Celery Salad with Blood Orange, Dates, & Walnuts

This vegan and gluten free celery salad with blood orange, dates, and walnuts ticks all the major texture and flavor boxes! It’s crunchy, creamy, nutty, tart, herbal, and a little sweet. Plus, it’s ready in just about 15 minutes with only 9 ingredients!

LOCALLY GROWN CELERY!!!! I can’t express how incredibly excited I was to be able to bring home some locally grown celery last week. Celery is a notoriously tricky crop to grow because it is really specific about moisture levels and temperatures (it likes it cool and wet). It’s rare (but not impossible) to find it down here in Houston simply because our weather is a bit unpredictable and all over the place. Luckily, this winter yielded some beautiful and insanely flavorful celery at Sunset Farm.

Since locally grown celery is a rarity, and it is always so much more flavorful than what you can find at the grocery store, I knew it needed to be the star of a recipe. Its vibrantly grassy and mineral flavors were just begging to go into a chopped salad with a simple creamy dressing. Toasted walnuts, dates, blood oranges and chives were added to the mix. Et voila! This crunchy, creamy, nutty, tart, herbal, and sweet salad was born!

Celery Storage & Prep Tips

Here in Houston, celery is typically a winter or early spring crop. My favorite way to store it is to fill a quart-sized mason jar with about an inch of water. Place the bottom (root end) of the celery stalks in the jar, making sure they have contact with the water. Place the jar in the fridge and make sure to use it within 1-2 weeks.

Celery is fairly straightforward to use, simple chop it up and add it to recipes! If you’re lucky enough to get a bunch with the leaves still attached, don’t throw them out! They have a flavor similar to parsley with hints of celery that can be used like an herb. If you’d like to enjoy celery in other recipes, try this trumpet mushroom chick-un salad or this winter minestrone.

What You Need for This Recipe

• Celery Stalks – form the base of the salad and lend a crunchy texture and their characteristic grassy and mineral flavor.
• Blood Oranges – add a tangy punch of brightness that lifts the salad and complements all of the other flavors. They also add a lovely pop of color.
• Chives – add a subtle onion-y flavor that works well with the celery.
• Toasted Walnuts – add a toasty and nutty flavor plus another layer of crunch aside from the celery.
• Dates – add a subtle sweetness that works to round out all of the flavors in the salad.
• Plain Vegan Yogurt – plain unsweetened yogurt lends creaminess to the dressing along with a subtle tanginess.
• Vegan Mayo – adds creaminess to the dressing.
• Non-dairy milk – helps to thin out the dressing.
• Sea Salt – seasons the salad and helps balance all of the flavors.

Tips for Recipe Success

• This salad is best with celery that has been finely chopped. To do this, simply chop each stalk into thin slices (about 1/8-inch thick) then measure out the amount needed for the recipe (2 cups).
• If you want to have super-crunchy celery, make sure to let your chopped celery chill in a bath of ice water for a few minutes. This step is especially helpful if your celery is a little limp.
• Chop the dates really fine. You want there to be small pops of sweetness in the salad rather than a bite with a big hunk of date that is overwhelmingly sweet.
• Toast your walnuts! It brings out their nuttiness and makes them a little more crunchy.
• This salad is best enjoyed as soon as it’s made since the dressing begins to draw excess liquid out of the celery and oranges. If you want to prepare the salad components ahead of time, I recommend keeping the dressing separate. Once you’re ready to enjoy your salad, toss everything together!

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