Celery root/heart - does anyone else miss it?

I think you can still buy celery hearts in delis and speciality shops.
Celery attached to root maybe at farm shops?

Yes, I loved tinned celery hearts. You can buy tinned palm hearts but they are not the same at all.

I had to google because I didn't know those terms. I buy celeriac, which I've only discovered is celery root today, regularly from Sainsbury's or M&S. When I can I buy whole top celery as opposed to separate stalks because I love the very centre which I now know is called the heart. Every day's a school day on Gransnet 😀 I've never ever seen celery attached to the root, except on the google images I've just pulled up.

Is celeriac celery root? I didn't know that either.

It makes a good vegetarian 'steak' if you cut it into 1 cm rounds, brush with oil (and herbs/spices if liked) and grill or fry it. I use the George Foreman grill.

Celeriac is very different in both taste and texture from the white root of stick celery, although they are indeed from the same plant family. Haxey celery was always the best, all white; today’s green stuff is definitely inferior.

I used to love the celery heart. Even the little nugget of the root isn’t worth eating now. I also miss the abundance of leaves you used to get with celery. My mother used to use it in soups and casseroles. Such a good addition to cooking. The nearest I’ve come recently was a head of organic celery which had plenty of leaf on it. Celery used to be “blanched” - earthed up or covered - to give white stems. Not sure mass production allows for that these days. And everything is over trimmed.

It’s very sad, isn’t it? Lots of wonderful tastes are disappearing for the sake of mass production.

My husband used to.love braised celery hearts. I was never that keen on celery cooked or raw, but I used to regularly buy packs of two celery hearts from Sainsburys and braise them for him. He enjoyed them served with a sauce made from the braising liquor. This was a few years ago as he died in 2017 but I was certainly able to buy them regularly until then. I never saw them in any other supermarket.

So if you grow celery (is that possible in a garden, rather than a greenhouse?) would the heart be the bit in the ground - the 'bulb' from which the stems grow?

Yes, the root would be underground.

I like celery leaves too. In France, you can buy everything in one go, the celery is hugely long…

Rapunzel100

Celeriac is very different in both taste and texture from the white root of stick celery, although they are indeed from the same plant family. Haxey celery was always the best, all white; today’s green stuff is definitely inferior.

Oh when I googled 'celery root' it came up telling me that's celeriac 🤷🏻‍♀️

Doodledog we love celeriac but have never cooked it as a vegetarian 'steak', I'll be giving that a try, so thanks for the suggestion.

Oops forgot the photo

Waitrose do hearts.

Rosie, that looks like celeriac to me.

Is it one of those vegetables that has regional variations in name, by any chance.

Doodledog

Rosie, that looks like celeriac to me.

Is it one of those vegetables that has regional variations in name, by any chance.

Quite probably, though likely not as the fierce debate between what is a swede and what is a turnip 😂

That’s what I had in mind😂

Waitrose and M&S Food both sell celery hearts, which are really just short, compact whole heads of celery. I also buy celeriac now and again, but that’s entirely different.

It sounds delicious.
I'm always trying to find celery with as many leaves attached as possible.
I love them either cooked or raw .

Celery heart is surely the heart of a celery?
Golden/self blanching is best in my opinion.

The green stuff is fine but the old fashioned type is still best I think.