Celery Leaves Uses: Salads, Soups, Pesto, Garnish and Homemade Celery Salt

Don’t toss those leafy celery tops. Use them like an herb: cooked into soups and sauces, chopped over a dish like parsley, tossed into salads or blended into pesto. They pack a stronger, more savory punch than parsley, and they can even stand in for celery seed in a pot of soup. If you’re cooking for someone with a celery allergy, though, the leaves count too. For what the leaves are and how they compare with the stalk, see the celery leaves profile.

Celery leaves uses at a glance

Soups and stocks

This is the most common use. The leaves get cooked into soups or sauces more often than they’re used as a garnish, and they bring celery flavor to the pot without the stalk’s crunch. For long-simmered dishes, the University of Delaware’s general advice for herbs is to add them in the last 45 minutes.⁷ Chicken soup, white bean soup, lentil soup and vegetable stock are all natural homes for them.

Instead of celery seed (Attributed). The Spice House gives 2 tablespoons of minced celery tops for every ½ teaspoon of celery seed.⁴ So the leaves are a handy stand-in when a soup or stew calls for seed. The seeds smell similar to the plant but much stronger,¹ which is why you need so much more leaf. You’ll sometimes hear that celery leaves round out the umami of a stock. We found no source for that.

Salads

Celery, radish and herb salad (Attributed). Ellie Krieger’s salad starts with a big bunch of celery, about 2 pounds, leaves and all. The stalks get sliced thin on the bias, the leaves only coarsely chopped, and both go into the bowl together.² You can also toss celery leaves whole into a green salad, like any tender herb, or swap them for some of the parsley in a tabbouleh-style grain salad. If they taste too strong, use the pale inner leaves, which are milder. That’s a kitchen observation, not a measurement.

Pesto

Tasting Table’s Elizabeth Okosun makes celery leaf pesto the same way as basil pesto: rinsed leaves, garlic, pecorino, pine nuts and lemon zest blended to a paste, then olive oil pulsed in. She suggests cashews or almonds in place of pine nuts, and uses the pesto on pasta, chicken and salmon.³ The article gives no amounts. Celery leaf pesto tastes of celery, not basil, so it plays the same role with a different flavor.

Garnish and green sauces

The leaves are sometimes chopped and used as a garnish. Anywhere you’d sprinkle parsley, celery leaves work too, with a stronger, more savory flavor: over soups, creamy pasta, potato salad, grilled steak or roast fish. Chop them into a salsa verde or chimichurri in place of some of the parsley for a celery note.

Sandwiches

Celery leaves can stand in for lettuce or other greens on a sandwich, or for some of the herbs in a bánh mì. We didn’t find a named recipe that does this, but it’s an easy swap to try.

Salsa, for cilantro-averse cooks

Some people find cilantro soapy. If that’s you, celery leaves are one possible swap in a tomato salsa or guacamole. They don’t taste like cilantro, so you’ll get a different salsa, not a copy. It’s just an option worth trying. See celery leaves substitutes for going the other way.

Stir-fries and Chinese celery

Chinese celery isn’t the same as the supermarket stalk. The Woks of Life describes it as longer and thinner than Western celery, with a very strong celery flavor, and says Chinese cooks mostly use it in stir-fries. It also says that, as with Western celery, people mainly eat the stalks, because the leaves are usually too bitter.⁸ So the popular tip that celery leaves stand in well for Chinese celery in a stir-fry has it backward: the stalk is the better match. If you like the leaves’ bitterness, toss a handful into a stir-fry at the end. That’s up to your taste.

In Southeast Asia, leaf celery, a cultivar group grown for its leaves, is eaten raw as well as steamed and used as a flavoring fresh or dried and powdered.⁵

Homemade celery salt and dried leaves

Mix dried, crumbled celery leaves with salt and you’ve got homemade celery salt. Commercial celery salt is made differently: McCormick’s label lists only salt and celery seed.⁶ Dry the leaves on a rack or in a low oven until crisp, then store them in a sealed jar. See celery salt and celery flakes.

Allergy

Celery is one of the allergens EU law requires on food labels, listed as “celery and products thereof.”⁹ That includes the leaves. If you’re cooking for someone with a celery allergy, leave them out.

Not yet sourced

• A source for celery leaves deepening the savory flavor of stock.

Related

• Celery leaves profile
• Celery leaves substitutes
• Celery seeds and celery seed uses
• Celery salt, celery flakes and celery powder
• Lovage and parsley