Homemade Celery Salt

Celery salt – great idea. It would probably go very nice into instant noodles too!

This is beautiful! Totally making this tonight! Aloha:)

A very nice idea! Can I let the leaves dry in the sun?

humm… looks good!! fantastic recipe!
Good job!!

When I worked at Oliveto years ago we used to make fennel salt which was amazingly fragrant and delicious on all manner of things, especially the spit roasted offerings at the restaurant.
Wild fennel grows like mad here in the Bay Area. A 5 minute hike in the hills and you’re bound to find wild fennel stalks that are 4 or 5 feet high with large green fennel fronds.
We’d pick a few, hang them to dry for a few weeks and then pluck the fronds and mix them in with kosher salt. If you don’t have wild fennel, you can easily use the fronds from farmer’s market or store bought fennel. It makes a wonderfully aromatic, delicious salt that’s great on fish, chicken, pork and anything you’d use fennel on. I bet it would be great on a pasta dish.
Anyhow, great post as usual.
HS: Thanks Adam. I love the idea of fennel salt. My sister has fennel in her back yard – note to self. Lovely pics on your site, btw.

Thanks for the great idea! The stuff that comes from spice companies doesn’t taste like celery at all to me.
I’ve been making a salt with rosemary and lemon zest. I use about equal parts of each–I always use kosher salt for the commenter who asked about this–and grind everything together in a coffee grinder that I just use for spices. Sometimes, a bit of dried garlic will end up in there too. It usually needs to dry overnight. Perfect over scrambled eggs or grilled corn on the cob.
I’m working on a similar blend with orange zest and dried chile. Definitely remove the seeds from the chile, but I’m still play ing with the ratios so that it isn’t too spicy.

I do the same thing with Basil and Tarragon.

This seal salt would be fantastic on eggs!

I always wondered what the heck celery salt was actually for, I mean, we have it sitting in our kitchen, but no-one really uses it for anything, Then one time I decided to put it in our favourite chicken recipe and it was amazing!. . . I eat the celery strings! haha.

Love this! How long will the celery salt keep? Should I store it in the fridge or pantry?
Thanks!

Making your own celery salt is such a fab idea! I’ve used the store bought stuff, but now I want to try this.

Great recipe! It would take a simple summer tomato soup to a whole new level. I will be making this asap. Thanks so much.

You are a genius. I’m wanting to make some homemade dried and ground up tomato skins—what would you call that, exactly?
But I think I may just make this first. Thanks!
HS: Completely intrigued!

I’ve followed your blog for a long time now, but never posted a comment. Great work you are doing here with the photos, food, and seasonal ingredients. Thank you for the thought and time that you put into this work.
As for this salt, do you think lovage leaves would work as well? Similar flavor and smell as celery… I have a lot of it in my garden and it’s threatening to bolt. Ordinarily, my lovage gets used for straws/stir sticks for bloody marys…but one can only make so many of those!

Thanks so much for posting this! I’m making it TODAY and then putting it on the buttermilk farro salad!!!!!

My little granddaughter makes different kinds of salt and gives them to me for my birthday and Christmas. She makes a paprika salt that I just love and she also makes a few different kinds of sugars, lavender & vanilla are my favorite.
I love coming up with ideas to cook with her creations and then taking some of it to her!

I’ve just recently embraced celery salt – for a long time I viewed it with suspicion, as though it were some sort of imposter.
Celery salt on corn soup sounds fantastic, though, and corn should be hitting its peak soon. My favorite homemade salt is thyme-salt, which I love sprinkled on fish with a squirt of lemon juice. I don’t usually make it – I just grab some thyme from the garden, since it grows year-round here – but it’s always a nice change.

The pictures are stunning. Flavored salt is an idea I had never thought of before. Do you use flavored salts a lot? I’ve never tried it before. I guess celery salt will have to be my first. Thanks for sharing!

What a wonderful way to get more use out of celery! I sometimes throw the leaves on salad or tuck them into sandwiches- I feel bad throwing them out! Now I know I can make this, thanks for the recipe!

I LOVE celery salt! A touch of celery on hand … because I can never seem to use up a whole bunch! 🙂

I have to try this. I love that you found a use for the top leaves because I hate throwing anything out.

Now THIS is a recipe.
Simple, elegant, simple, perfect.
Reminds me of why I love to cook.
YES YES YES!

