This Root Vegetable Is The Most Underrated Food, According To Gordon Ramsay

Anyone who's been cooking for a while knows how easy it is to fall into a rut. But venturing beyond familiar territory to infuse your dishes with new flavors, smells, and textures can be as simple as exploring a new ingredient. All the more ambitious if it's an ingredient that's often overlooked, underutilized, or underestimated. For celebrity chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay, there's one ingredient that tops his list of most underrated foods: celeriac. 

Primarily cultivated in the Mediterranean Basin and northern Europe, celeriac (also known as celery root) is popular in French cuisine but not so much in the average American home. It differs from its more commonly used counterpart, green stalk celery — a staple ingredient in tuna fish, mirepoix (as a soup base), and the popular nostalgic snack, ants on a log. Though both are considered types of wild celery and come from the same species (Apium graveolens), celeriac is primarily harvested for its bulb rather than its stalks.

Visually, the bulbous root vegetable can, admittedly, be a little scary looking for those uninitiated. The outer skin is a mottled beige with flecks of white showing through knobby brown patches, with the occasional dangling root strand here and there. In a 2009 interview with Bon Appétit, the Michelin-starred chef and best-selling author acknowledged that the "hideous" appearance of celeriac may be partly responsible for its general neglect. Yet, Ramsay swears by it. "It's brilliant in soups, fantastic deep-fried as vegetable chips, or grated raw in salad," he explained.

Like carrots and potatoes, celeriac is a fall and winter root vegetable. But because of its long growing season and storage capability, celeriac can be found year-round. Check grocery stores or local farmer's markets late fall through early spring to get it in peak season. And don't let celeriac's hard exterior fool you — it can be a real softy once cooked, making it a near perfect dupe for mashed potatoes. 

To cook celeriac, cut off the top and bottom of the bulb and remove the skin to reveal the white flesh underneath. Mildly flavored (think celery-adjacent) with an earthy nuttiness, hearty celeriac can be prepared in a variety of ways — most notably as a delectable smooth celery root puree base for seafood like classic garlicky scallops Provençal, where celeriac's light sweetness brings out the best in the shellfish. Celeriac also pairs perfectly with cold-weather comfort foods and other root veggies.

Try blending it into a creamy soup drizzled with walnut oil and parmesan shavings, eat it raw, either thin-sliced or grated on salads, spiralize it into noodles, or slice it hasselback-style and coat it with olive oil and herbs before baking it in the oven. You can also impress your vegetarian and vegan friends by making a roasted celery root steak in rich onion-mushroom gravy. Hot Tip: If you're using it raw or not cooking it immediately, be sure to soak the bulb in vinegar or rub it with lemon juice right after peeling it as the white coloring will quickly turn brown from oxidation (as an apple does).