Walking home from my grocery shopping today I was thinking about root celery. I had just bought one and wanted to be a bit creative with it. This is what I made:
I have wanted for some time to make some grain free bread that would not just consist of nuts and seeds… I thought egg and “veg” should be a good and healthy base, and the root celery was going to be my veg(etable).
I cut off a piece of the root celery that my weigh scale told me was 450 g (1 lb) so that’s what we are sticking to today!
Peel it and cut it into smaller pieces and boil them for 15 minutes in salted water.
Meanwhile prepare the dry ingredients – and you’ll need a mixer / grinder for this… OR a friendly neighbor that will let you borrow theirs.
In a small bowl
- 200 ml (0.8 cup) flaxseed (also called linseed) mixed / grinded to a fine powder
- And 100 ml (0.4 cup) sunflower seeds, also mixed / grinded to a fine powder.
- Add 2 teaspoons baking powder
- And 1/2 teaspoon salt
Stir with a spoon
In a big bowl whisk the following:
- 4 eggs
- 1 tbsp vinegar (I used a dark balsamico)
- 1 tbsp honey
Then turn on your oven to 180 C (350 F) and prepare a form or tray – with butter and for example ground flax seeds. Ok – I admit – I didn’t really do a good job on this, but you know what? It worked anyway! 🙂
I used my 20 x 20 cm cake form, but I’m thinking that you could probably just as well spread the “dough” on a baking sheet on a normal baking tray if you don’t have a good size form. It might not be square sized then and maybe it’ll spread a bit thinner, but I’m pretty sure it will still work… I might actually try this next time myself.
Anyway, you’ll work it out – by now the root celery should be done. Drain the water, add 75 g (0.17 lb) butter to the boiled celery pieces and mash them (using a hand mixer is very convenient). And oh my, taste that – it’s like a better version of mashed potatoes! I’ll make that a side dish soon!! But today we’re going to use it for baking, so stop eating it!
Now simply add the celery mash and the dry ingredients to the egg mix and whisk (electrical whisk – my every day hero) or stir, until all is mixed. Spread in your form or on the baking sheet. I sprinkled some sunflower seeds and flax seeds over it – just to make it look nice.
Bake in the lower part of the oven for about 35 minutes.
Let it cool a bit before you cut into pieces. Now – of course this is not exactly like “normal” bread. It has a rather moist texture inside and it does taste of vegetable (which is actually a quite nice taste if I may say so…). What I did was to cut the pieces in half – through the middle and “toast” them for a few minutes, in my oven at high heat (you’ll see when they get a bit brown). That way – they got more of a crust, and the texture is still a bit like sourdough bread inside.
I ate it with butter and some bell pepper and leek, and for someone who has not had a piece of bread for 6 months – this was heaven 🙂
Happy baking!
Liesel