Yesterday on the way home I stopped by my favorite local grocery store to pick up food for the week.  I grabbed a random assortment of vegetables that happened to look good that day: broccoli rabe, chinese celery, yard long beans, mizuna, chinese leeks, celery root, pioppini mushrooms, and of course onions and garlic.  For some reason, I was seeing green, I guess.

I’ve been a fan of celery root for about a year now.  I’m not a huge fan of celery, but for some reason the nutty, crunchy, somewhat herbacious flavor of celery root appeals to me– which is a good thing, because it’s pretty low calorie and has vitamins in it.  Baked, it retains its juiciness and crunch yet is a bit softer and sweeter, with a more mellow flavor.

Celery root sausage bake with hardboiled egg and blueberries in the bento for tomorrow's lunch!

Tonight I was inspired by the word “baked” on a random website, and thought that the celery root would be delicious baked with some spicy chicken andouille sausage (from Trader Joe’s).  Throw in some chinese leeks for color and flavor, garlic, and a potato with some olive oil and voila. Comfort food that isn’t terrible for you.  You can do this with most vegetables (and throw in whatever meat, just brown it first) and they usually come out sweet and tasty.  It’s a great way to get rid of whatever vegetables you happen to have lying around.  (For more caramelization, I think you can cook them on a slightly lower temperature for a longer period of time with more oil, but they come out great in 45 minutes this way.)

Celery Root Sausage Bake

(Makes 3 servings, ~420 calories per serving according to my rough caloriecount.com calculations)

Ingredients

Garlic, salt & pepper not pictured.

• 2 Trader Joe’s (or equivalent) Smoked Andouille Chicken Sausages
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 celery root, peeled well, rinsed, then diced in large cubes (~3 cups)
• 5 stalks chinese chives (green onions or regular chives might work as substitutes, but use more.)
• 1 yukon gold potato, diced in large cubes
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Get out a pan you can take from stovetop to oven (I used a le cruset braiser, you could use that or a cast iron pan.  You could use another type of pan if you brown the sausage on the stovetop in a pan, then scrape every last tiny bit into a baking pan.).

Prep veggies according to directions in ingredients.  Chop sausages into 1/2″ rounds.  Add olive oil to pan, heat up and then add sausages.  Stir sausages occasionally.

When they’re browned all over, turn off heat and add all the other ingredients.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Stir well.

Put in the oven and bake for at least 45 minutes, or until a fork goes easily through the potato.  Voila!  Very simple.  You can start this before your favorite TV show and when it’s done, your food should be too!

The veggies should have become slightly golden brown too.