Today we return with another hybrid vegetable like kohlrabi. This is the celeriac. It is also known by the name of celery or water parsley. Its scientific name is Apium graveolens and it is a perfect vegetable for a person on a diet, since it has a large amount of nutrients and very few calories. In this post we are going to discuss all the characteristics of celeriac, the beneficial properties for health and how to grow it in case you have a home garden.
Do you want to know everything about celeriac? Keep reading, because this is your post 🙂
Key features
Celeriac is a herbaceous plant whose stem is quite long. It has a fairly long and heavy root (It is capable of weighing up to one kilo). It is due to the fact that the root neck is globular and round in shape.
When you taste this vegetable for the first time you can notice the strong sour taste. But this is not the case since the stems, as they turn their brown color to white, it is known that the flavor begins to be increasingly sweet and aromatic. It is a vegetable widely used in Germany, France, Italy and England.
It needs some conditions for its consumption. The first is that, once collected, It should be allowed to dry completely in the sun for 24 hours. Once dried, we will remove the roots and leaves. We can store the celeriac at low temperatures and with a humidity of 85% to keep it perfectly even up to 7 weeks. Ideally, keep them in the refrigerator inside a plastic bag.
Benefits and nutritional values of celeriac
As I mentioned before, celeriac is a good option for those who are on a diet given the great nutritional value they have and their few calories. Among its components we find its high content of potassium, vitamins, chlorine, sodium in small doses, minerals, folic acid and fiber.
You can eat 100 grams of celeriac that you will only be introducing into your body about 18 kcal. In addition, it is a fresh and healthy product with only 5,6% starch. If we include this vegetable in a regular way in our diet, we can benefit from its many properties. And it can help us to fulfill organic functions such as hypoallergenic, soothing, analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antiseptic. All these properties in just one product.
It is ideal for those who want to lose weight and feel full. If it is consumed regularly, we can also notice an increase in the activation of our metabolism, causing us to burn more fat and, therefore, achieve the goal we want more quickly.
In the kitchen field it has a fairly versatile use. It works for almost everything. We can both eat it raw, such as adding it to salads, eating stir-fry, baked, grated, in stews, with fish and meat, soups and even puree. As you can see, its uses are very widespread in the kitchen. Therefore, you have no excuse not to add them to your diet and provide all the benefits to your health.
Influence of celeriac on health
Once we have studied the benefits of celeriac, we are going to see how its regular consumption affects a diet.
- Iron and protein. These two components that are obtained by consuming celeriac help promote the production of new cells and improve cognitive function.
- Vitamin C: . We all know this vitamin that oranges give us. In this case, it helps us fight against viruses that cause respiratory diseases, infections, stimulates wound healing more quickly and strengthens our immune system.
- Magnesium and folic acid. These are two components that help us improve the health of our heart. This is because they prevent the accumulation of gauze in the arteries, reducing bad cholesterol.
- Healthy carbohydrates. Although it is a very low calorie vegetable, it also has carbohydrates. These help you level your blood glucose levels and increase your body energy.
- Antioxidants Of course, anti-aging that will help us avoid damage to our cells and keep free radicals that are responsible for various types of cancer at bay.
- FootballCalcium supports bone health and prevents diseases such as osteoporosis. In addition, it is perfect for feeding the tissues and muscles.
- Potassium. The high content of this mineral causes electrolytes to be lost and helps in your kidney function.
Celeriac cultivation
Now we will go on to describe the steps and the care that you must follow if you want to grow your celeriac crop in the garden. for sowing we must wait until the end of winter, which is when the temperatures become more pleasant. At 18 degrees is a perfect temperature to start planting. We can prepare the seedbeds so that the water does not stagnate and end up rotting the roots.
To do this, we will make holes in the bottom of the seedbeds as a drainage. The substrate must be one part of earth and another part of compost or worm castings. With this nutrient-rich organic matter we can introduce the seed to a depth twice its size to allow it to grow. We cover it slightly and without force. We must not allow to leave the earth very compacted, but to leave it in such a way that it can breathe well. The water that we use to irrigate will be absorbed and the excess will go through the holes made. In this way we avoid waterlogging and fungal growth.
Once the seedlings have a length of about 10 cm, we can transplant them to another site that will be the definitive one. We will place them respecting about 40 cm2 of distance between them. The ideal temperature should be between 12 and 15 degrees.
Among the requirements that we find of the celeriac are:
- It needs direct sun.
- Quite deep, fertile and humid soils. It is necessary to add compost twice during its growth to optimize it.
- Planting them in places where there used to be legumes is a good idea, since they fix nitrogen well and celeriac needs high amounts of it.
I hope that with these tips you can enjoy the celeriac.