Poor CELERY ROOT, always sitting in a cold corner of the fridge after only a fraction of you has been used as part of one dish or another (just like it often happens with more ordinary celery branches too). Please don’t take it badly, you’re just so BIG and usually weigh almost 1 kg and even if I use half of you, it’s still a lot of leftover CELERIAC (as you sometimes like to be called) and then I forget you’re there because you’re just kind of creamy white in color and so slightly pale green, with hardly any ‘celerity’, so I hardly notice you, most of the time !

But luckily for you, I’m cleaning out the refrigerator and using up (or at least trying to) any precious remains and forgotten foods. The bag of pita-breads, not too far away from you, are also looking a bit stale and not so fresh so maybe I’ll spray them with some water and warm them up in the oven to soften and refresh them (if they’re too hard) and then slice them up in triangles and then bake them alongside with you, just so they can keep you company in the oven for a short while. That way, you’ll all be happily baking together, all slathered with olive oil and sprinkled with salt, as (the root-vegetable that you are), become tender & mushy (hiding inside your aluminum foil blanket) and the pita breads become gold-tanned & crispy.

I was planning to save you as a ‘simple purée’ as an accompaniment for a fish dish perhaps, but as I was mixing and blending you in the food-processor and adding whatever ingredients I had at hand (slowly making you greenish), you were surprisingly tasting better and better with each addition until you became this fresh-tasting & tangy DIP (to be chilled) but you could have also been enjoyed as a warm purée (because you’re such a complex character) !

I’m so sorry I didn’t think of taking more pictures of your transformation as I was preparing/creating you (even though I have your baby picture), because, you see, all of this was so unexpected, but I’m so happy you’re here with me now . . . :)