What a great idea! I hate waste but never even used to regard chucking out my celery leaves – and this post has saved them from the future trash can. I’d love to try some chive salt!

This is fantastic. I know you described how to make this in a previous post but it definitely deserves highlighting like this.

Thank you for this. It had never occurred to me to make my own!

this was so nice on fresh sliced tomato….thanks for a great idea

I bet this would be tasty with lovage too! Thanks for the inspiration.

I’m really looking forward to making this, and I too love the fact that it’s made with Sea salt. I’m also going to make a jar up for a friend who is a big celery lover. Thanks Heidi, for so many simple and practical ideas.

Heidi,
I make lavender salt and rosemary salt. Freshly popped popcorn with rosemary salt and a little butter is my favorite.

I don’t have a salt idea but my stepmother would always use celery leaves, oregano, and parsley to favor her marinara then she would add a bunch of veggies to it. It is delicious.

I think that this could be a good way to use leftover celery :-). My dad used to dry celery in the sun/air, it was very effective, maybe I should try that and add salt…
ciao
A.

We love chilli salt for dipping green mango into in our house.
P.S your photos seem to have gone up another notch since you’ve been in your new house, loving them!

Wow so simple and I’m sure much tastier than purchasing the jarred versions.
Thanks for posting. This will be fun to create!

An awesome idea! I shall try it with lovage leaves as my garden lovage plant is taller than I am and the flavour is more intense than celery. I think simply air drying the leaves would work too as I generally do this for winter storage (as well as freezing some entire stalks for soups). Unless you buy organic celery, it tends to hold a lot of the pesticides used in growing. All the more reason to grow your own lovage plant and use that instead. it requires no presticides.

OK, now I know what else to do with the celery-herb plant in my garden! Not sure the name (it was here when we bought the house), but the leaves taste like celery, but the stems are just spindly things.

Will have to try it,I just bought celery salt yesterday 🙁

Heidi, I’ve never really figured out celery salt, but in the last couple years I’ve experimented growing celery in our backyard vegetable garden. Our has never grown those long, thick stalks, but I experimented last fall (which comes early here in Minnesota) by making sort of a celery broth after the crop froze in the garden, then froze the broth in ice cube trays. Home-grown celery has a wonderfully powerful flavor, so it’s been any easy way to throw a bit of celery punch to soups and stews with a couple “celery cubes.” Cheers!

This time of year my mortal & pestle are hard at work with herbs & Salts………I am happily reminded that sometimes……….dried has it’s place!
There is a wonderful dried Oregano from Italy that is pungent and dusty……and dried!! I love to use it.
Hard to find ….imported and worth it………!
Luv those Herbs any way they come.

I make a seasoning with celery – sun dry celery stalks with fresh red chillies. Dry grind in mixie. Makes an excellent seasoning for soups, bakes and dips.
Besides, each time the seasoning tastes different.

I can already tell what I will be giving at Christmas time, all sorts of goodies from this fabulous website, and this salt will be one of the main items in the basket…….Thanks for such wonderful ideas!!

A great idea 😀 Finally something I can do with the enormous bunches of celery leaves I have left over. I know what I will be doing with my latest bunch of celery tonight!

wow, this is a great idea, i literally would never have considered making my own, but it sounds totally achievable..
(Damn, i through some celery away earlier that still had a lot of leaves on!)
Katie

I’m growing celery in the garden this year so have PLENTY of leaves! Will try this out.

Heidi, these photos are amazing. Possibly some of your best? Totally beautiful.
Im going to make this celery salt to to go in my ultimate bloody mary this weekend.

My mother in law taught me to save the leaves of celery and lay them out to dry for a few days on a paper towel on the kitchen counter. Once completely dry, they can go in a jar in the pantry and be added to soups, stews etc. (the leaves seem to be the most flavorful part of celery). It never dawned on me to use them for homemade celery salt though. I’m excited to try it! (I think I’ll try the pan toasting too. Seems like it would add another dimension of flavor.)

What a great idea Heidi. I’ve made celery salt often with the seeds, but would lever have thought of drying out the leaves to incorporate them instead. This just opens up all sort of doors in the dried leaf/herb + salt world. Love it, thanks!
HS: Thanks Brenda – hope all is well on your end. xo

Thanks for sharing this how to. It would be fun to make as gifts too!

