Celery Root Salad with Cashew Nut Dressing

Last Saturday I ate a raw food vegan celery root salad at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market and it was so good that all week I kept thinking about how I was going to get a celery root and recreate it. Today I made a salad very close to the one I had last week, except they used a small amount of red cabbage and I opted to go with the just the celery root, celery and carrots for the veggies. I found a salad dressing with cashew nuts from, 'eat, drink & be vegan' and adapted it for my salad. Then I found another recipe for traditional French celeriac rémoulade to get an idea of the proportions of dressing to the other ingredients. The outcome is a fresh tasting raw salad, similar to coleslaw. Celery root is hard to cut, I used my largest, heavy duty chef's knife and it was still hard to peel and cut into wedges. I used my food processor to do the shredding, which was a big help.



This is the reality of the situation, not a pretty picture!



Ingredients

For the salad dressing

1 cup raw cashews
1 lemon, juiced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon honey or agave nectar
1/4 cup water, to thin the dressing

Place all the salad dressing ingredients, except water, in the bowl of a food processor or blender and purée until smooth. If you prefer the dressing to be thinner, add water. Taste for seasoning, add more lemon juice or honey if desired. Place the dressing in the bottom of a large bowl so as you prepare the veggies, they can be put directly into the dressing so that the celery root doesn't turn brown.

Ingredients

For the salad

2 lbs celery root, peeled, quartered and shredded just before mixing, yields about 4 cups
4 medium size carrots, peeled and shredded, yields 1 generous cup
3 celery stalks, peeled, trimmed and thinly sliced, yields 1 cup
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs, I used Lovage( see note) but Italian parsley is fine

Mix everything together with the cashew dressing in a large bowl. If you like, use some of the chopped herbs to sprinkle on top before serving.


Cover and refrigerate until chilled before serving, at least 1 hour. This recipe makes a generous amount and would serve 8 for a salad course.



Lovage is an edible Mediterranean perennial which resembles celery in appearance and flavor. I planted Lovage last spring in a pot on my deck and it is vigorously emerging, giving the mint some competition! Lovage is an excellent ingredient to spice up vegetables and salads.