Knob celery, also called turnip-rooted celery or celeriac, is not a particularly attractive looking vegetable, but it is a flavorful one once you peel it and rid it of its ugliness. It’s really easy to prepare and extremely healthy.
It contains vitamin C (most of it will be lost by cooking though, but you could eat knob celery raw in a salad if you wanted to), vitamin B11 (folic acid, known for prevention of various types of cancer (i, ii, iii) and needed for a healthy nervous system), magnesium, calcium, iron and choline (a molecule with a detoxying effect and is good for brain cells). So if you are looking for a relatively healthy fatty winter dinner, this is the one!
Knob celery can be used instead of potatoes, as a low-starch alternative, or with potatoes as a perfect match! In this recipe, it is absolutely crucial to use organic pork sausages (which you can buy at Hoogvliet in The Netherlands), since regular pork sausages are stuffed with carcinogenic flavour additives and conservatives. By using organic pork sausages you actually get the real flavor of pork and natural juices to spice up your dish.
Recipe for 2
Prep time: 10 minutes, cooking time 1 hour.
4 medium size potatoes
1 knob celery
2-3 small organic pork sausages per person (I am not saying pork is healthy, but I don’t think you should stop eating it all together. Moderation is key. By having a small portion of meat, you can still enjoy it. This meal is, as the title suggests, knob celery with a delicate amount of pork, not pork with a bit of knob celery… so consider that when buying your groceries!)
small tablespoon of dried rosemary
pepper to taste
4-5 tablespoons of olive oil
Pre-heat the oven to 180 C (355 F). Pour the olive oil in a baking dish and place in the oven to heat it up (this will make the potatoes extra crisp). In the meanwhile, peel the celery and cut it in 1cm thick stripes (like in picture below). Peel the potatoes (if not organic) and  cut them in bite-sized chunks (also about 1 cm thick). When the oven has preheated, take the baking dish out and carefully place the potato chunks and knob celery sticks into the already hot oil. Add the rosemary and pepper, and using a spoon or fork turn the vegetables around a few times so that all the pieces are coated with oil, rosemary and pepper. Place in the pre-heated oven and bake for 35 minutes. After 35 minutes, add the sausages on top of the vegetables and bake all for another 10 minutes. Now for the final step: turn the sausages around and bake for the final 5 minutes (so the sausauges have a baked colour on both sides). Enjoy this flavorful and heart warming meal!
