Celery or Carrots?

[Chris Hennes]

If you had to pick one, which would it be, celery or carrots?

Me, I'm definitely in the celery camp. It's good raw, cooked, and everything in between. Good with any number of toppings, as a main ingredient or as a bit part. Carrots? Too sweet, and too carroty.

[LindaK]

Tough call for me. I wouldn't want carrots in a lobster salad, but then again I don't make lobster salad very often. Based on how often I pick up a bunch of carrots vs. a bunch of celery, the winner is...carrots.

[Pam R]

Carrots. I cook with both, often together, but I'd rather snack on a carrot than a stick of celery. And I hate celery in salads -- either cook with them or eat them on their own.

[Katie Meadow]

Of all the weird questions. Luckily I'll never have to chose. I prefer nibbling a straight up raw carrot to a stalk of celery, but they are both very good. Carrot juice leaves celery juice in the dust. Although I used to be very fond of Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray tonic, and I can't imagine a carbonated carrot drink.

However, I never go a week without using celery for several things, but I can go a week without carrots and not suffer. Celery is probably integral to three quarters of all the foods I cook. Soups, stews all kinds of beans 'n' rice, tuna or egg salad or potato salad. Tuna salad made with minced carrots... No. And a Bloody Mary needs some salted celery sticks alongside but a carrot would be silly.

I would chose apples over oranges, as well. Does Julia Child or anyone else have a recipe for orange pie? Exactly so.

[Corinna]

With blue cheese? Celery.

I am in the celery camp overall, for reasons already stated. Although I suspect I would miss carrots. I just bought some nice ones from a local Amish farmstand and am looking forward to pickling them, and such.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Can't imagine the horror of having to do without one or the other of these. No carrot-sweet carrot and parsnip soup? No roasted carrots? No fresh sweet crunchy munch for long drives? Yikes.

But carrot would be exactly wrong in so many places where the tangy herbaceous crispness of celery brings perfect clarity. It is the perfect companion to tomatoes in my tomato basil soup. It is a more singular foil for walnuts in salads.

And together they are such excellent companions in many other dishes.

I refuse to choose! Don't make me live in a world without either one!

[nickrey]

I use both so much in dishes I just throw a mirepoix of carelery in there. Are they really separate ingredients?

[nakji]

I live a happy and fulfilling life without the long, malicious shadow of celery stalks being cast over me.

There is only one area where I can stomach it; in bread stuffing for roast chicken. Otherwise, carrots.

[cfm]

Carrots, certainly. Carrots are a vegetable. Celery is a never-eaten garnish on a cheeseboard. Or is this a peculiarly Scottish view?

Catherine

[weinoo]

Celery is, in my mind, actually two vegetables. If you can get celery with lots of leaves on it, make a salad with the leaves, along with some flat parsley leaves. Dress with a lemon and olive oil dressing, shave some bottarga atop, and never look back.

Also, to make your celery much more delicious, try stringing it. A bit more work, but well worth it, especially if you're taking your celery raw.

Oh, I like carrots too, but celery gets a bad rap. And I really look forward to the "real" stuff, when it starts showing up in farmer's markets.

[Toliver]

If you had to pick one, which would it be, celery or carrots?

Me, I'm definitely in the celery camp. It's good raw, cooked, and everything in between. Good with any number of toppings, as a main ingredient or as a bit part. Carrots? Too sweet, and too carroty.

Dude! Have you ever had roasted carrots? Some olive oil, a wee bit of garlic powder, s & p, and lots of cumin. The aroma as it's roasting is wonderful. Heaven on a sheet pan.

So does celery include celery seed? It's the secret ingredient in my mom's potato salad and if it's a "yes", then I'll be forced into the celery camp.

[maggiethecat]

Chris, you are a Silly Wabbit! I'd hate to have celery taken from my life, but it's not exactly a food. Carrots are. Proof: I often toss a sickly half-head of celery when I clean out the vegetable drawer, but never a carrot. Why? The carrots get eaten. As food.

[nakji]

but celery gets a bad rap. And I really look forward to the "real" stuff, when it starts showing up in farmer's markets.

I might be willing to concede that I have just never had a good piece of celery. How can you tell it's the "real" stuff?

[Alex]

I agree with Katie Meadow. Weird question. Sort of a "Would you rather..."-type question, like "Would you rather eat live monkey brains or jump into a vat of horse manure?" I'd love to know how Chris came up with that vegetable-related showdown.

That said, the world would be a better place with more carrots and less celery in it.

