Use It Up Challenge: Celery

Celery is an essential supporting flavor player in many meals as it lends a necessary savoriness and crisp-tender texture to dishes.

Our collection of celery recipes prove that these stalks deserve a turn in the spotlight. This light, refreshing side becomes even crunchier with a finishing touch of hazelnuts.

Celery syrup makes for a delicious drink even without the gin. Just combine the club soda for a refreshing celery sipper.

"The dressing for potato salad usually ends up overseasoned and doesn't permeate the potatoes," Christensen says. "Adding vinegar to the cooking process flavors the potatoes, so the dressing should be more mellow."

Cream cheese and peanut butter are slathered on a stalk and topped with red pepper—think ants on a log with a fiery kick.

Simple sometimes means the best and the boldest. This fresh apple and celery salad is certainly the crunchiest.

Tossed in a sweet lemon dressing, this zesty salad will bring bright, bold flavors to your dinner table in no time.

Celery is an underrated vegetable, often used as a flavor accent for soups or Thanksgiving stuffing. But it shines as the star in a salad, thanks to its fantastic crunch and naturally salty flavor. For ease and speed, we advise slicing thinly on a mandoline. To cut by hand, line up 3 stalks and slice all at once instead of slicing each stalk individually. The crisp texture of the salad provides a nice contrast to the creamy-meaty scallops. Golden raisins are a surprising and delicious addition, offering a pop of sweetness and chewy texture; you can substitute regular raisins, dried currants, or dried cranberries.

Soy sauce, brown sugar, celery, and cashews give this couscous a unique, divine flavor.

This streamlined Caesar salad gets extra crunch from celery. To build a satisfying lunch salad, you need a hearty base, protein, nutritional toppings with color, a salty or sweet crunch, and healthy fat. Our version has all five with chopped romaine, a hard-cooked egg, red onion, celery, Parmesan cheese, and a DIY dressing of mayonnaise, lemon juice, and fresh dill. We left the anchovies out of the dressing to keep it kid friendly. If you love this, try our Kale Caesar Quinoa and Chicken Salad for a punch of whole-grain goodness, fiber, vegetable, and protein in every bite.

Egg salad is a lunch-time favorite, a go-to because it's quick, easy to prepare, and rich in filling protein. A typical homemade version can load on more than 23g of fat and almost 900mg sodium—suddenly making your so-called light lunch feel anything but. Our avocado trick cuts fat in half, keeping all the creamy goodness of classic egg salad.

A jolt of ground red pepper spice things up nicely, while creamy half-and-half smoothes out the edges. Serve with Lemony Broccoli Spears.

These shrimp sliders are perfect for garden parties or outdoor entertaining. If you prefer a milder sandwich, omit the ground red pepper.

This bittersweet citrus refresher made from fresh red grapefruit juice, celery, and nonalcoholic bitters is the ultimate pick-me-up on a gloomy day.

Simple and sophisticated, this crunchy, savory, tangy, wonderful combination pairs well with everything from steak to mac and cheese or pizza.

Trade booze or sugary sodas for refreshing homemade soda. There's no shame in delighting in something bubbly and sweet from time to time, but many sugar-laden sodas and cocktail mixers pack in unnecessary sugar grams and calories. This Celery Soda (one of our three healthy sodas) delivers bold flavors and fizzy refreshment with a fraction of the sugar in store-bought soda and mixers. And you won't even need special equipment. Just mix the syrup with seltzer water.

Say hello to your new favorite seafood dinner! This sweet and nutty autumnal recipe will make everyone at the table swoon.

This salad offers textural treats—crunchy celery, meaty walnuts, and crystalline cheese. Because the salt draws water out of the celery, it's best to serve this simple salad shortly after tossing the ingredients together.

A perfect complement to a heavy entrée; consider putting this on the table with a holiday meal.

Use an electric juicer to juice celery, pears, apple, cilantro stems, serrano chile, lemon, and lime to make this fresh and fruity juice.

A fresh, crisp salad that will balance any meal. You can follow a recipe or just compose one with pretty cuts of your favorite vegetables and herbs tossed with a light vinaigrette. Make this salad a day ahead if you want the flavors to absorb into the cauliflower a little more. Just hold off on adding the cheese until right before serving.

We love the old-school feel of this skillet supper. If you can't find whole-wheat panko, sauté fresh whole-wheat crumbs until crisp.

This gumbo is a great use for leftover roasted turkey, though cooked chicken will also work. We skip the long-stirred roux here in favor of filé powder, a thickener made from the sassafras plant; look for it on the spice aisle. For the best results, stir in the filé powder off the heat.

For this slider, we tuck the usual Buffalo wing accompaniments—carrots and celery—inside the patty. This gives you all the flavors of a wing plate while also helping to keep the lean breast meat moist. When shredding the celery (so that it incorporates nicely), you'll have to stop occasionally to pull and discard the strings. Be sure to search for celery bunches with nice, fresh leaves still attached.

Red onion and celery add crunch to this quick chicken salad. Blueberries have thick skins, so they won't break apart when tossed with the chicken.

Give your deviled eggs a Cajun kick with homemade rémoulade. Garnish with celery for color and crunch.

Farro is a quick-cooking grain with a mild flavor, perfect for a summer salad. Add juicy cherries, crunchy celery, and a mustardy dressing for the perfect accompaniment to grilled meat, poultry, or fish. If you can't find farro, you can substitute wheat berries, barley, or quinoa.

The knobby bulb called celeriac or celery root has a celery-like flavor, but one that is more robust and creamy at the same time. Add leftover turkey to make this an entrée.

This salad is all about crunch, with toasted walnuts, crisp apple, and celery. Save your celery leaves for a beautiful and delicious garnish.

The gumbo-blend vegetables contain chopped celery, onion, bell pepper, corn, and okra. If you can't find this particular blend, substitute a mixture of frozen okra and corn.

Bring classic New Orleans fare to the table with this dazzling duo. Perfectly seasoned blackened chicken and spicy dirty rice make the perfect pair.