Let me start by saying I'm not a huge fan of celery - at least not the way a lot of people eat it, raw in salads. I don't hate it but it seems like a bit of a "nothing" vegetable when eaten like that Great for if I'm on a diet but not very exciting otherwise. Nevertheless it's one of my favourite vegetables to grow, largely because every part of it is so useful in cooking.
This year my celery crop was not very good: I got loads of leaves but very little in the way of stems.
So far I've harvested 6 heads - about half the total - and I've turned that into 24 meals:
10 portions of celery leaf soup: see recipe below
4 portions of "trimmings" and almond soup: see recipe below
6 portions of celery leaf pesto. I used the recipe from Everyday Delcious here: https://www.everyday-delicious.com/celery-leaf-pesto/. Stirring in one tablespoon per portion of pasta with a few frozen peas makes quick and easy lunch
4 portions of celery gratin. This recipe used what I managed to find in the way of stems, which wasn't much. I used the BBC Good Food recipe here, but with olive oil rather than butter for the initial vegetable frying: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/creamy-celery-gratin
Simple Soupmaker Celery Leaf Soup (makes 4 portions)
Ingredients
175g / 4 cups celery leaves, washed and checked (discard any which are wilted and brown)
1/2 large onion cut into 4 pieces
1 baking potato cut into 8 pieces
3 cloves garlic
1.2 litres / 4 1/4 cups vegetable stock (made with 2 stock cubes or 4 rounded tablespoons of bouillon powder)
To serve: single cream or milk
Method
It really couldn't be easier: just put all of the solid ingredients into your soup maker, add stock up to the fill line and cook on a "smooth" setting. When finished stir in the remaining stock. At this point you can divide the soup into individual portions for freezing if so desired. This soup has rather an intense flavour so I recommend that when you serve it you add 1 tablespoon of cream or a good sized swish of milk per portion to make it more palatable.
Simple Soupmaker Celery Trimmings and Almond Soup (makes 4 portions)
Ingredients
100g / 2 cups celery leaves, washed and checked (discard any which are wilted and brown)
200g / 2 cups celery trimmings (leaf stalks and the thin bits from the top of each stem)
1/2 large onion cut into 4 pieces
50g / 1/2 cup flaked almonds
3 cloves garlic
1.2 litres / 4 1/4 cups vegetable stock (made with 2 stock cubes or 4 rounded tablespoons of bouillon powder)
Method
Put all of the solid ingredients into your soup maker, add stock up to the fill line and cook on a "smooth" setting. When finished stir in the remaining stock. Serve immediately or divide the soup into individual portions for freezing.
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