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Lunchbox, Sides, Vegan &/or Raw

Celeriac and white bean puree

Not so pretty, these celeriac things. They look like a cross between the butt of a matted yak, and a swede with dermatitis. But damn, are they delicious.

Like Stephen Fry, you’ll find treasure beneath that exterior. There is a smooth understated elegance to a celeriac. And a faint nutty aroma. Indeed the celeriac is Yotam Ottolenghi’s favourite root vegetable, so I became a disciple faster than green grass through a goose.

For a carbalicious root, celeriac is rather light on the tummy and even lighter on the wallet. Whizzed up in a blender with creamy white beans, it provides a comforting alternative to mashed spuds, when the mood yodels.

celeriac butter bean puree

 

And get this. Beans carry a cargo of B vitamins and fibre, making them the heavyweight champion food for healthy hearts. Gastroenterologists – the specialists who look after your pipes – recommend thirty to thirty five grams of daily dietary fibre. One cup of the popular red kidney beans provides eleven grams, while butterbeans ring in at sixteen grams per serving. Want to know the average daily intake in Ireland?  A measly ten grams. So forget that hideous childhood rhyme, and start loving beans. They love you.

While your colon gets a good spring clean, so too will your skin. Nutritionists are quick to remind us that a build-up of toxins in the body often manifests in skin complaints – spots, rashes, blotchiness, tantrums. Our skin is our body’s largest excretory organ. With the added vitamin C from celeriac, you’ll be well on your way to giving Angela Scanlon some competition.

 

celeriac butterbean

 

Celeriac and white bean puree

Makes 6 servings

 

1 teaspoon bicarb

350g dried butterbeans, soaked for 8 hours

½ head celeriac, peeled and chopped

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

A few twists of the salt and pepper mill

 

Bring a pan of water to the boil with your bicarb. Add the butterbeans and cook until tender (20-45 minutes). Drain the cooked beans, reserving 150ml of the cooking liquid for later.

Meanwhile, steam the chopped celeriac for 10 minutes.

Transfer to a blender along with the cooked beans, and whip until sumptuously smooth. You will need to add the reserved liquid, salt, pepper and excitement as you puree.

Scrape into a serving dish, smoothing the top, and mmmizzle with olive oil.

 

celeriac butter bean

 

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5 Comments

  • Reply bredamerity May 3, 2016 at 10:00 pm

    Hi Susan Jane.
    The recipe sounds delicious cant wait to try
    I discovered a dish thats is creamy some like the creaminess of this dish
    Tin  butter drained blended with fresh rosemary.
    Cheers,
    Bred

  • Reply Jana May 6, 2016 at 4:20 pm

    Hi Susan, are you using baking soda when cooking beans? Is that to get rid off toxins? Are they in the white foamy form that surfaces when the beans get submerged in water? My mum spoons it out, so do I but not 100% if that`s correct?

    • Reply Susan Jane May 9, 2016 at 9:03 pm

      Hi Jana, baking soda definitely helps soften beans, but it’s worth asking Harold McGee whether it benefits the beans from a nutritional stand point. I don’t know myself 😉

  • Reply Dal May 11, 2016 at 3:43 pm

    Hi SJ, are organic tinned beans just as good for us as dried ones please? I always end up with out of date dried beans and pulses!

    • Reply Susan Jane May 18, 2016 at 11:47 am

      Dried ones always best, but tinned are so handy!

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