Celery Salad
This crisp and refreshing Celery Salad has walnuts, parmesan, and pomegranate arils for a unique salad that’s pretty enough for the holiday table.
If you often find yourself with leftover celery that needs using up, this is a great staple for turning it into a great side dish.
I love celery and buy it pretty often to make Potato Salad, Egg Salad, Chicken Pot Pie, and more, but I find that often I’ll only need a couple ribs, and the rest of the bunch risks going to waste.
One day I set out to find new celery recipes and I discovered this recipe from Ina Garten.
I’ve changed a few minor things, but overall I discovered something delicious that also fixed my leftover celery problem.
Step by Step Overview:
To start, separate and clean a bunch of celery stalks under cold running water:
It’s perfectly fine to leave the celery leaves on, so long as they aren’t wilted.
Now you want to slice the celery into thin pieces.
I used my food processor for this to make the process really fast, but using a knife is perfectly acceptable too.
For the dressing, zest and juice a meyer lemon, making sure you remove the lemon zest before slicing. Add both to a small bowl.
FYI: a regular lemon is fine too, but when I see meyer lemons, I love cooking with them wherever I can.
Next, add minced shallots and extra virgin olive oil to the fresh lemon juice:
You may also use red onion if shallots are too pricey for you, however the shallots are milder.
Then add anchovy paste, black pepper, and salt:
Whisk for 30 seconds until everything is emulsified:
Pour the dressing all over the sliced celery in a large bowl:
Let the celery sit, and you’ll see that over the next hour, the celery will macerate and the texture will become even better:
Plate the celery with shaved parmesan cheese, parsley leaves, toasted walnuts, and pomegranate seeds:
I love the aged, savory flavor of the parmesan shavings, but feel free to try other cheeses like feta cheese or blue cheese.
Turkey Chili, Shrimp Salad, and Chicken Noodle Soup are some of my other favorite recipes using celery. Can’t let that stuff go to waste!
Recipe Variations
There are many ways to change up what ingredients you include here. While the crunchy celery should be the star ingredient here, the best salad is really the one that most suits your tastes. Here are some ideas:
Apple – Add 1/2 cup of diced sweet apple instead of the pomegranate arils.
Fresh herbs – Swap the parsley for fresh thyme leaves, oregano, basil, or chives.
Vinegars – The fresh lemon is really wonderful here, but you may use vinegar for the acid instead, if you prefer. Red wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar are my preferences here.
More Salad Recipes
Yes, keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Not recommended.
Did you enjoy the recipe? Please leave a 5-star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page.
Celery Salad
Ingredients
For the dressing:
- zest of 1 meyer lemon
- juice of 1 meyer lemon (1/3 cup)
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 a small shallot minced (2 tbsp)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
- 1 tsp anchovy paste
For the celery salad:
- 1 bunch celery sliced (6 cups)
- 1 cup toasted walnuts
- 1/4 cup shaved parmesan
- 1/4 cup pomegranate arils
- 1/8 cup parsley leaves
Instructions
- To make the dressing, whisk all the dressing ingredients together for 30 seconds until emulsified.
- Pour the dressing all over the sliced celery and let sit for 1 hour. The celery will macerate and soften slightly.
- Move the celery salad to a serving plate with a slotted spoon (leaving behind any excess liquid), then sprinkle on the toasted walnuts, parmesan, pomegranate seeds, and parsley leaves. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
Post updated in December 2018. Originally published November 2015.
10 Comments on “Celery Salad”
Hi Joanne,
thank you!! I had just despaired, as I didn’t have apples on hand to make my usual celery salad – and then I stumbled accross your recipe. And what can I say… It’s gorgeous! A bit of a disclaimer as I changed a couple of things: I substituted orange zest for the lemon zest (lemon juice plus a splash of vinegar wasn’t the problem) – but I think as I also didn’t have pomegranate on hand, this did rather nicely to bring a tiny bit of sweetness to the dish. And as for the anchovy paste, also didn’t have that… Why make your recipe at all, you ask? Because I have Thai fish sauce (always in my pantry ^^), which did quite nicely for an umami-kick! Thanks again!
I love anchovies. No much of a “paste” gal 🙂 Thank you for the time you took to reply. The slow cooker method is exceptional for the chicken breasts! Patti-Ann
I find it amusing that you would have anchovy paste on hand just when you are trying to put the rest of your celery to good use. Is there an alternative to the paste? I did just find you today and I am trying your crock pot chicken method tomorrow. I am looking forward to using the cooking method frequently. And one more off topic mention, I love egg salad and can’t boil eggs! I will be trying that helpful hint next. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Patti-Ann, hah, I really do always have it on hand, with a backup in the pantry! I use it all the time for dressings. Great way to add flavor and umami. Is your issue with it that you don’t have it, or that you don’t like it? I don’t really have an alternative in this case, as it’s a fairly unique ingredient. Hope you enjoy the chicken and egg salad!
I feel like I always have celery left over and this was an absolutely delicious way to use it all up!
This is one of our favorites.
What a great way to use up leftover celery! This is so different and I love it.
What a good idea! It’s so pretty too. Pinned!
This sounds really good. Will have to give it a try. A way to keep celery fresh longer is to wrap it in aluminum foil. That is how I keep mine all the time.
That’s wonderful, thank you!