Since being back in Holland after five weeks in Beijing, I have been craving some European foods, like root vegetables, cabbage and potatoes. So I went into the supermarket last week without a clear idea what to make and I picked up a celeriac root. Not really knowing what to make with it, I steamed my first batch, tossing them with nutritional yeast and basil after cooking and I really liked the result. However, I think steaming or boiling celeriac leaves the vegetable a bit watery, so I figured roasting the celeriac would make them a bit tastier.

This recipe is super easy, the only thing that can be a bit difficult is peeling your celeriac. I cut mine in half first, then I used a peeler to remove the bulk of the peel and a small sharp knife to remove the last pieces of peels in the folds of the root. Afterwards you can cut them up into fries.

I would advise to use a bit more basil than I did, and to cut it as fine as you can, almost turning it into a paste, so you can coat the fries a bit better. You could also mince one of the cloves of garlic and add that to the oil and basil, but that is up to your own taste.

Ingredients for two people (side dish):

• Half a celeriac root, peeled and cut into fries (around 350 grams)
• A tsp. of olive oil
• ½ a tbsp. of nutritional yeast
• A small handful of basil
• A pinch of salt
• Optional: garlic, whole or minced

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit)
2. Mince your basil until it is fine
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
4. Spread out your celeriac, coat them with the olive oil, salt, nutritional yeast and minced basil, if you like you can put whole clove of garlic in the sheet as well, this gives the fries a slight garlic taste, or add minced garlic for a more intense taste
5. Put in the oven for 30 minutes, tossing them half way through
6. Enjoy!

TIP: freeze the other half of your celeriac root already cut up into fries. You can use them to make a second batch of these fries, just put them in the oven a bit longer!

Tossing the fries before baking

After baking

Serving with ketchup