When you have a large crop of celery from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include it in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use it up before it goes bad without getting sick of it. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve celery.
NOTE: Most uses refer to celery stalks unless other plant parts are specifically mentioned.
- Sauté or stirfry it with tomatoes and green beans.
- Add it to other stirfry dishes and sautés.
- Bake it with turkey and onions topped with your cheese of choice.
- Used it as a topping or partial topping for a baked potato along with your favorite herbs.
- Make a simple soup with celery, carrots, and chicken.
- Add the stalks and roots to other soups. Onions and celery are the start of many great soups!
- Add the leaves, flowers, and seeds to broths.
- Add it to egg dishes like omelets and quiches.
- Mix it in with your favorite stovetop pasta along with turkey, peas, and alfredo sauce.
- Add it to other pasta dishes, stovetop or baked.
- Chop it and dip it in your favorite nut butter, whether that is cashew butter, almond butter, peanut butter, or something else.
- Chop and toss it with fennel and drizzle with ranch or blue cheese dressing.
- Make a simple chicken salad with celery, chicken, and grapes along with your favorite creamy dressing. Celery can be added to other, more complicated chicken salad recipes as well.
- Make a simple macaroni salad with celery, bell peppers, macaroni noodles, and an herbal vinegar of your choice.
- Make a Simple Salad. A few ideas for Simple Salad combinations with celery are as follows:
- Use it as a Frame in an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!)
- Add it to other salads.
- Make a tea with the leaves and seeds. Celery leaves are best suited to infusions, while the seeds are best in a decoction.
- Make a tincture with the leaves and seeds. The suggested herb:solvent ratio for a celery tincture is 1:5 in 40% alcohol.
- Dry the leaves and seeds for later use. See our How to Dry Your Herbs articles here for more information.
- Dice and freeze celery stalks to save them for later.
- Pickle the whole plant or add it to other pickled veggie mixes like those with carrots, radishes, or beets. Celery works well with both traditional and quick pickles.
Further Reading
Growing celery? Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Celery is also featured in these articles: