Celery salad with avocado-tomato dressing

The celery salad with avocado-tomato dressing is a wonderfully fresh starter or side dish. The spicy celery harmonizes wonderfully with the avocado.

Celeriac: If you have a food processor, you can grate the celery more quickly. Celeriac will keep in the fridge for a good 14 days. You should wrap it in a damp cloth because the humidity in the vegetable compartment is usually not sufficient. If you decide to freeze the celeriac, you can extend its shelf life, but it will lose some of its flavor.

Avocado: The avocado has by far the highest fat content of all known fruits and vegetables. However, the fat is mostly unsaturated fatty acids, which have a positive effect on blood fat levels. In addition, the high proportion of indigestible fiber lowers cholesterol levels. Avocados also contain many valuable vitamins and minerals.
Avocados are climacteric fruits, meaning they continue to ripen. If you store avocados together with apples, you can speed up the ripening process by using the ripening gas ethylene that comes out of the apples. If the avocado skin gives way slightly when pressed, the fruit is ready to eat.

Paprika powder: There are different types of paprika powder, which can be differentiated by color and taste. The delicate and noble sweet varieties are slightly spicy and have a light to deep red color. Semi-sweet is much hotter than delicate and noble sweet paprika. Semi-sweet has a red-orange color. Rose paprika contains many seeds and ribs of the sweet peppers and therefore tastes even hotter than semi-sweet. The colors range from dark to yellowish red. The more intense the red color, the milder the taste of the paprika powder is as a rule.

Coriander: Opinions vary widely regarding the taste of coriander. Some people react to its intense, slightly soapy aroma with aversion or even nausea. According to statistics in Switzerland, 15% of all allergy sufferers are sensitive to coriander. In these cases, simply leave this ingredient out. However, it is the coriander that gives the dish its exotic note. There is no alternative with a similar taste. Flat-leaf parsley, which looks similar, has a completely different taste. Nevertheless, it is often used as a substitute.

Growing garden cress yourself: In the kitchen, cress seedlings are mainly used, which are harvested about a week after sowing. Garden cress tastes spicy and adds flavor to many dishes. The taste is slightly spicy and tangy.
Since garden cress does not take long to fully develop, you can easily grow cress yourself. Cress seeds begin to germinate at a temperature of around 5 °C. If you want to grow cress on the windowsill, sow the cress seeds evenly in shallow trays filled with soil. Alternatively, you can grow cress on damp kitchen paper or cotton wool. You can also grow cress in the garden from spring to summer.

Tomatoes: If you don't have fresh cherry tomatoes, you can also use regular ones. Because of their size, 1-2 tomatoes are enough as a substitute, but the resulting taste is less aromatic than cherry tomatoes.