I know what you’re thinking so I’ll preempt you – this is a real underdog of a recipe. I felt the same way when I read the ingredient list; it doesn’t make any sense. Capers, whole slices of lemons, feta cheese? An egg?? And an entire stalk of celery??? I’ll be honest, I usually trust everything Ottolenghi says in his ingenious cookbooks (Jerusalem, Plenty and Plenty More, if you’ve somehow missed out), but this seemed farfetched to me. Frankly, the only reason I decided to give this recipe a shot was because I had that irritating bag of aging celery in my fridge, of which I’d used only one rib.
Don’t you hate that about celery? No one really loves it to begin with – it’s stringy, watery, not good for much besides taking up space in a crudité platter. When it does get combined with other ingredients, the recipe calls for a single rib, leaving you holding the bag – literally. In an effort to not waste food, I’ve been trying really hard to use up leftover ingredients in the refrigerator before moving along, but this one always stumps me. I’m happy to report that FINALLY there is a surprisingly delicious way to use up your celery – all of it.
If I haven’t extolled the virtues of this salad enough, I will throw into the ring the fact that it’s easily something that can be whipped up on a weeknight, and is a whole meal in itself. A salad of celery, green bell pepper, onion and herbs (still so excited that they come from my garden!) is topped with feta and a soft-boiled egg. On your plate, the soft-boiled egg, once poked, oozes yolk out to mix with the olive oil and chiles. The salad is bright (thanks, lemon slices), briny (looking at you, capers) and rich from the feta and egg. Totally surprising, unbelievably delicious.
Recipes like this one remind me that one of the most fun aspects of cooking is coming across an unfamiliar way to prepare different ingredients. So many recipes are combinations we already know, and one of the things I respect most about Ottolenghi is that he is always pushing the envelope to come up with new takes on good ingredients. And you can certainly bet that the next time there’s a bag of celery sadly moping in back of the refrigerator, on my plate and in this delicious, unconventional salad is where it’s going to end up.
Ingredients
- 8 celery stalks, thinly sliced on the diagonal (4 cups/400g)
- 2 green peppers, halved, seeded and cut lengthwise into strips 1/4-inch-/5-mm wide
- 1 medium onion, thinly sliced (1 1/3 cups/150g)
- 1 teaspoon superfine sugar
- 3 lemons
- 2/3 cup/20g celery leaves
- 1/2 cup/15g flat leaf parsley leaves
- 1 cup/15g cilantro leaves
- 4 tablespoons capers
- 2 green chiles, seeded and finely sliced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra to finish
- 4 eggs
- 7oz./200g feta, broken into 3/4-inch/2-cm chunks (1 cup)
- Salt and black pepper
Instructions
- Place the celery, green peppers and onion in a bowl, sprinkle with the sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt and mix well. Set aside for 30 minutes to allow the vegetables to soften and to draw out some of the juices, which will make up part of the dressing.
- Using a small, sharp knife, slice off the top and tail of each lemon. Cut down the side of each lemon, following its natural line, to remove the skin and white pith. Over a small bowl, cut between the membranes to remove and individual segments.
- Add the lemon segments, celery leaves, parsley, cilantro, capers, chiles, olive oil and some black pepper to the softened vegetables. Mix gently to combine.
- Just before you are about to serve, carefully spoon the eggs into a pan of boiling water and simmer gently for 6 minutes. Run under cold water until the eggs are just cool enough to handle but still warm inside, then peel them gently; the yolk should still be runny.
- Arrange the salad on individual plates, dot each with the feta and place a soft-boiled egg on top, broken in the middle. Finish with a few drops of olive oil and some freshly ground black pepper and serve at once.
Notes
Adapted from Plenty More
