Braised celery & potatoes

May 7, 2014

We've recently resumed a fortnightly veggie box (this time from CERES) and have been enjoying the prompt to eat more seasonally. Unfortunately, seasonality at this time of year means celery, and lots of it. We've gone through a few old staples, but were starting to run out of ideas. Luckily, Cindy had stored this recipe away for just this situation.

Jackie raved so much about it as a way to use up celery that we had high hopes. Throw in our favourite staple (spuds!) and a simple recipe and this was a perfect school-night dish. It takes a little while to make but it's all just chopping and simmering so you've got plenty of time to work on an accompaniment (we made a serve of the tofu from this recipe).

The result? A success - the braised celery is soft with a hint of sweetness, a slight creaminess from the potato and some bite from the lemon juice. We've still got half a bunch of celery to get through - this may even get another run out this week.


Braised celery and potatoes
(based on this recipe from Gretel was getting fatter)

1/4 cup olive oil
4 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes
half a bunch of celery (about 5 big ribs), chopped into big chunks (about an inch long)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup white wine
1 cup vege stock
juice of a lemon
handful of chopped parsley
salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a big pot and throw in the celery. Cook, stirring regularly, for about 10 minutes.

Throw in the potatoes with a generous shake of salt and stir everything together. Cook for another 5-10 minutes until the veggies start to soften slightly. 

Add the garlic and the wine, stirring everything together and making sure nothing gets too stuck to the bottom. Let the wine reduce a bit and then throw in the stock. Simmer until the liquid has reduced away to almost nothing and the potatoes are cooked through. 

Kill the heat and stir through the lemon juice, parsley and salt and pepper.