Turkish Style Celeriac with carrot and quince flavored with lemon and orange juice make a wonderful side dish or a vegetarian meal. Perfect combination of sweet, savory, earthy and citrusy flavors. This recipe can make you a celeriac fan even if you are eating it for the first time.
Living in Mediterranean area, Turkish people are quite friendly and they can easily communicate with someone they don’t know. I would like to talk about greeting ways of Turkish people in this post.
You know communication starts with greeting, so it is a kind of social ritual which has a very important role in a society. There is no one way of greeting though. It might depend on several variables, so every culture has its own way of greeting. We can even say that greeting might differ in regions of a country or people from different social backgrounds may have different greeting styles, too. These differences can cause misunderstandings if a person is not familiar with them.
Which body language do Turkish people use for greeting besides saying ‘hi’ (merhaba)? Mainly, men shake hands, women kiss each other on cheek. This may also differ depending on relationships. If men are relatives or close friends, they also kiss on cheek. I think cheek kissing still needs a bit more explanation. The common way of it in the country is to kiss on both cheeks; yet, there are some regions where women kiss on cheek three times, one kiss on one cheek, two kisses on the other. Some women even do this twice on both cheeks! Can you imagine this? I’ve experienced this a few times in some parts of Turkey, and was very surprised when I was first kissed about 20 times by 5 women- if my maths is good enough to multiply 5 with 4. Yes, you read it right, 20 times! When they kiss you, you start to think as if it never ends. It’s not important for them whether you kiss them too or not. They just want to welcome you in this way, so it will be rude to stop them. The only thing you can do is to wash your face very well when you come home. Men also kiss on cheek a few times in the same regions, but theirs is not a real kiss. They just touch their cheeks on each other’s. Women and men in countryside don’t kiss each other, they either shake hands or just make eye contact as greeting. However, in big cities they kiss on both cheek (luckily just once!) if they have a close relationship, they just shake hands if they aren’t close enough. They also hug each other if they haven’t seen each other for a long time.
What about kids? Kids kiss hands of adults and adults kiss on their cheeks in return. Generally, kids are told by their parents to kiss the hand of someone no matter how close the relationship of their parents and that person is. They first kiss the hand and then make it touch on their forehead. This is a way of showing respect.
Another way of greeting is just waving hands if you don’t stop and chat with each other.
So you know a bit more about Turkish style greeting.
Do you have a way of greeting in your culture different from these?
As for the dish above, it is one of my favorites in Winter. I love the combination of all ingredients here. Flavors of quince and orange juice make a balance with flavors of celery and carrot. And fresh dill adds a very nice texture and distinctive flavor to this very appealing Winter dish. Quince is mostly peeled and then put in this dish, but I love to see its bright yellow color, so I leave it as it is.
PrintCeleriac With Quince
A lovely combination of quince and celeriac!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 2 celery roots, peeled and chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- ½ quince, seeds discarded and chopped
- ½ orange, squeezed
- ½ lemon, sequeezed
- half bunch of fresh dill, chopped
- salt to taste
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- ¾ cup hot water
Instructions
- Put carrot, celeriac, and quince into the pot in this order.
- Pour orange juice and lemon juice onto them.
- Add olive oil and salt. Cover the pot and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
- Then stir it and pour hot water into it.
- Cook for 15-20 minutes until tender. Do not overcook it or the veggies get mushy. Take it from heat, add chopped fresh dill and stir.
- Serve it warm either as a main dish or side dish with meat or chicken.
Zerrin,
What a pity that my mum does not have the habbit of cooking celeriac in my childhood. When I first taste celeriac and quince cooked with orange juice, I have thought that I was in heaven! I really really love it! Next time you cook, give it a try and use only 1 cup of orange juice with half a lemon juice. I do not add water to this dish! It is fantastic!
I admire you and your recipes!
Love & kisses…
Ece
Thank you so much my lovely friend for your kind words and for your comment! Although some people find the smell of celeriac not very appealing, it’s what makes me LOVE celeriac. I’m so lucky that my son feels the same. Will try it your way next time I cook it. Thanks for the tip!
Hugs 🙂
I never would have thought to combine these two together, I always learn something new when I stop here. I am so intrigued as to how this will taste.
We share hands, kiss on cheeks, it just depends. Here in San Francisco people come from so many parts of the world we take our cues from how they approach us. With family and close friends, its always hugs and kisses from me.
Yes, the western tradition of a handshake is one that extends into a hug for closer friends and family for sure, but some in the US are still not comfortable with being close in greetings.
The recipe is great, I cannot get enough celery root!
Oh yes, I love the idea of quince & celeriac, I’m with Faith on this one I never would have put them together either, but I can imagine how each would flavour the other beautifully, thanks for sharing Zerrin 🙂
This looks delicious and very healthy….would like to try this, too! 😀
Celeriac and quince are two things I never would have thought to pair together, but I bet this combination works so nicely! What a beatiful dish, Zerrin!
I like celeriac but never cook it myself. Will try this dish (without the quince – never seen it here). As for greetings – it very much depends on age and region. Hugs and a kiss for friends n family. Handshakes for the bank manager. and new introductions. “Hi” for everyone else.
What a delightful veggie dish!! I love celeric & quince too!
MMMMMMMMMMMMMM,..delecyable food!
Yine harika bir giriş yazısı yazmışsın Zerrin. Yazılarını yüzümdü kocaman bir gülümseme ile keyifle okuyorum…
Mevsim sebzesi olunca ikimizinde tarifi aynı olmuş. Üstelik pişirme şeklimiz de. Ayvaların kabukları gerçekten çok hoş görünüyor, ben de bir daha kabuklarını soymadan deneyeceğim. Ellerine sağlık.
I think the cheek kissing is great! But, then I don’t experience it regularly at all. We shake hands mostly in the US. Sometimes we hug, depending on the situation, but I think cheek kissing seems much more intimate and sweet – despite the required face washing 🙂
You recipe sounds really interesting. I love celeriac and other root vegetables, but I haven’t thought to use the orange citrus flavor with them before. I’ll give it a shot.
Orange juice gives a very nice flavor to this dish when combined with olive oil. Try it!
I like it! I will try this one!
We pretty much do 1 kiss on the cheek for family and friends; handshakes for new acquaintances.
I am not familiar with cooking with quince or celeriac but I like your use of citrus.
I first experienced this kind of greeting after I got married and moved to Jordan. In my homecountry, Slovenia, a quick hug or handshake is usually a daily way to greet someone; except on birthdays you got to get two kisses, one on each cheek. As for the youngsters kissing the hands of the elderly, I think this is so sweet and it pays off when you see their faces lit up of happiness and appreciation feeling that they are resepected 🙂
I am a huge fan of celeriac, root vegetables are so good in the winter. What a beautiful presentation and I love your writing!
delicious colourful combination
Ha ha, the dreaded greeting!! We go for the handshake in Fethiye and two kisses to our friends – if we haven’t seen them in a while. As for the hand kiss and then to the forehead of an older person – we’ve always wondered if that’s okay for the foreigner (us!) to do? Or is that too familiar?
No, I don’t think it will be familiar. Children don’t know if you have hand kissing in your culture or not. They think every culture around the world is the same. And their parents love their children’s kissing hand, so no problem for you. You can try and see.
I will try this one for sure.
maybe tomorrow, I love the idea!
baciuss
Brii