This Celery Salad is a handy recipe to use up leftover celery we all have lurking at the back of the fridge, usually buying a whole bunch only to use just one or two stalks for a recipe. It’s sort of pickled, sort of salsa/relish-like, and seriously good!

Welcome to Day 4 of the inaugural Holiday Salad Marathon, a series where I’m doing the polar opposite of the usual baking countdowns and bringing you a new salad recipe every single day through to Christmas Eve! 

I’ve got a bit of a unique one for you today ….

Celery Salad

I do not go out of my way to make this salad. It’s simply a means to use up leftover celery which I always seem to have. It’s an essential flavour base in small quantities in so many dishes such using as a soffritto / mirepoix for Italian classics like Beef Ragu and Osso Bucco, or finely diced for meat fillings such as in Sausage Rolls.

But it is never a star ingredient (sorry celery – but we both know it’s true). So what to do with the rest of the bunch?

Make this Celery Salad!

What Celery Salad tastes like

The flavour profile is a little bit unique, using a combination of caraway seeds and fresh dill. But this is what makes it so good! They work extremely well together, with the subtle earthy aniseed flavour of the caraway seeds echoing the fresh flavour of the dill.

If you’re wary, have a browse of the glowing reviews on the RecipeTin Family No-Mayo Coleslaw that also uses this combination. First timers are always pleasantly surprised!

What you need

Here’s what you need to make this Celery Salad:

How to make this Celery Salad

Finely slice the celery on an angle, then toss it together with everything else. Leave it to sit for 10 minutes so the dressing softens the celery a touch and the flavours meld together. Then serve immediately or leave it for up to 2 days. The longer you keep it, the softer the celery becomes, and starts to kind of pickle (but not as sour as a true pickle). It is highly addictive!

How to serve it

This is a small batch salad. 5 celery stalks that the recipe calls for makes a side salad for just 2 – 3 people. I consider it more to be one of those extra salads that you put out for variety, sort of like you do pickles actually.

In terms of pairings, it will go well with any Western foods. The caraway, dill and “pickling” quality however does give it a Northern/Central European vibe – think eastern France, Scandinavia, Germany and beyond. So it’d go particularly well with traditional dishes from these regions like crispy crackling roast pork, smoked fish or gravlax, smoked salmon dip, quiche lorraine, or alongside potato rosti to cut through the richness. But it’s equally at home alongside any Western-style protein mains, particularly white meats: fish, chicken and pork.

Love to know what you think if you try it! – Nagi x

What is the Holiday Salad Marathon?

This is my inaugural Christmas recipe countdown where I am sharing 30 salad recipes in a row until Christmas Eve – something completely different to people’s usual baking countdowns!

These salads are in addition to my regular 3 new recipes a week. Because aren’t you bored of the usual tomato-cucumber-lettuce garden salad routine??

Click here to see all the Holiday Salad Marathon recipes to date, or sign up for instant updates and you’ll receive a free email alert whenever I publish a new salad! 🙂

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Leftover Celery Salad

This is a really handy and quick recipe to use up leftover celery that we all seem to have in our fridge! It's a bit tart because it's semi pickled, sort of salsa-like and and intriguingly tasty, thanks to the surprising combination of caraway seeds and dill.

If you don't have either of these, you can even skip the fresh herbs altogether – see notes for alternative suggestions. Serve as a side salad, or as a little dish of pickles to accompany a meal.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Western

Keyword celery salad, leftover celery

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

“Marinating” 10 minutes minutes

Servings 3 as a side

Calories 144cal

Author Nagi

Ingredients

• 5 ribs celery
• 3 tbsp dill , finely chopped
• 2 tbsp parsley , finely chopped
• 1.5 tsp caraway seeds
• 2 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar , red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Instructions

• Remove the leaves from the celery and trim off the dirty base. Finely slice on the diagonal into 4mm / 1/6″ slices.
• Toss in a bowl with remaining ingredients. Set aside for 10 minutes before serving.
• Keeps for up to 3 days in the fridge – the celery softens and becomes even more pickle like.

Notes

Herb alternatives – if you don’t have fresh dill and caraway seeds, try mustard seeds and a pinch of pepper flakes, or toasted coriander or cumin seeds for a Middle Eastern/Indian spin.

Nutrition

Calories: 144cal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 396mg | Potassium: 49mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 274IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 1mg

Life of Dozer

So unimpressed with my offering….

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