Roots to Leaves: Celery Salt
What do you do with celery leaves? And a deeper topic for another time: what about all the other bits of vegetables that we somehow believe aren't edible? Recently I got to Googling just in time to tempt the fate of the pile of celery leaves on my cutting board. Turns out there are many great uses like soups and salads but I was smitten with the idea of celery salt. Not the most riveting seasoning but it pops up in recipes from time to time; it's also great when celery is an ingredient and you are simply out of it. The leaves actually are more flavorful than the stalks and it's such a simple seasoning to make. Plus, you'll feel really good about keeping them out of the clutches of your garbage can.
Celery Salt
Ingredients
Leaves of a head of celery (picked, without stems, washed and dried) Flaky salt (of your choosing, flakier the better, I used grey sea salt)
Preparation
Preheat your oven to 350F / 180C. Lay out the leaves in a single layer, as best as possible, on a cookie sheet or even a sheet of tin foil as I ended up doing. Bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes. You want the leaves to dehydrate but not to brown. Let the leaves cool before crushing between your fingers. At this point you are ready to combine the celery leaves with an equal amount of salt. I ended up with 1/4 cup of crushed leaves so I used 1/4 cup of grey sea salt that I ground up since it was a bit coarse. And there you have it: homemade celery salt for your personal enjoyment.
Some genius uses include: sprinkled over hard boiled eggs with lemon and a drizzle of olive oil, the rim of your glass for a bloody Mary, meat marinades and rubs, potato or egg salad...