My simple braised celery recipe transforms a neglected salad vegetable into a delicious star of the dinner table.
Braising is an easy technique to transform most humble vegetables into delicious treats, so learn how to braise your celery and rediscover this tasty but frugal vegetable.
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Braised Celery
Celery is one of those vegetable that polarises people. It’s a bit like marmite: you either love it or hate it.
That said, I’m in both camps. I cannot stand raw celery and nothing could induce me to eat it the old fashioned British way, stringy and crunchy and dipped into a pile of salt, or salad cream.
Once cooked, however, celery is transformed, and it really should be every cook’s best friend. It is cheap, keeps for ages and is a classic aromatic for adding to soups, stews and stocks. It is essential to those dishes that are based on a soffritto.
I tend to buy a head of celery every other week to use as ingredient in my day to day cooking. But treated the right way it can also be the star of the show.
If you don’t know how to braise celery, it’s time to learn.
This braised celery recipe is a great vegetable dish, and especially delicious served as a side with fish and lamb. What I love is that it’s a great way of adding variety to your greens.
Braised celery tastes very different from raw, so those who don’t like raw celery may well love this.
Why you will love this
- It is easy and delicious!
- Braising transforms the flavour – most people who dislike raw celery will enjoy it when braised.
- It is super frugal, as celery is one of the cheapest vegetables you can buy.
- There is no waste. We use all of the celery – the leaves for garnishing and then save the root for the stock or soup pot.
Braised Celery Ingredients
- Celery head – a regular celery head from the supermarket. You don’t need expensive hearts or prepared sticks.
- Vegetable stock or broth – use your favourite, and make it bit stronger then you usually would. You can also add a glug of white wine in place of some of the stock.
- Olive oil – I always use unrefined extra virgin.
- Butter – if you want to avoid dairy, leave this out and double the quantity of olive oil.
- Parsley – or other green herb.
How to Cook Braised Celery
Step one – Assemble your ingredients as above.
Break the celery into individual stalks, setting any leaves to one side. Then cut into 2–3″ lengths. Remove any strings as you chop the celery. Peel and finely chop the garlic.
Pro Tip
I like to cut the celery diagonally, as it looks so much more attractive.
Step two – Melt the butter and olive oil in a shallow casserole with a well fitting lid, add the celery and fry over a low heat for a few minutes. Then stir through the garlic and cook for another few minutes.
Step three – Season well with pepper and salt, pour over the stock, and add the bay leaf. Bring the liquid to a simmer.
Turn the heat down so the liquid is barely simmering, cover the pan and leave to cook over a low heat for 30–40 minutes until the celery is tender.
Fuss Free Tip
The smallest burner on your stove top on the lowest setting may still be too fierce for a very gentle simmer, especially if you have an older gas or electric style of stove. I recommend buying a heat diffuser. They cost just a few pounds or dollars and will last a lifetime.
Step four – Remove the lid from the pan, turn up the heat and let the stock reduce by about half, until thick and syrupy.
Step five – Chop the reserved celery leaves and parsley and use for garnish. Serve!
Hints and Tips for How to Cook Braised Celery
- To make this a no-waste dish, I usually throw the celery root and parsley stalks into the freezer and add them the next time I make soups or stocks.
- I like the taste of the mix of olive oil and butter in this dish, but it works equally well with one or the other.
- You want a good rounded fully flavoured stock for this dish. Vegetable is a classic. Equally, if you eat meat chicken stock will work just as well in this braised celery recipe. I make it a bit stronger than usual, so there is less to reduce at the end of cooking.
- You can add a good glug of white wine and reduce the volume of stock.
- Make this more substantial by adding in a handful of frozen peas when reducing the stock at the end of cooking.
- Swap the herbs around depending what else you are serving – I love the classic simple parsley, but woody aromatic herbs like thyme or oregano would work well with tomato based dishes.
- You can make this ahead – keep in the fridge for a couple of days and then reheat to serve.
- Leftovers can be frozen and added to your next pot of soup.
More simple vegetable sides
Here are some more ideas to transform unlovely, unloved or boring vegetables into a feast!
Easy Braised celery
Ingredients
- 1 tbs butter (15 g)
- 1 head celery
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tbs olive oil (15 g)
- ½ cup vegetable stock (120 ml)
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and pepper
- 5 stalks parsley
Instructions
- Break the celery into individual stalks. Chop off the leafy tops and put to one side. Chop each stalk into 2–3" (5–6 cm) lengths, destringing the celery as you go. Peel and finely chop the garlic.
- Over a low heat on the stove top, melt the butter in a shallow casserole dish, or lidded saute pan. Add the olive oil. Fry the celery pieces for a few minutes. Then add the garlic and cook for a further couple of minutes. The celery should be starting to turn translucent.
- Add the stock, season well with salt and pepper, and add the bay leaf. Bring to the boil, cover with a well-fitting lid, and turn down the heat to a gentle simmer. Leave to cook for 30–40 minutes until the celery is tender.
- Remove the lid from the pan, turn up the heat and reduce the stock by half, until thick and syrupy.
- Chop the celery leaves and parsley and garnish the dish. Serve.
Notes
- To make this a no-waste dish, I usually throw the celery root and parsley stalks into the freezer and add them the next time I make soups or stocks.
- I like the taste of the mix of olive oil and butter in this dish, but it works equally well with one or the other.
- You want a good rounded fully flavoured stock for this dish. Vegetable is a classic. Equally, if you eat meat chicken stock will work just as well in this braised celery recipe. I make it a bit stronger than usual, so there is less to reduce at the end of cooking.
- You can add a good glug of white wine and reduce the volume of stock.
- Make this more substantial by adding in a handful of frozen peas when reducing the stock at the end of cooking.
- Swap the herbs around depending what else you are serving – I love the classic simple parsley, but woody aromatic herbs like thyme or oregano would work well with tomato based dishes.
- You can prepare in advance, keep in the fridge for two days in a covered container and reheat to serve.
- Leftovers can be frozen and then added to your next batch of soup.
- This recipe is worth 5 Weight Watchers Smart Points per portion
Belinda Morris
I much prefer the flavour of cooked celery over raw. It is great in soups. So this was very intriguing and really works great. So tasty.
Natasha
Braised veggies are brilliant. A great way of using them when they are past their best, and so delicious.
Maggie T
I have always found that cooked celery is much better than raw. The flavour is even nicer. This is a lovely idea and great on the healthy scale.
Irene L
I have been trying to maximize our food for the past year now. Making the most of everything we have and trying to reduce waste. Using tired veggies like this is a brilliant idea and makes a delicious meal.
Carly Matthews.
How wonderfully frugal and yet makes such a tasty veggie side. I so often throw away half eaten heads of celery.
Yvonne Wilder
Tried and tested and I can confirm that this is the best way to enjoy celery. We had it with chicken and it was a great combination.
Angela
Celery is not my favorite vegetable, so this was a good alternative to try. It really changes the flavor and makes it far more palatable.
Lottie
I found this to be a great base for a hearty soup. I added some cooked beans, and potatoes and it was great. This makes the celery lovely and soft. Far nicer.
Becca
Celery is by far not my favourite veggie, but this is a really good way of using up what I haven’t used in salads. Makes a tasty side dish.
Dan
Cooked celery is really good and changes the flavour and texture considerably. A nice simple and tasty way of doing so.