Celery!!!?

Jthanmyfitnesspal

I am a creature of habit, eating the same breakfast and lunch most days. I usually include a baggy of little tomatoes. My wife suggested I take some celery, because we had extra.

Raw celery!!!? I don't eat that!

Well, I've found that it's very satisfying and seems to keep me full for a while after lunch. No wonder everyone was eating it back in the 70s when they were on a diet.

Now, let me tell you about microgreens. Those are also pretty good!

What do you think: devil's spawn or dieter's delight?

glassyo

Celery, along with rice cakes, are a delivery system for more calorific, delicious items like nut butters, cookie butters, and cream cheese (unless whipped). And chocolate chips

You should make this a poll!

(Also, when could we do colors? Oooooooooooo.)

COGypsy

Like most vegetables, raw celery is too much of a calorie bomb by the time you add enough flavor to actually consume. I like it in soups and things like that though.

SuzySunshine99

I'm not a huge celery fan, but my husband likes it in our salads, so I buy it for that purpose.
It is good with peanut butter, although that defeats the purpose of the low-cal snack.

snowflake954

I love celery in a chicken or tuna salad--gives it a crunch. I use the inner tender part. The tougher outer stalks I use to make a celery potato cream soup. It's one of my favorites and low cal.

AnnPT77

Both celery and microgreens are pretty nice, in my world.

I don't buy celery often enough, because I tend to forget I have it around so (ugh) waste part. I should get some.

Folks at my farmers market here in chilly, snowy mid-Michigan offer a variety of nice microgreens in Winter: Mild mix, spicy mix, kale mix, I think some others I'm forgetting. I have a bag of kale mix microgreens in the fridge right now, probably destined for tonight's dinner in some form.

Yum stuff, microgreens. I admit the celery is more about a satisfying crunch, pleasant enough flavor but not dramatic. I like it fine plain/raw, also good in salads, some cooked stuff, or for dipping in things that are pretty nutrient dense, some non-high-calorie, like seasoned plain Greek yogurt, bean dips, mashed avocado. (As a side note, one can blend some tofu into mashed avocado and season to taste. It's higher in protein than plain avocado/guac, but still has that avocado/guac flavor, tofu being very neutral-tasting.)

siberiantarragon

I love celery. I'm not sure why people say you have to add stuff to it to make it taste good. Celery itself is already pretty flavorful to me. I like to chop it up with tomatoes and then add seasonings like nutritional yeast, Mrs. Dash, etc.

Also yay microgreens! Have you ever tried to grow your own microgreens? My partner and I are planning to do that soon in our apartment. We got some seed packets and pots.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

It actually has a strong and distinct flavor, which I didn't really notice before. I think it makes it satisfying on it's own. And, it took me all these years to actually put a stalk of it in my mouth all by itself. Old habits die hard!

Jthanmyfitnesspal

COGypsy wrote: »

Like most vegetables, raw celery is too much of a calorie bomb by the time you add enough flavor to actually consume. I like it in soups and things like that though.

I think you are much like the younger me. I used to only eat salad vegetables with dressing or dip.

paperpudding

I'm not a fan of raw celery - either by itself or with anything else.

I like it cooked in stir frys, soups etc but not raw.

I am also creature of habit and tend to eat very similar breakfasts and lunches, especially on work days.

My boss once said to me Aren't you bored eating same lunch every day? No I'm not

I'm bored just looking at it, he said

COGypsy

siberiantarragon wrote: »

I love celery. I'm not sure why people say you have to add stuff to it to make it taste good. Celery itself is already pretty flavorful to me. I like to chop it up with tomatoes and then add seasonings like nutritional yeast, Mrs. Dash, etc.

Also yay microgreens! Have you ever tried to grow your own microgreens? My partner and I are planning to do that soon in our apartment. We got some seed packets and pots.

ALL vegetables need something added to taste good! I think grape tomatoes and grapes themselves are the only things I can stand to eat plain.