Never thought of making celery salt. Thanks so much! Now I am inspired to see if the same method can work for mint salt or basil salt, etc…

Dried mushroom salt, shiitake for example. Delicious!

I really like the idea of using the celery leaves to make celery salt (which I use constantly). It’s such a great way to make “total” use of celery — rather than just the stalks for stocks and broths and/or for munching on raw.

wow, what a fantastically quick….and yum recipe.

Wow, wow, wow. I LOVE the idea of making my own kitchen staples like this. I have never used celery salt much, but the idea of making my own is so cool I will start just for that reason!

Sounds like it would be great on shirred eggs, too. Thanks for the inspiration and the recipe.

I am salivating as we speak. Yum. That egg on waffle with the salt on top …ouff.

How clever! What a great way to eliminate waste and make something useful.

I am always looking for an alternative celery salt, of which the ingredients I can pronounce, especially it is bloody mary season! Thanks!

What a delicious idea and perfect for a little gift set of different flavored salts in used baby jars. I knew I was saving those things for a reason…..

I have a terrible time using up bunches of celery. Maybe if I use the leaves, I’ll feel a little better about having to toss out sad, limp stalks next time. Thanks for sharing, Heidi.
By the way, do you know for about how long this salt will keep?

I once ate lots of celery to reduce my blood pressure. It worked, and since it’s no longer a problem I’d love to try this recipe. I’ve used lavender, mint and sundried tomatoes in salt, why not celery? Thanks for the recipe.

I once ate a ton of celery to reduce my blood pressure. (If you google it, you’ll see how amazing celery is). It worked, too. This is an interesting combination with salt as a flavoring. My blood pressure is no longer an issue so I think I’ll try this one.

I absolutely love the recipe and the photographs, you do an amazing job with your blog!
I always try to find celery with the most leaves on, as I use everything in all recipes!! I also cook/steam celery as a vegetable which is done more in Europe than here in America.
I will be making some celery salt, I have already done several bunches int he dehydrator for winter use.

Love this idea! I have always used up my celery leaves, and just love the flavor out of them. It’s very underrated by people! Would love to do this with a Bloody Mary like Kazia said, great idea!

thanks for posting the recipe! something else i like is lemon salt, similar preparation with dried lemon zest!

Perfect. Have the ends of a celery stalk in my fridge right now. Plus I haven’t been able to buy it anywhere (in UK) and I love it with quail eggs.
We have put gomasio on the menu of our cafe this summer. Toasted sesame seeds ground with maldon seasalt ( paired with toasted sourdough, rapeseed oil, avocado and fresh tomato for breakfast) simple but yum

This would be so great in a Bloody Mary! Thanks for the recipe.

I LOVE celery salt! And it’s great on homemade popcorn!

Hi Katie, do try to save those limp stalks of left over celery and add them finely chopped into your soups and stews. If you have enough of the stalks finely chopped and you decide to freeeze, then once yu have collected enough then you can make a cream of celery soup. Happy cooking.

How cool is that?! I love finding easy, tasty little tricks like this that I never would have thought of. Thanks!

This receipe is great. Possibly think about doing your next book on this subject. As for a different type of “celery salt”, I like mixing citrus zest in my cooking . It adds a zing and a twist and makes people going hmmm… what is that. Try different oranges, lemon, lime and a tiny bit of grapefruit. If the zing is a bit much and small drizzle of honey balances the dish.

my favourite flavoured home-made salt is a Tuscan version, made with garlic, rosemary, sage and black pepper. We rub it on meat, it’s great on roasted potatoes!

Hi thanks for this brilliant idea Hidi! I love to use celery leaves for homemade boillon or for a quick pesto recipe (celery + celery leaves and pine nuts + ricotta and parmesan…) nothin’ should ever be wasted! The celery salt is a quite new recipe to me, so i’ll try it sooner or later (have to find the flake salt though…) kisses…

Love this! What a delicious way to season a summer tomato sandwich.

I LOVE this. I LOVE celery and salt. What a better idea then to make your own. Drool 🙂

This recipe is brilliant. I used celery leaves for the first time a couple of years ago and now throw them into salads, etc.. I am so excited to have this recipe to add to so much more. I’m going to make this today. I can hardly wait. Awesome.

Lovely idea, could you dry the leaves in the sun I wonder?

