Last year I fell out of love with celery. I’m not really sure why. I think I juiced a bunch of celery and it made my tongue numb and I wondered why I would want to drink something that made my tongue numb. Maybe I just had celery sitting in my fridge and stared at it for a few months straight until I finally took it out and swore I wouldn’t waste celery again so I didn’t buy any? That’s probably what happened. Yeah. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened.
In our house we get a weekly vegetable/fruit delivery from a local service called Full Circle. I always love the variety of fruits & vegetables that get delivered because it serves as a good reminder of what’s currently in season. In last week’s box, not only did I get persimmons, carrots & apples, I got a huge bunch of celery. CELERY. So what to do with it? Make a salad!
Melissa Clark is my favorite salad DJ. I can imagine that she would be the best person to stand next to at a salad bar. She introduced to me to this Kale Pecorino number that I make all the time. So, this here salad? This was the salad that made me like celery again. I’m back in the celery game! It reminded me a lot of the Addictive Brussels Sprouts Salad I make/love. The celery isn’t as pungent as I thought it would be. The Parmesan adds a nice bite and oh man HOLY CRUNCH with both the walnuts and celery. When you’re sick of eating turkey & leftovers next week, you should make this.
Let’s think ahead!
And we’re off!
First thing’s first. Roast nuts. Get them brown.
Gather your ingredients. There aren’t that many! I love this.
Chop things up. Mix your oil with vinegar. Add salt & pepper. Shave your Parmesan.
Use good Parmesan!! The real deal. It makes a big difference.
Load it all into a bowl.
Dress it!
Toss it!
Eat it. Eat it with these wings. We did and LOVED it.
Celery Salad w/ Walnuts & Parmesan
serves 4
recipe slightly adapted from Cook this Now by Melissa Clark
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 8 large celery stalks with leaves, thinly sliced
- 2 ounces good Parmesan cheese, shaved
Preheat oven to 350F. Spread walnuts in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast, tossing once halfway through, until the nuts are golden, 7-10 minutes. Cool and coarsely chop.
In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, salt and pepper; whisk in the oil. Combine the walnuts, celery and leaves, and cheese in a large salad bowl. Add the vinaigrette and toss until gently combined.
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35 Comments
say somethingI love celery salads! Glad to hear you’re back on the bandwagon.
And I am especially loving them lately because I am saving and drying all the leaves to make this homemade flaky celery salt for holiday gifts: http://emmycooks.com/2012/10/11/homemade-celery-salt/ Double win!
Awesome! I found my dinner for tonight! I have a bunch of celery sitting in my fridge staring at me and I got all the other ingredients at home, too!
Great love celery .. I just did a soufflè with him, thanks for sharing this salad look excellent!
Very cool. Celery hasn’t been my friend lately, but I’m totally willing to try it in salad form like this! Neat idea
I’ve never seen a salad with enough celery to grant “celery” a place in the title of the recipe. It sounds really interesting! The best thing about salads are the crisp, cold, crunchy (okay enough “c” adjectives…) and fresh elements they provide. I can’t think of anything that has that more than celery, so I’m sure it’s super satisfying to eat.
I don’t loooove celery either, but this might be just the ticket to get me back in the game!
oh wow. this looks like such a fresh, wintery salad. and I have all the ingredients in my fridge right now! it’s fate, I tell you.
made this tonight for dinner when I didn’t feel like cooking. um, SCORE!
FAB!!!
This looks beyond awesome. Cannot believe I missed it in the book. I love the Italian version with shaved fresh mushrooms.
We get the Full Circle delivery also – just received this week’s box this morning!
Tracy, this salad looks awesome; thanks for sharing.
This looks amazing! I already love celery so you don’t have to convince me but I’ve never seen it prepared this way. Thanks for the great recipe Tracy!
This looks delish! I personally love celery, smothered with peanut butter of course…
Yum! I am tempted to make this an offering at thanksgiving too!
I totally fell out of love with celery, too. And WHY does it make your tongue numb? I love the sound of the crunchy texture in this salad, though!
I make a celery salad with celery, farmers cheese, red onion with a vinaigrette on top! It’s my hubby’s favorite salad! The original recipe called for Feta cheese, but we like the more mild Farmer’s cheese taste. YUM!
Ooh! I like the sound of that.
I’d never really thought to saladize celery! I like it!
This sounds similar to one I like from Heidi Swanson–I think hers added some white beans (or maybe my version of it did). My husband and I both really liked it for a light dinner.
This sounds really delicious Tracy. Pecans in a celery salad would taste awesome.
I’m dreaming about having this for lunch at work. Do you know how long the celery will last before getting soft?
I think if you make it the night before, it should totally be fine!
Ooh, I wish I could put “salad DJ” on my resume. This recipe looks fresh and yummy!
Celery is the one thing I really don’t like, unless it’s coated in ranch dip or peanut butter – underlying message: it can’t taste like celery. But this recipe and listening to Deb Perelman talk at her book signing in DC on Monday night about the food she hates (beets) but how she kept trying until she found a way to like them (recipe in the book) are about to convince me to try again.
PS – While Deb was signing my cookbook I told her she was one of my 3 food blog loves and when she asked me which other blogs, I mentioned you and Joy, to which she started telling me how you guys stopped by to visit her home & how great you are. Thanks to all three of you for providing such happy places on the internet & inspiring us all with your recipes! You ladies all rock!
I am in the midst of a celery disliking phase. Not gunna lie. But I think I need to give this a try. If only for the cheese and the walnuts!
I totally have this salad on my must-make list for winter. That Melissa Clark never lets me down! I don’t think her cookbooks get enough attention from food bloggers, which I suspect is because they don’t have a lot of photos. I also think celery is totally underrated (blame the veggie trays).
Such a classic combination, I so have to try this!
You know what? I’ve never thought of celery salad before. I don’t know why! It’s the perfect salad star: crunchy, slightly salty, juicy. I imagine chopped apples would go well with this too, seeing it’s apple season. Oh, and raisins! I’m going to have this for lunch very soon
super-crunchy salads are my jam! I kind of love celery and I really, really love the idea of a celery salad instead of just sticks next to wings.
I toasted walnuts the other day before adding them to granola and o-m-g. So good. I like the balancing act here between the walnuts, celery & parm. Sounds lovely!
whoowhite wine. with this. ah.
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[...] I organized a kind of impromptu dinner party/play date Friday night so I used Dylan’s nap time to prep the food for dinner. I like the food that Tracy from the blog Shutterbean makes (I also love her podcast which I wrote about here and here), so I went to her site for recipe ideas and decided to try her celery salad. [...]
[...] I AM A MESS made my Celery Salad with Parmesan & Walnuts. [...]
[...] Celery Salad with Walnuts and Parmesan [...]