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Celery leaves


JAZ

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A while ago, I had a chicken salad sandwich that was garnished with celery leaves instead of lettuce. It was great, and it occurred to me that I don't use celery leaves much. Aside from throwing them in soups, I don't really know what else to do with them. Do you use the leaves, and if so, how?

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Use in a mirepoix, when making chicken stock or as a substitute for fennel.

I always include a few chopped up leaves (a little over 1 tablespoon) when making a soffritto. It adds a clean, fresh flavor without being too overwhelming.

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We had this topic some time ago.

You can use them anywhere you would use parsley.

You can dry them and use them to season almost anything, they will retain their flavor for about 6 months if totally dry and kept away from light.

I grow lovage, which tastes like celery but has a lot more leaves. It is hardier and easier to grow than celery and does nicely in pots.

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I alway's use the lighted colored white or yellow leaves only. The green are too bitter for my taste. They are great chopped up in an Italian salsa verde to serve with fish or in a french style fine herbs mix. If you like to mix picked herbs in your salads this is a good place for them. Very refreshing fried in a light tempura batter.

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I always use the leaves when I cook anything with celery in it. I got a bunch of celery not long ago that had an abundant of leaves, so I dried them. I throw them into whatever I use a mixture of herbs for.

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My mom has also used them in her potato salad along with diced celery.

At Thanksgiving, she uses the leaves (along with diced onion and celery) when simmering the broth to be used for her stuffing and her giblets & rice dish (she will simmer the turkey neck in the broth, too, and then pick the meat off for the rice dish).

I suppose you could use them anytime you use broth in a recipe. Heat up the broth with the leaves before using it.

 

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Two kinds of celery leaves on the same plant actually.

The tougher ones on the top,I use these for cooking, and the very tender yellowish young ones in the center. I use these for salads.

dcarch

Edited by dcarch (log)
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I actually use them wherever and whenever I'm using the celery. In soups, in salads, in stews, whatever. I never, ever throw away celery leaves. They're magic.

--Roberta--

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  • 4 months later...

1.5 oz Plymouth Gin

.5 oz Elderflower Liquer,

.5 oz Lemon Juice

3-4 Celery Leaves (slap it, don't muddle it).

Top with soda.

Delicious cocktail, one of the few I've tried that works with both plymouth and Hendrick's. Not sure if this sucker is named already. If it isn't, I'm open to suggestions :-)

I blog about science and cooking: www.sciencefare.org

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I actually use them wherever and whenever I'm using the celery. In soups, in salads, in stews, whatever. I never, ever throw away celery leaves. They're magic.

Ditto. They are also very, very good in Bloody Mary's, especially the young tender ones in the very middle of the stalk. Leave the leaves on the top of the inner ribs and use the rib with leaves on top as a drink stirrer.

Also, I've read that they are very similar to lovage, which was extremely popular in the times of the Roman Empire.

One of the earliest mentions of lovage is in The Art of Cooking, by Apicius, in approximately the year 50 A.D. (Almost half of Apicius' recipes call for lovage: either roots, leaves or seeds, which is approximately equivalent to the number of modern recipes in a cookbook that call for garlic. Now that shows you how popular this herb was in Roman cuisine!)

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I regularly make a salad of sliced celery and apple, dressed with a cider and walnut oil vinaigrette and topped with sweet/spicy walnuts and aged cheddar. Depending on what kind of greens I have on hand, I sometimes plate the salad over greens. Tonight when I was putting it together I realized that with an almost brand new bunch of celery I had all the leaves, so I used them as the base for the salad. It was great.

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Make celery syrup with the ribs and some crushed celery seed. Can be used for non-alcoholic homemade Cel-Ray soda topped with club soda and a splash of ginger ale, or in cocktails that you can then use the leaves to garnish.

Katie M. Loeb
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Author: Shake, Stir, Pour:Fresh Homegrown Cocktails

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Bartendrix,Intoxicologist, Beverage Consultant, Philadelphia, PA
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Celery leaves are great in soups, as someone else has said. They are also integral to the way my father makes bracciole. In a strange way, they are like anchovies--they add a great flavor to things without screaming their own identity. In my view, the fact that supermarkets regularly sell celery completely shorn of its leaves is an abomination.

"What's more, I believe it's a cook's moral obligation to add more butter given the chance."

Michael Ruhlman,
Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind Everyday Cooking

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Celery leaves are great in soups, as someone else has said. They are also integral to the way my father makes bracciole. In a strange way, they are like anchovies--they add a great flavor to things without screaming their own identity. In my view, the fact that supermarkets regularly sell celery completely shorn of its leaves is an abomination.

I'm with you on the topping and shearing of celery.

I like the flavor of celery leaves in salads, without the crunch of the celery stalk so I grow lovage.

Lovage is an herb that will grow almost anywhere - even as a houseplant in a sunny window if pinched back to keep it from growing too tall. It does have stems but not in a clump like celery but the flavor is exactly the same. The stems are pretty tough so are not useful raw but can be blanched to make them a bit more tender.

I dry the leaves and crush them for inclusion in soups and stews during the winter. The dried leaves retain their flavor for a few months if tightly sealed in a glass jar away from the light.

It is also a pretty plant and the cut stems and leaves look nice in a flower arrangement.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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