AnnPT77

COGypsy wrote: »

siberiantarragon wrote: »

I love celery. I'm not sure why people say you have to add stuff to it to make it taste good. Celery itself is already pretty flavorful to me. I like to chop it up with tomatoes and then add seasonings like nutritional yeast, Mrs. Dash, etc.

Also yay microgreens! Have you ever tried to grow your own microgreens? My partner and I are planning to do that soon in our apartment. We got some seed packets and pots.

ALL vegetables need something added to taste good! I think grape tomatoes and grapes themselves are the only things I can stand to eat plain.

Maybe that's true in your world - I don't doubt your word about your subjective experience - but that's seriously, dramatically not true in my world.

There are some veggies I prefer with a little salt or other seasoning, but lots of them taste great to me plain. I love most veggies, exception for lima beans and most seaweed. (Others can have my share of those, if they like them.)

COGypsy

AnnPT77 wrote: »

COGypsy wrote: »

siberiantarragon wrote: »

I love celery. I'm not sure why people say you have to add stuff to it to make it taste good. Celery itself is already pretty flavorful to me. I like to chop it up with tomatoes and then add seasonings like nutritional yeast, Mrs. Dash, etc.

Also yay microgreens! Have you ever tried to grow your own microgreens? My partner and I are planning to do that soon in our apartment. We got some seed packets and pots.

ALL vegetables need something added to taste good! I think grape tomatoes and grapes themselves are the only things I can stand to eat plain.

Maybe that's true in your world - I don't doubt your word about your subjective experience - but that's seriously, dramatically not true in my world.

There are some veggies I prefer with a little salt or other seasoning, but lots of them taste great to me plain. I love most veggies, exception for lima beans and most seaweed. (Others can have my share of those, if they like them.)

I actually enjoy vegetables a lot--prepared. My sister has been a vegetarian for 30 years or so and I let her cook for me quite often, and enjoy it. I'd probably like vegetables at home better if they weren't so much work. I don't cook much, so my available veggies are basically frozen vegetables, pre-cut snacks, and bag salad. It keeps body and soul together, but I wouldn't ever say I WANT to eat those things. A little flavor goes a long way to make the medicine go down, as it were.

Sinisterbarbie1

I think celery from the grocery store is meh but celery from the farmers market is unbelievable and a revelation. So much flavor is lost by the time it is delivered to your grocery shelf somehow it tastes completely different and it also is overly pale IMHO. The other thing that is amazing is celery root - not related except in taste a bit. It is a craggy roundish lumpy vegetable the size of a very big baseball and has the texture of a potato. It is delicious mashed/pureed instead of or with a potato, or pureed as a soup with celery or fennel and leeks and salt and pepper.
It has a celery taste to it = it is also called celeriac.

AnnPT77

Sinisterbarbie1 wrote: »

I think celery from the grocery store is meh but celery from the farmers market is unbelievable and a revelation. So much flavor is lost by the time it is delivered to your grocery shelf somehow it tastes completely different and it also is overly pale IMHO. The other thing that is amazing is celery root - not related except in taste a bit. It is a craggy roundish lumpy vegetable the size of a very big baseball and has the texture of a potato. It is delicious mashed/pureed instead of or with a potato, or pureed as a soup with celery or fennel and leeks and salt and pepper.
It has a celery taste to it = it is also called celeriac.

Celeriac is also quite nice raw, IMO, or roasted. Good stuff.

Sadly, I've only seen pathetic regular celery in the farmers market here, kind of pale and skinny.

siberiantarragon

COGypsy wrote: »

ALL vegetables need something added to taste good! I think grape tomatoes and grapes themselves are the only things I can stand to eat plain.

Everyone is different. I usually put seasonings on my vegetables such as nutritional yeast, onion flakes, pepper, paprika, etc. but I also like most vegetables plain.

PAPYRUS3

When I had a very long commute home each day, I would pack a baggie of cut up celery/carrots/daikon/radishes, etc., and handful of nuts.

I quite liked it. Tied me over until my dinner.

