A Crunchy and Tangy Celery Salad

3 humble ingredients you have on hand — make this a tasty winner.

Confession. Sometimes, I can’t bear to look at another head of lettuce. It can start to bore me to tears. I enjoy lettuce salad but please know that many delicious salads don’t have even one leaf of lettuce in them.

And stepping away from your old salad standbys is such a relief from the lettuce doldrums. Especially when the fridge is feeling a little bare of the fancy stuff. Because as we all know — lettuce isn’t exactly a hearty vegetable that lasts in the fridge for weeks.

Thankfully, you probably have an overlooked ingredient in your crisper right now that makes a delicious salad. Helloooooooo celery!

Years ago, I discovered an old cookbook in a thrift store from the 1930s. In the salad section, I was surprised that almost all of the recipes didn’t even mention lettuce. The recipes focused on humble and common ingredients like celery. And many of the salads were based on whatever you had for dinner last night.

It made sense as lettuce wasn’t available year-round back then. Most people could only enjoy it in the summer months and after that — it was back to the turnips and beets.

And my little beat-up thrift store cookbook inspired me to think outside of the proverbial “lettuce from 3,000 miles away” and to use other vegetables instead.

I even looked up the definition of salad in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

sal·​ad | \ ˈsa-ləd \

Definition of salad

1: any of various usually cold dishes: such as

a: raw greens (such as lettuce) often combined with other vegetables and toppings and served especially with dressing

b: small pieces of food (such as pasta, meat, fruit, or vegetables) usually mixed with a dressing (such as mayonnaise) or set in gelatin

Did you catch the one ingredient that is always in a salad? Dressing. That’s it. And I don’t about you — but I can happily live in Merriam-Webster’s “b-section.” (Although you won’t catch me eating it in gelatin.)

So release your salad biases and enjoy this tonight!

Celery, Lemon, and Parmesan Salad

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

6 stalks of celery (and leaves too)

Juice from 1/2 lemon (or 1–2 teaspoons bottled lemon juice)

Zest from 1/2 lemon (roughly 1/2 teaspoon)

1/4 cup shaved parmesan (or any other kind of hard, aged cheese)

2–3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Slice the celery in thin, diagonal slices. Roughly chop any celery leaves.

Put the celery and leaves in a large bowl.

Add olive oil, lemon juice, zest and then toss the salad well.

Season with salt and pepper. Gently toss in shaved Parmesan cheese. (I use a vegetable peeler vs a micro planer.)

Serve cold.

Author’s Note: If you only have celery that is on the wilted side — an hour before you make the salad, submerge the celery in cold water. Just before making the salad — remove the refreshed celery from the water and dry well.

And if you love this and want to take it up another notch? Add whisper-thin slices of sweet white onion and some chopped walnuts. Divine!

Did you enjoy this? I have loads of food essays and recipes waiting for you: