Celery Leaf Pesto

When most of us buy celery at the store, most or all of the tops have already been removed. We have been conditioned to think of the tops of celery as something that gets thrown out or of no use. That is such a waste. There is much to enjoy in those celery greens. I've gotten better by using them as another ingredient in my homemade soup stock when there are some celery greens in the house.

But we recently picked up some celery at our local farmer's market and all of the beautiful, bright green celery leaves were still intact on top...as it occurs in nature. They look like giant flat leaf Italian parsley leaves.

The sight of the gorgeous green leaves begged the question (as it did a few years ago with beet greens), how can celery leaves be put to use beyond a soup stock ingredient?

After some online research I found that there is much to be done with fresh celery greens.

• First, you can toss the fresh, cleaned celery leaves into a salad. 
• The greens could also be tossed into a soup or a risotto just before serving.
• They are an edible garnish similar to the way parsley leaves are used. 
• They can be one of the greens in your morning smoothie.
• Use celery leaves as a substitute for parsley in a tabbouleh salad.
• I read some articles online about how to freeze the leaves until you are ready to make soup stock. 
• Dry the leaves, crumble them up, and use them as a dried herb.

The last idea also resonated with me as I found a recipe for creating a celery salt that I do want to try at some point. You can find the details here. 

So after all of this online research, I settled on starting with the celery leaf pesto after reading Chef Cara Mangini's blog post about the celery pesto she keeps on hand in her Ohio restaurant.

I adapted her recipe to fit in with all of the basil pesto I've been making recently.

Celery Leaf Pesto

Ingredients:

• Leaves from one natural stalk of celery
• Toasted pine nuts - 1/3 cup
• Garlic - 2-4 cloves
• Parmesan cheese - 1/2 cup grated
• High quality olive oil - 3/4 to 1 cup
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Mince garlic into a food processor bowl
2. Add toasted pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, and cleaned celery leaves
3. Pulse a number of times to chop up and blend ingredients
4. Turn on food processor and slowly add olive oil
5. Blend until desired consistency
6. Salt and pepper to taste

So I made the pesto and then used a tablespoon to pour the pesto into a lightly non-stick sprayed ice cube tray. I placed the pesto-filled ice cube tray into the freezer for a day or two. Then popped out the cubes of pesto and stored them into a freezer bag until ready to use.

How have I used them? Well, I'm just getting started, but I did defrost a cube to add to a pan of scrambled eggs.

I also used some to make a bruschetta. As a side for a light dinner, I toasted a piece of bread and added a thin layer of celery pesto and topped it with diced tomatoes.

I am planning using future cubes to be added to any soup or stock.

I am just glad to use up something that might have formerly gone into the compost bin.