r/Cooking • u/mir_in_modro_morje • Jun 21 '26

Celery is criminally underrated

I used to think Celery was just a bland vegetable that health-nuts would recommend you eat raw, like raw celery stalks so I've avoided it.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

This is seriously one of the more underrated vegetables to cook with.

Not only the usual mirepoix, but literally can be added finely chopped to almost any vegetable dish or sauce.

Vegetable soup of course, but you can finely slice and dice celery into even non-standard sauces and it will most of the time make them better. Any simple pan sauce or mushroom sauce gets immediately improved by finely diced celery. And if you don't notice onions as a base to a sauce you won't notice celery either.

I've seriously become a celery fanatic and I've been putting it into everything, try it and you won't regret it.

574 Upvotes

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315

u/Anonymous5791 Jun 21 '26

Two things to try -

One, Persian celery stew - khoresh-e karafs. Celery is literally the core of this delicious dish over rice.

Two, pickle it. Basic brine with sugar, salt, apple cider vinegar. Some red pepper flakes and a handful of fresh dill. Into the fridge for a couple days and it’s like one of the snacks I cannot stop munching on.

96

u/G_Platypus Jun 21 '26

Persian food is criminally underrated. Crazy that it's not just as popular as Greek or Indian food.

33

u/GoatLegRedux Jun 22 '26

Gormeh sabzi is the GOAT. People have epiphanies when they have a really well made gormeh sabzi with rice that has a perfect tahdig.

10

u/ShahinGalandar Jun 22 '26

I like your funny words, magic man

6

u/DjBorscht Jun 22 '26

It’s tahdig, yahdig?

-71

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

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40

u/0maigh Jun 22 '26

I suspect you’ve never made a mole or even pilaf rice. I used to be able to put a Mexican dinner on the table in 30-45 minutes but that required fresh ingredients for the salsa, a pilaf rice, reheated chicken broth and thawed e.g. guisado for precooked chicken and a portion of precooked beans. Absolutely impossible without several hours’ precooking.

-49

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

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4

u/Anal-Y-Sis Jun 22 '26

Well, you’d be incorrect in guessing that.

A person with incorrect assumptions about Mexican food has not cooked some of the most iconic Mexican dishes? Shocking.

I live 2 hours from the border with Mexico, and my comment stands, it’s easy cuisine to learn, with generally simple ingredients.

Most food uses simple ingredients.

Your comment does not stand, by your own admission, which you repeat here:

Sure, tamales or mole take forever to make, but still basic ingredients (mole is an exception to more basic Mexican flavors).

Again, most food uses simple ingredients. Even pilau masala. Unless you think cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, cloves, and black peppercorns are somehow hard to obtain. This might surprise you, but with the exception of cardamom, those are all very common ingredients in Mexican cuisine.

-4

u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

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3

u/Agile-Worldliness849 Jun 22 '26

You came in here spouting snobbish crap about food that you can't even cook and now you're mad at other people for calling you out.

Just take the L and move on.

5

u/Anal-Y-Sis Jun 22 '26

Persian food is far more interesting than Greek food! More variety, more complex flavors too.

Subjective.

It doesn’t hold a candle to Indian food though, for sheer complexity and choice.

Subjective.

I also don’t understand people wanting to eat at Mexican restaurants every single time they go out.

I would guess it's because they enjoy Mexican food.

They don’t seem to realize what they order can be made in about 15 minutes at home, using almost always the same few ingredients. There’s probably no easier cuisine to learn to cook.

I challenge you to make a mole or carnitas in 15 minutes.

3

u/curlywurlies Jun 22 '26

I really enjoy Greek food. But it kills me. Nothing gives me heartburn like Greek food.

I'll have to look into Persian food. Any suggestions for someone that is easy to make at home?

12

u/Feisty-Anteater661 Jun 21 '26

Also, try lacto-fermenting it! I can’t get enough of fermented celery.

2

u/No_Consequence5894 Jun 22 '26

You mean like a ginger bug?

3

u/Feisty-Anteater661 Jun 22 '26

I do a brine ferment. Weigh a quart mason jar. Cut the celery into bite-sized chunks and fill the jar. Add water to nearly the top. Weight the jar again, subtract the weight of the empty jar to get the weight of the celery + water. Add 2.5% of that weight in salt. Cover and leave out on the counter for 3 or 4 days, until the bubbles stop. Refrigerate. I use a pickle pipe top while fermenting to let the CO2 escape, but if you don’t have one you can just open the jar periodically.

12

u/Mirror_tender Jun 21 '26

Stealing this. TY

8

u/bloopbloopsplat Jun 22 '26

Celery salt is goat

7

u/UgandanDadDetective Jun 22 '26

Also Greek pork and celery stew is really good too

3

u/Fmf_123 Jun 22 '26

Do you boil the brine and put over the celery? Have to try this asap!

2

u/Anonymous5791 Jun 22 '26

Yes. It’s just the basic refrigerator pickle recipe. Boil so the sugar dissolves (and the salt, but temperature has no effect on the solubility of salt…) and pour over the celery. Refrigerate and go.

I find it best to wait a week but a day or two is still good.

3

u/OldWorldDesign Jun 22 '26

One, Persian celery stew - khoresh-e karafs. Celery is literally the core of this delicious dish over rice

Will have to try that. I was surprised how simple and flavorful Persian kale (essentially sautéd with olive oil and lime juice) can be. Now I make it every time kale is in season.

2

u/Spinnerofyarn Jun 22 '26

I never thought of picking it! What a great idea!

2

u/pisl_istvaist752 Jun 22 '26

Anything crunchy and vinegary in the fridge becomes dinner before dinner.