[Chris Hennes]

Everyone I have talked to has a preference between the two, and it seems heavily skewed towards carrots. I want to see if the consensus at eG backs that up. Which it shouldn't, since celery is clearly superior. Peanut butter on carrots? No thanks.

[suzilightning]

i wish i could eat celery. i used to love the crunch of the middle third that had that little hollow in it - filled with peanut butter or pimento cheese or blue cheese. the lower third would be stringed then used in mire poix, thinly sliced then diced to go into clam chowder or lobster salad or chicken salad or would go into the bag in the freezer just before it went south to go into the stock pot. the top part with the leaves could also be minced to be used in salads or the tiny leaves chopped and put into the soup or as a garnish. the first wings i had a the anchor bar in buffalo came with both celery and carrot sticks and plenty of blue chesse.

alas as i have aged i find myself in the tiny minority that has a problem with a sensitivity to celery that can cause a rise in blood pressure so i no longer indulge.

now it is carrots. thinly slivered and dressed with a honey and sesame dressing and jicima. tourned and then cooked in some homemade veg stock and finished with a drizzle of sage honey and fresh dill. cooked and made into a carrot souffle that can go either way - sweet or savory with the addition of herbs, spices and/or toast dope.

Edited July 9, 2010 by suzilightning (log)

[heidih]

I have not purchased or acquired celery for more years than I can remember. At least one honker of a carrot is always in the fridge as an emergency vegetable (dog likes 'em too). There were years when just the smell of celery would give me flashbacks to "fad diets" we did as teenagers. I did grow one celery plant in about 2000 and enjoyed the really young stalks and leaves. The more hilarious part was when the little kids found it and were in absolute awe to see the stuff growing- they had only seen it in its trimmed rather sterile state. So...carrots.

[weinoo]

but celery gets a bad rap. And I really look forward to the "real" stuff, when it starts showing up in farmer's markets.

I might be willing to concede that I have just never had a good piece of celery. How can you tell it's the "real" stuff?

I guess it's sort of like telling the difference between a "real" home-grown tomato and a tomato someone (not me) might buy in a grocery store...usually commercially grown.

Sure, they're both tomatoes, but one tastes nothing like the other. And when there is celery to be bought at a farmer's market, it generally tastes nothing like the watery, bland stuff in the grocery store.

[Lapin d'Argent]

Well, technically, they're almost the same thing. At least, they're botanically related.

Both are members of the Umbelliferae family, which also includes (among others) parsley, fennel, parsnips, angelica, asafoetida, poison hemlock, coriander, caraway, Queen Ann's Lace, chervil, and dill. What they all have in common is a seed head generally in the form of an open umbrella, or "umber" (think of Queen Ann's Lace, or dill), and a hollow leaf stem.

So you can have your carrots, and eat your celery too.

Personally, I like pretty much all members of the family. Well, maybe not hemlock; I haven't had the, uh, opportunity to try that yet...

[Peter the eater]

It's a Sophie's Choice, but I'm going with the carrots. Ahhhh, don't make me choose!

Edited July 10, 2010 by Peter the eater (log)

[Chris Hennes]

Well, technically, they're almost the same thing. At least, they're botanically related.

Cheater! Try telling that to someone who hates celery...

[djyee100]

Both are members of the Umbelliferae family, which also includes (among others) parsley, fennel, parsnips, angelica, asafoetida, poison hemlock, coriander, caraway, Queen Ann's Lace, chervil, and dill. What they all have in common is a seed head generally in the form of an open umbrella, or "umber" (think of Queen Ann's Lace, or dill), and a hollow leaf stem.

Notice how many of this family are tough for people to deal with: fennel, parsnips, asafoetida, coriander, caraway--not just celery. It's an assertive family. Parsley is assertive, in a nice way. Poison hemlock...well...

[nakji]

Sure, they're both tomatoes, but one tastes nothing like the other. And when there is celery to be bought at a farmer's market, it generally tastes nothing like the watery, bland stuff in the grocery store.

I can manage the thin-stemmed Chinese celery in my local market much better, when needed. I bought some, grudgingly, at Christmas for bread stuffing, and didn't mind it too much. I chalked it up to the stems being more tender and sauteed in butter, but maybe it was just because they were fresh.

[Lupinus]

While I love both, I'd have to say I find celery more versatile.

From roasted veg to using the leaves as an herb and everything in between. Carrots may be mighty tasty, but I think celery is also tasty and more versatile in my kitchen.

[nakji]

Does anyone cook celery on its own - not as part of a mirepoix or as a seasoning/flavouring agent?

Both carrots and celery can be eaten raw, but carrot is more frequently cooked as a dish, isn't it?