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Celery stars in salad with Thai flavors

Recipe: Chopped veggies, peanuts provide plenty of crunch

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED FEB 16, 2025

Celery combined with scallions, peanuts and cilantro makes a crunchy salad with just a pop of red pepper Kathy Morrison

Celery typically is a supporting cast member in the production of meals, adding flavor to stews and soups, in particular, or filling out a plate of crudités. How fun then to discover a winter salad recipe that uses most of a head of celery.

Salad ingredients — Celery and other ingredients before prep.

This recipe came tucked in a recent farm box delivery, but it originated with Bon Appétit magazine. It has just a few ingredients and goes together quickly, making it ideal for a weeknight dinner, served alongside rotisserie chicken or broiled fish, or as a no-wilt option at a potluck.

Use the liquid aminos (as opposed to the fish sauce) in the dressing and it's vegan, too.

I don't mind doing some knife work, so I sliced and chopped everything by hand, but a mandoline or a food processor with slicing blade could make even quicker work of the prep required.

Look for the freshest, firmest celery you can find (check the leaves for wilting, especially). Also, snag two bunches of cilantro, which I like to wash in a salad spinner. The resulting salad is greater than the sum of its parts, with a fantastic crunch to boot.

Thai celery salad with peanuts

Serves 4 to 6 as a side dish

Ingredients:

For dressing:

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 teaspoons liquid aminos or fish sauce

Salt, to taste

Glass bowl with chopped vegetables — The salad is stirred together before dressing is
added. There's just enough red pepper to give it
a kick, but add more if so inclined.

For salad:

6 celery stalks, trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal (about 1/8-inch thick)

3 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced

1 red chile pepper, such as Fresno variety, halved, seeded, and thinly sliced

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems (about 1-1/2 bunches)

1/4 cup chopped roasted, salted peanuts, plus more for garnish

Instructions:

In a bowl or glass measuring cup, whisk together the oil, lime juice and liquid aminos or fish sauce. Taste, and add salt to personal satisfaction.

Combine the sliced celery, scallions, pepper slices, chopped cilantro and chopped peanuts in a bowl. Re-whisk the dressing and pour it over the vegetables. Allow to meld for at least 10 minutes, then stir again and serve, garnished with more chopped peanuts.

Salad, without garnish, can be covered and refrigerated until ready to serve later the same day. Stir again before serving.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipe recipes celery February winter salad backyard produce produce management Sacramento gardening farmers markets vegetables vegan dishes

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Garden checklist for week of May 17

With an eye on warmer weather to come, continue to work on the summer vegetable garden:

* Remember to irrigate your tender transplants. The wind can quickly dry out young plants. Seedlings need consistent moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants. Water early in the morning for best results.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, calibrachoa, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Put your veggie garden on a regular diet. Set up a monthly feeding program, and keep track on your calendar. Make sure to water your garden before applying any fertilizer to prevent “burning” your plants.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

* Don’t forget to weed! Those invaders are growing fast.

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