Sweet and sour braised celery
Braising celery makes it tender, mild and silky. This Jewish-Turkish dish (known as apio) gets its sweetness from honey and sourness from lemon juice. It's best at room temperature – eat as a salad, a side to fish or as tapas.
Ingredients
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1-2 tbsp runny honey
- 100ml water
- 1 bunch celery, tough outer ribs peeled with a vegetable peeler, cut into 4cm pieces, tender inner leaves reserved
- handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- salt and pepper
Method
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Step 1
Combine lemon juice, oil and honey with the water and ¼ teaspoon each of salt and pepper.
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Step 2
Bring to the boil in a lidded pan large enough to take the celery and when honey has dissolved, add the celery.
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Step 3
Cover and simmer gently until celery is tender and liquid has reduced to a syrupy glaze, about 35 minutes.
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Step 4
If the pot loses liquid too fast before the celery has cooked, top up with a little more water.
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Step 5
When celery is soft coarsely chop reserved celery leaves and sprinkle these over the celery along with the flat leaf parsley.