I absolutely love the fresh taste of celery seed in most cold summer sides but never buy celery salt as it always seems so synthetic tasting. I NEVER considered making my own celery salt. I will absolutely be making this pronto.
I’ve been reading your blog for years and have started visiting a nutritionist. Your blog and books… especially Super Natural Ever Day have helped turn what could’ve been thought of as a punishing limiting diet into an exciting new challenge and rediscovery in the kitchen. Your recipes have made this journey delicious.

I adore it. I tried it in Belgium, they served us with cheese and beer. I’ll try your recipe very soon. Thanks as usual.
I’ve also received your last book. It’s wonderful and rich of inspiration as the first one. Brava!

There’s this great little herb & spice merchants in a pocket of Melbourne, I recently bought their Tahitian vanilla salt ~ need to get into the kitchen and try it out.
The shop has so many interesting salts, sugars, herbs etc, it would suit you actually – I think Melbourne needs a visit from you, h!

Fantastic. I love the simplicity. Sea salt is my variety of choice as well – higher mineral content and although not as coarse as kosher salt, I love the variation in colour in the non-altered types.

such a cool idea! this is one of those things you never really think of making a homemade version of but then i’m sure the second i try it i’ll be kicking myself for not doing it before 🙂

I’ve always wanted to make this! Thanks for the recipe!

Love this idea and always enjoy looking at your pictures.

Surprised to hear that the leaves of celery end up in compost for so many people. I use them in place of parsley if I’ve run out, and always in soups. Just throw them in with the celery in whatever recipe you’re making. Suggest drying the leaves outside (on a parchment-lined cookie sheet) whilst the sunny summer weather is here. Works for me, and less heating up the kitchen!
HS: Love the sun-dried tip. Not conducive to the SF summer unfortunately. :/

Thanks a lot for your recipe. I like so much this salt but never thought doing myself..

Great idea. I love putting the more tender inner leaves chopped up in salads. It adds great flavor to mixed greens.

Made some of this at Christmas time to put in soup, and it’s delicious and has also just been sitting, forgotten about, on the shelf since then. Any idea if this salt keeps indefinitely?
Also, love the idea of putting it on corn on the cob, can’t wait to try that tonight!

Celery leaves always head straight to our compost pile, but I’ll give this a try next time. I discovered flavored salts via Eric Gower, and I make and use matcha salt, lavender salt, tangerine salt, lime salt, hickory salt…. I love using those — even on something completely simple like popcorn or eggs. It gives a subtle new dimension.
Thanks for sharing!

what a great idea! Have to keep that in mind. maybe as christmas gifts?

oh wow I never even thought to make my own celery salt. You throw the leaves or rest away anyways so what a great idea. You can always use this for your bloody mary
Thanks!
Liz-CoolProducts

Great, simple recipe! Love that silver platter.

What a wonderful idea! I can’t believe I didn’t think about this, I hate wasting food and love celery salt.
Thanks for sharing.

This is something new to me. Never try to do this before. I like it. But I like the smell of coriander, don’t know it will work or not?

Could you show us how to make garlic salt???? Lovely post.

I use celery salt for one thing: delicious super easy coleslaw. Shred 1 head of savoy cabbage; toss with bottled all-natural blue cheese dressing of your choice (or make your own of course), generously season with celery salt and fresh ground black pepper. Chill for several hours before serving. Thanks for all the amazing recipes, Heidi!

Oh I can see my Bloody Mary on Saturday morning is going to be even more perfect than before!! 🙂

If you can grow some Lovage, you can take the celery salt idea to the next level. Lovage tastes like intense celery and is so good on so many things. It was used in ancient roman cookery. Oh. I love your new cookbook!

Simple and super easy but also really handy to add that something extra to normal dishes. Thanks for this, really.

Great idea for celery salt. Will do that shortly! Maldon salt is the most wonderful finishing salt. I once that all this fancy salt stuff was silly. I was wrong.
Does anyone have a great favorite banana bread recipe? I have the bottom drawer of the freezer full of old bananas that are ready for bread.

Looks wonderful!

My husband and I eat celery every day as a side by itself. I’ll have to save some leaves for this, though, as I usually use them in place of lettuce in salads and on sandwiches. I think I’ll toss some celery seeds in this along with the salt. 🙂

This is great thank you!
Could you please also post a recipe for home made curry paste?
On a different note, would you consider making a gluten free category on your site?

Heidi, you are the best! I love this stuff and can’t find a decent version in the UK shops. I am going to try your version.

