The benefits of celery
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What celery does
What this vegetable does
Said to cool heat and settle the circulation of qi, which helps settle the body gently.
How to eat it
Added to a stir-fry, a salad or a soup, its crispness and fresh aroma are a pleasure.
A yakuzen note
Celery is said to cool heat and ease fever, sweating and a dry throat. Its fresh aroma can also be looked to for helping you relax.
Celery is an aromatic vegetable, sweet and bitter and cool in nature, held to settle excess heat trapped in the body, moisten a dry throat and settle the mind. Its appeal is a crisp texture and a fresh aroma, and it suits daily care when you feel wound up, or when you want to feel clear. From salads to soups to stir-fries, stems and leaves alike work widely: a vegetable whose aroma is a pleasure.
TOC
When celery is in season, the kinds, and how to choose
If you want to bring in what celery does, deliciously, knowing the season, the kinds and how to choose makes it easier to use. Its appeal is a fresh aroma and a crisp texture, and it is an umbellifer that likes a cool climate.
In season from autumn into spring, and fond of cool weather
Celery is an aromatic umbellifer like mitsuba and coriander, and it likes a cool climate. Greenhouse growing keeps it in the shops all year, but the open-field season is the cool months from autumn into spring, roughly November to May. Nagano and Shizuoka are the main producing areas, and in the hot summer much of it is grown in the highlands. Its appeal is a fresh aroma and a crisp bite in the stem, and it works raw, of course, and cooked. Not only the stem but the strongly aromatic leaves go into soups and stir-fries, so nothing is wasted.
Green celery, soup celery and white celery
Celery can be chosen by colour and thickness.
| kinds | What stands out |
|---|---|
| Green celery | The most common. Thick stems, with a firm aroma and texture |
| White celery | White and slim. Tender with a gentle aroma, good in salads |
| Soup celery | A leafy, slim-stemmed variety. For flavouring, soups and as a garnish |
For something to chew on and a strong aroma, thick-stemmed green celery is the one. When you want a gentle aroma and something easy to eat, slim white celery suits a salad. For flavouring soups and stir-fries, leafy soup celery, or Chinese celery, is handy. Choosing by strength of aroma and by use is what brings out what celery has.
How to choose it and how to string it
When choosing good celery, these points make it easier to tell.
- Thick, firm stems, fleshy and taut
- Leaves lively and green, not wilted
- No hollow inside the stem, and juicy
Celery has tough strings on the outside of the stem, so running a knife or a peeler from the base towards the leaves to take them off gives a better feel in the mouth. To eat it raw, string it and slice it thinly on the slant for a crisp texture. If the aroma feels strong, slicing it thin and dipping it briefly in water softens it and makes it easier to eat. The strongly aromatic leaves can be chopped into soups and stir-fries or used as a garnish, so nothing is wasted.
How to eat celery
Celery works widely, from raw salads to stir-fries to soups, drawing on its fresh aroma and crisp texture. Here are the standard ways.
In salads, as sticks, and pickled
What brings out the most in celery is its crisp texture raw. Strung, sliced thinly on the slant and dressed with salt, olive oil and lemon, it makes a fresh salad. Cut into longer sticks with mayonnaise, miso or a dip alongside, it makes an easy snack. Pickled in sweet vinegar, it is clean-tasting and exactly right as a palate-cleanser. Eaten raw, you get the most of celery's aroma and bite. The tender parts near the leaves, torn into a salad, give an accent of colour and aroma.
In stir-fries and soups
Heated, celery softens and its aroma grows rounder. Cut on the slant and stir-fried Chinese-style with squid or beef, it makes a dish where the crisp texture is the pleasure. Chopped fine and fried with onion and carrot, it becomes the base of a soup or a meat sauce and gives the dish depth. Added to a pot-au-feu or a consommé, stems and leaves alike, its fresh aroma spreads. When stewing, putting the strongly aromatic leaves in too gives a better flavour. In a stir-fry, the trick is a quick pass over high heat, keeping the texture.
How to keep celery
Celery keeps longer if you separate the stems from the leaves, because leaving the leaves on draws water from the stems into them and makes them wilt. Wrap the stems in cling film or put them in a plastic bag and stand them upright in the vegetable drawer of the fridge. Keep the leaves separately and use them soon. If it goes limp, cold water brings the crispness back. When you have a lot, chop it and freeze it in portions, ready for soups and stir-fries. Freezing it raw costs it its texture, so freeze it on the assumption that you will cook it.
Alongside this, it is worth knowing about The benefits of cucumber likewise held to settle excess heat in the body, and one likewise held to cool heat and moisten the throat, The benefits of tomato as a guide when building a seasonal table.
Celery, in season in the cool months, is an aromatic vegetable whose fresh aroma and crisp texture you can enjoy in salads, as sticks, pickled, in stir-fries and in soups. Firmly aromatic green celery, gentle white celery, soup celery for garnishing: using each for the job brings out what it has. For daily care when you feel wound up, or when you want to feel clear, bring celery to your table.
