Do Celery and Celeriac Come From the Same Plant?

No, although both celery and celeriac are subspecies of celery, they are different varieties. Celeriac is one of the root vegetables, the light flesh of the tuber is eaten here. Celery forms comparatively small tubers, but has whitish to bright green colored, fleshy leaf stalks with fine leaves at the ends.

Celeriac is usually a component of soup greens and, in finely chopped form, the main ingredient of Waldorf salad or farmer’s salad. It can be eaten raw or cooked, for example as a puree, as our celery puree recipe proves, or fried as a vegetarian schnitzel.

Celery, also known as white celery or stick celery, tastes good raw in salads or in the form of vegetable sticks. But this celery variant can also be eaten cooked in pasta sauces, casseroles, and stews.

In addition to these two popular celery varieties, there is a third, which is called cut or spiced celery. The bulb is even smaller than that of celery, the stalks are rather fine and the leaves are relatively large, similar to parsley. Here only the green is used to refine dishes. The green leaves of celeriac, if present, are also good for seasoning dishes.