Lietchi

Where I live we have two types of celery: 'green' (strong taste) and 'white' (light green; milder taste). Don't very much like the green raw, it's better cooked. As for raw white celery, I made a great salad with it and some other raw veg (parsley, cucumber, fennel) and some pine nuts and feta, to accompany a lasagna a few months ago.

Raw fennel, now there's a discovery! I first had it in Sardinia where they served it as an appetizer, we were pleasantly surprised.

yirara

The only place raw celery has a place is on the lapel of some ridiculous 1980s cricket jacket. Now in soups, stews and pasta sauces: YES! Totally.

springlering62

I like raw celery, even the smell of it.

@paperpudding of course we eat the same thing. We’ve winnowed out the chaff and know what the good stuff is to eat. I have the same breakfast six days a week (because God made Doughnuts on the Seventh Day), and my snacks are the same almost every afternoon. I’m like Pavlov’s dog. 3:30 rolls around and I’m salivating for my same old afternoon snack.

@Jthanmyfitnesspal if you have a farmers market near you, start keeping an eye out for heirloom radishes. As @Lietchi calls it, a revelation!!!! Watermelon radishes. Mmmmm. Could eat them like an apple!

mtaratoot

If your grocery has organic produce, try some organic celery. I have found it can have a lot more flavor.

I grew celery in my garden two years ago. It was FULL of flavor. I usually keep some celery around. I add it to the bean salads I make routinely. I add it to the cooking water for beans, too, and use it in soups. It's a nice crispy addition to green salads. I chop some up to bulk up tuna or salmon salad; a few weeks ago I made some pasta with tinned salmon and celery along with some other flavors, and it was quite nice. It's pretty affordable, but it only lasts a week or so in the fridge.

BarbaraHelen2013

I love Celery! Raw, cooked (as long as it still has ‘bite’). Loved it as a child, love it now…

It doesn’t need anything added, it’s fine as it is, crunchy, refreshing and really tasty!

Love it in a three bean salad (kidney, broad & green beans, red onion and celery), also very finely sliced in coleslaw. With apples and sweetcorn relish.

I almost always use it in soups, stir fries, braised in vegetable stock as a vegetable side.

I get through a couple of heads of celery a week, by myself. 🤷‍♀️

Sinisterbarbie1

@AnnPT77 I went out to dinner last night in NYC to an austrian/french restaurant (Koloman) as an appetizer we had celeriac tartar which was raw celeriac grated and prepared with condiments usually used for beef tartar. It was wild. Very good. I have used raw celeriac in salads before (i soak it in acidulated milk first to keep it from browning), but this was a new experience.

@Lietchi the celery I was raving about at the farmers market was green celery - smaller very intense and quite green. A completely different experience. I liked it raw as well as cooked. I also love fennel - raw or roasted. When I roast it I just cut it in half, drizzle with a few drops of olive oil, salt and pepper, and a grating of parmiggiano (maybe some paprika for color).

I read an article that suggested that people who dislike subtle tasting foods/find them bland — i believe they were analyzing cucumbers specifically — may have trained their palate to prefer more intense flavors that do not occur naturally. The article was discussing a study specifically related to cutting out the use of high fructose corn syrup and suggested that participants who switched to a diet that did not incorporate highly sugared/processed foods suddenly found these vegetables tasty in ways they had not previously appreciated. Of course I can’t find the article because I was reading it before I was thinking about this thread…. It makes sense intuitively because if I taste something intensely sweet and then eat something less sweet after I can’t taste the second food at all.

NewGrl64

Grill it with a little olive oil and garlic salt. YUM.

springlering62

Sinisterbarbie1 wrote: »

I read an article that suggested that people who dislike subtle tasting foods/find them bland — i believe they were analyzing cucumbers specifically — may have trained their palate to prefer more intense flavors that do not occur naturally. The article was discussing a study specifically related to cutting out the use of high fructose corn syrup and suggested that participants who switched to a diet that did not incorporate highly sugared/processed foods suddenly found these vegetables tasty in ways they had not previously appreciated.

