Simple Celery and Almond Salad
Celery has never really enjoyed the starring role in dishes that other vegetables do. It’s not that celery isn’t worthy. The vegetable is inexpensive, stays fresh for weeks, has a mild and pleasing flavor, a nice crunch and is a great source of vitamins and fiber. But it’s sort of the Chris Cooper of the kitchen, always an amazing supporting actor but never a leading man.
With this salad, celery finally gets to be the star. You’ll be surprised how tasty the crisp, clean flavor of celery is, especially during the hot days of summer. The leaves on the top of a celery stalk are usually discarded and this is a shame. Filled with vitamin C, calcium and a lot flavor, the leaves can be added to the salad as well. Almonds are a key ingredient, adding the richness that celery lacks. The parsley dressing adds additional flavor and fat. These ingredients are incredibly easy to find at any grocery store and take only a few minutes to toss together. The recipe is a simple way to both stay on track and try something new during the Primal Blueprint Health Challenge.
Though keep in mind that while this celery salad can be a quick and satisfying afternoon snack, it doesn’t necessarily add up to a full meal. You’ll want to pair it with some serious protein. Last week, wild caught Alaskan salmon was mentioned as a great source of Omega 3’s. It’s also the perfect protein to serve alongside this salad. Crunchy, light celery with rich, fatty salmon hits all the right flavor notes.
Ingredients:
1 bunch (12-15 stalks) celery, plus leaves
1 cup sliced or slivered almonds
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley
salt and pepper
Directions:
Chop the celery stalks and leaves into bite-sized pieces. Mix together with almonds.
Whisk olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, and a pinch of salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Drizzle dressing on top of celery and almonds and stir well. Makes approximately 4 servings.
Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds
Posted By: Worker Bee
An apple would really mix in well with this salad. Delicious combo. A nice sidedish for a breast of chicken.
Hmmm, not a bad idea for all the almonds and celery I have hanging around my kitchen. Now, about those fish oils, do you mean midnight Eastern time? Technically on my clock I have a whole eight minutes left!
This is too simple, I have to try it to believe it
My mother and I spent all day shopping to get ready to go primal. A challenge to find everything but know it will get easier. My husband, mother and father are all beginning tomorrow morning! We bought some celery today to pair with our almond butter. Now we have another option — thanks a bunch!
Delish! Thanks.
Thanks, I’m going to try this one with the crab cakes.
JT
Any thoughts on substitutions for olive oil? Sesame oil maybe?
grape seed oil is a nice alternative, has a neutral flavour, and its even good for cooking because of its high smokepoint.
Tried this two ways for a dinner party. First exactly as the recipe suggested and second using sesame oil and a sprinlking of sesame seeds. Also, for the second, I used True Lemon packets because I ran out of organic lemons. Entree was grilled chicken breasts (skin on, of course). Guests were split about 60-40 with original recipe winning.
I like celery (apart from the stringy bits that get stuck between your teeth…)
I’ve not seen raw flaked almonds in the shops here in the UK – only toasted. I’m not sure how you’d slice raw almonds that thinly unless you have a flash gadget (I have a cupboard-sized kitchen with a small fridge, oven and sink, and limited storage space, so I don’t have much in the way of gadgets at all).
I really needed this! Finally, something to do with my celery other than dipping it into nut butters!
Looks good!
always looking for fun veggie sides to accompany my hunks of meat!
I agree with everyone else….good way to put celery to use!! I will try that this week.
I’ve never eaten the leaves before- usually leave them for chicken stock.
Love this!
Mmm, tasty!
Looks good, but I will have to find a substitute to celery. I am not a big fan. Maybe jicama.
another good substitute would be kohlrabi. But those who aren’t enthusiastic about celery might be more so about organic celery, which is more pungeant and interesting.
Fish oil is good, too!!
I was actually just looking at a primal like stuffing recipe today, using almonds and celery. It was actually a youtube video about the slapchop, so go figure. Small world you have a recipe today like this!
Wow, this was great! I threw in a little Balsamic Vinegar in a serving and it was quite tasty.
Oh my word I’m sitting at work starving and this looks absolutely delicious. Definitely going to be trying it out when i get home – yum!
Looks like it needs some propellant to me. PAM, anyone?
(just ran out to get the almonds; this
is tonight’s project, along with
finishing up an excellent book on
fringe biochemistry.)
My 10 year old son is a budding chef…..I saw this recipe and thought it would be perfect and simple….I added 2 chopped apples -actually my son did everything except chop the parsley. it is an amazing fresh crunchy salad-I would say also kid friendly with the lemon, celery almonds and sweet apple -we both ate this up and would make it again!! thanks!