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Vintage Celery Amandine for the Home Run

May 18, 2021
Five-ingredient Celery Amandine is an amazing vegetable dish when made with farm or garden-fresh celery.

Have you ever thought about making celery a central stand-alone side-dish? I'm going out on a limb here to suggest, no, maybe not. And there is a reason why celery is last to be chosen for Team Exciting Foods.

Grocery store celery is pale, stringy, flavorless, and waterlogged in comparison to locally-grown, bright green, crisp version that hasn't been trucked half-way around the world. Grocery-store celery is a good second-string addition to a soup, stew, or casserole where little is expected of it.

Farmers market or garden-grown celery, on the other hand, is heads above its grocery grocery store kin. If you want a true All-Star for the dinner plate win, growing some or buying direct from a farm is the only way to go.

Take a crack at the bat with this sautéed celery amandine. It is proof that celery is more than a minor-league bench player at your table.

Celery Amandine Throwback

This recipe comes from the wayback machine. My mom made it as a vegetable side dish when I was a kid and its crunchy, buttery, nutty place on my plate always made me happy. Spotting crisp bright organic celery at the farmers market recently brought it back to mind.

It takes four or five ingredients, and is table-ready in under 10 minutes.

I intentionally make extra of this, as it is a nice addition to a lunchtime rice and bean bowl, next to a scrambled egg, or sprinkled with a little vinegar or more lemon juice as a pickley nosh with a sandwich.

platter of celery amandine with lemon wedges

Home Run Celery Amandine

Course: Salad, Side Dish
Cuisine: French
Season: Bounty (August - October), Evergreen (April - July)
Dietary: Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Gluten-Free, Vegetarian
Preparation: Fast + Easy, One Pot/One Pan
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 4
With just a few handy ingredients and 10 minutes or less to the table, take a crack at the bat with this sautéed celery amandine. It is proof that celery is more than a bench player at your table.
Print Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 small head garden fresh celery (about 3-4 stalks per person)
  • ¼ cup raw whole almonds
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed and lightly chopped
  • 1 Tbsp. butter or ghee
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 lemon, cut in wedges (optional)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Wash and dry the celery and slice it ¼- ½“ inch thick on a sharp diagonal. (The diagonals look beautiful, but also expose more surface area for flavor.) Crush the almonds with the bottom of a glass or by tapping on them with a meat mallet to get rough pieces of mixed sizes. Crush and lightly chop through the garlic cloves. (Crushing the nuts and garlic makes more textural and visual interest than chopping.) Slice the lemon into 6-8 wedges and flick away any seeds you see.
  • Heat a skillet to medium-high heat. (6.5 or 7 on my induction cooktop.) When the skillet is hot, add the butter and olive oil. Add the celery to the pan and give it a shake to let the slices settle in.
  • Toss the nuts, garlic and salt and pepper to taste on top of the celery. Stir a few times while the celery just begins to soften and turn bright green, about 4-5 minutes. Remove it from the heat before you think you should. You'll enjoy this best if the celery retains is crunchy texture.
  • Serve with a lemon wedge, if desired. This is good served right out of the skillet, or at room temperature.

Notes

Make It Your Own:
For vegan option, replace the butter with cooking oil of your choice.
Give this exact treatment to sugar peas in their pod- just a flash in the hot skillet with the other ingredients makes another vegetable winner!
Omit the garlic if that's not for you.

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You’re in the right place!  I’m Pam Spettel, home cooking expert and guide, and I’m here to show you how to break up with cooking and hospitality anxiety, learn how to use recipes as guides rather than strict rules, and let your cooking intuition and confidence soar.

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