That makes sense. I found many foods- especially fruit- were more flavorful after I began weight loss, which included cutting HFCs, candy, processed foods- oranges and strawberries in particular.

I’ve always loved cucumbers, though. A fresh cucumber from the garden, sprinkled with a little salt?

I’ve been spending a lot of time in Germany lately, and have discovered they use thin cucumber slices on savory breakfast sandwiches. First of all, yes for sandwiches for breakfast! And it’s amazed me how much taste those slivers of cucumber add. They amp up the flavors of everything.

Even now that I’ve learned I don’t have to be so strict and eat some processed foods (primarily Nugo bars, sugar free products, and the occasional chips) and sweets (Doughnut Sundays) I‘be been fortunate enough to retained the New and Improved taste buds. 👍🏻

PAPYRUS3

@springlering62 - Those 'NuGo' bars are so good...on a whim I purchased one of them and now have a few nibbles every night now. 'Addicted' to highly processed/sugary 'thing'...I'm thinking eating some of these things isn't doing my taste buds any favors though...

Glad you are able to 'retain' your improved taste buds with incorporating these highly palatable foods.

paints5555

AnnPT77 wrote: »

There are some veggies I prefer with a little salt or other seasoning, but lots of them taste great to me plain. I love most veggies, exception for lima beans and most seaweed. (Others can have my share of those, if they like them.)

I never liked lima beans as a child as my mother always used to cook them to death and they were always dry and unappetizing. Once I had fresh (properly cooked) lima beans I realized that I really like them.

COGypsy

Sinisterbarbie1 wrote: »

@AnnPT77 I went out to dinner last night in NYC to an austrian/french restaurant (Koloman) as an appetizer we had celeriac tartar which was raw celeriac grated and prepared with condiments usually used for beef tartar. It was wild. Very good. I have used raw celeriac in salads before (i soak it in acidulated milk first to keep it from browning), but this was a new experience.

@Lietchi the celery I was raving about at the farmers market was green celery - smaller very intense and quite green. A completely different experience. I liked it raw as well as cooked. I also love fennel - raw or roasted. When I roast it I just cut it in half, drizzle with a few drops of olive oil, salt and pepper, and a grating of parmiggiano (maybe some paprika for color).

I read an article that suggested that people who dislike subtle tasting foods/find them bland — i believe they were analyzing cucumbers specifically — may have trained their palate to prefer more intense flavors that do not occur naturally. The article was discussing a study specifically related to cutting out the use of high fructose corn syrup and suggested that participants who switched to a diet that did not incorporate highly sugared/processed foods suddenly found these vegetables tasty in ways they had not previously appreciated. Of course I can’t find the article because I was reading it before I was thinking about this thread…. It makes sense intuitively because if I taste something intensely sweet and then eat something less sweet after I can’t taste the second food at all.

That makes a lot of sense. Now that I think about it, I liked vegetables more back when I could taste more in general. Now unless there’s some kind of flavor whomp, they’re just all bland and mushy feeling in my mouth. I thought I got most of my taste back after COVID, but I may have been optimistic.

Hiawassee88

I like celery, apples and bleu cheese dressing.

penguinmama87

@Hiawassee88 that looks so good!

I used to just compost celery leaves or use them and the ends to make soup stock, but I recently learned to dry out the leaves (ditto celeriac) and they're really nice to sprinkle on all kinds of dishes. I had seen "celery salt" before but had no idea what it was. Well, now I frequently use it without the salt and am quite pleased with it. It is surprisingly flavorful.

Kupla71

After many years of disliking raw celery I finally decided I would give it another try. Well. I still can’t say I like it. I love the crunch but don’t like the taste. I have tried it with cream cheese. Seems like a waste of cream cheese. I will try it with various other things such as peanut butter, hummus, maybe some salt. I happened to buy organic too. Has anyone out there gone from disliking celery to liking it? If so, what did you pair it with?
- wanting to like celery