure all skin is removed.
• Cut the root into quarters and grate it using the large holes of a box grater.