My brother usually grows way too much basil and at the end of the season (we live around Seattle) I harvest as much as I can, wash and dry it and stuff it into a big jar with layers of big salt grainsl. Then shake it a lot – keep it in the refrigerator – shake it well every day – the leaves finally dry out so I can either fish them out in the dead of winter or season dishes with the salt. My last batch is two years old and finally down to little salt grains. I like using the salt in pasta water as well as in dishes.

What a fabulous idea! I usually just take the leafy parts and freeze them for later use in soups or stocks.

So excited to make this – Do you think lovage leaves would work as well? I have a whole bush!

I will have to try this! I made a lemon zest and chive salt a while ago that I had read about in the Jamie Oliver magazine. It was dreamy for dipping eggs.

What a great idea! Sunday brunch bloody Mary’s are the perfect vehicle for this 🙂

recently started reading your blog. so inspiring. i also ordered your books so i can try to incorporate whole foods in my family

Gorgeous photography. 🙂
It’s never occurred to me to make this, but it looks a lot easier than I expected it would be. I’ll have to give it a shot!

It’s simple things like homemade celery salt that make food taste exceptional. Thanks for sharing this recipe. Love the idea of having your own “house” salt blends and there are so many cool ideas in the comments today!

I’ve never had it, but I have always wanted to! Something about it makes me want to put it ON celery, lol. Great recipe!

wow! I never thought to do this – great idea! Thanks!

Once again you’ve inspired me to go the home-made route and make my own salts. I’m immediately thinking chile and lime would be divine or a savory and sweet ginger/lemongrass salt. Thanks Heidi.

Wow-cool idea!

Love this. What a great idea!

Such a neat idea. I normally just cook with kosher salt, but homemade celery salt is a compelling alternative, especially for finishing dishes. Would make a unique gift, too. Thanks, Heidi!

That should have read “Maldon”

Hi,
Thanks for this. It looks great. I will add it to my new collection of home made flavoured salts. I made some with Provencal flavourings – Maldom Salt (I live in the UK), chopped fresh thyme, rosemary and lavender and also some with chopped and crushed chipotle chilis.

All I need now is some vodka, tomato juice, you can see were this is going , nice idea, thanks.

Celery salt is something I never thought could be made at home, but I will definitely give this a try! I never buy celery because I don’t like spending money on an item I hardly use, but knowing I can make this out of something I usually throw away gives a whole new perspective, and I’m sure I’ll find lots of new things to sprinkle it on; thanks for the suggestions and the recipe!

This is awesome! I had never even thought to make this myself. I’m all over this now. Thank you!!

What a cool recipe!! I had no idea you could actually MAKE celery salt at home from scratch. Can’t wait to try this soon! 🙂

I never would have thought of this, but it sounds like a small detail that makes a small (or big) dish so much nicer. I also love the idea of having a bottomless celery salt jar that keeps on feeding and growing – how fun!
Once again, great idea! Thanks for sharing this.

Very clever. I love that it’s made with sea salt because commercial celery salt isn’t. Thank you for sharing how it’s made.

I love the idea of making my own salts! Sounds great Heidi.

Wow – amazing! I love these sort of everyday useful, storecupboard recipes 🙂

This looks so easy and tasty! I can’t wait to try it! 🙂

lime salt is great sprinkled over a bowl of chili.
.
wasabi salt is amazing on tempura.
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matcha salt and creamy eggs are a match made in heaven!
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also a fan of lavender salt, ume salt, and sage salt.
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just made a fresh bottle of lemon salt.
next up: celery salt and chive salt!

I’ve made lime and green tea salt. Put green tea, lime zest and kosher or sea salt into mortar & pestle, grind or pound until finely crumbled (powdery) & mixed. Spread on sheet of aluminum foil or parchment paper & put in a low oven about 1 hour to dry. It’s great sprinkled on sea scallops before cooking, then making a sauce adding white wine and lime juice to get all the crusty bits out of the pan. It stores well if completely dried.

Thanks! Celery salt is the “secret” ingredient in many of my Mother’s best dishes. I always thought it was made with celery seed.

Brilliant!
I’m on it! NOW.
Okay, not now. Tomorrow? Soon, I’m on it SOON!

I’m pretty sure I’ll never make celery salt, but because of your blog, I did cook myself a meal tonite instead of eating take-out! Thanks for all the inspiration, Heidi!