Currabinny Cooks: Stop thinking of celery as a background flavour - it is a star ingredient

The 'hidden' ingredient in soups, sauces and stocks is worth a starring role in dishes such as celery and celeriac salad with caesar dressing or celery soup or a creamy baked celery

Try this delicious Celery and Celeriac salad with Caesar dressing. 

Celery is one of the most important ingredients for building flavours in Western cooking. A stick of celery is one of the founding ingredients in a whole host of stocks, soups, broths, sauces and preserves. Celery is also sometimes a huge nuisance. A recipe invariably will usually ask for a single stick of celery, but you have to buy a whole bunch (if you want it to be fresh). This leads to almost a whole bunch of celery often being left at the back of the fridge for days on end until eventually, it becomes so soft and floppy you just have to throw it in the compost bin. The problem with celery is that it can become quite an overpowering flavour when used too liberally. Its importance in stocks and soups is as a subtle background savoury flavour, green and fresh. Too much celery and your stock becomes overly herbaceous.

I used to dislike the greenness, the vague saltiness and the herby overtones of celery.