Do you use celery leaves in veggie stock?

[Quicker Thinker Upper]

Yesterday, right by my work, a little farmer's market sprang up. I had never seen it before, so I walked over and bought some veggies (turns out that they had only been there for a week, and I had been on vacation). Anyway, I bought some veggies from them, including celery.

The celery was darker than I was used to, and more bitter than any celery I'd ever had. Not unpleasant, just different. It also wasn't as crisp as those that I typically buy in a supermarket. I figured it's just a different "strain" or something.

I was making a vegetable stock, and I did not use the celery's leaves...later on, reading through some recipe books, I came across something that said to use veggies, their leaves, skins, etc when making stock. I tasted the celery leaves and they were even more bitter than the stalks (which, again, were more bitter and were darker than the usual stuff I buy)...

Do you guys usually use the leaves of the celery? I wasn't sure if it would add little something to the stock, or if it's typically a no-no, if there are any other uses for it, etc...

 

[Katie H]

I almost always use celery leaves in my stocks. As a matter of fact, when I use celery for other dishes and have leaves leftover I pop them into a plastic bag and keep them in the freezer. Whenever I need some for stocks and/or soups I always have some on hand.

 

[Quicker Thinker Upper]

how much would you use? I was making around 2 quarts of stock. I think I used something like 3 stalks of celery...I imagine too much of the leaves would have overpowered the stock...

 

[GotGarlic]

The celery was darker than I was used to, and more bitter than any celery I'd ever had. Not unpleasant, just different. It also wasn't as crisp as those that I typically buy in a supermarket. I figured it's just a different "strain" or something.

I wonder if it was a little old. When we grow fresh lettuce, we have to harvest it all before it bolts (throws up flower stalks). As soon as it does that, the leaves get very bitter; at that point, we pull them up and throw them away.

re: the crispness, it was probably a little dehydrated, so to speak. You can fix this by soaking it in water for 15 minutes or so. This is why supermarkets spray veggies with water periodically.

But yes, I use the leaves in stock.

 

[DramaQueen]

I scrub potatoes and carrots before peeling then put the peelings in a zip loc bag. I do the same with onions, pop the bag in the freezer and add to it from time to time. Celery leaves are a must. When I have a bag full, I make veggie broth. Excellent!!! The peelings contain a lot of nutrients and tons of flavor.

 

[ChefJune]

I almost always use celery leaves in my stocks. As a matter of fact, when I use celery for other dishes and have leaves leftover I pop them into a plastic bag and keep them in the freezer. Whenever I need some for stocks and/or soups I always have some on hand.

I also do that! I use celery leaves or celery for almost every stock.

 

[Uncle Bob]

I would rather have the leaves for seasoning purposes than the celery itself!

 

[BreezyCooking]

The problem with home-grown &/or farmers' market celery is that unlike commercial growers, folks rarely take the trouble to blanch it while it grows. Blanching is what makes it not only a lighter color, but also tender & not bitter. Blanching isn't difficult to do, but it does add yet another chore to the home gardener's list & does need regular checking to avoid rot & other problems, especially if the blanching is done by heaping soil or mulch up around the stalks.

As far as the lack of crispness, that was definitely the result of the celery being without moisture for more than it should have been. Market celery should be sold on ice, from a cooler, or standing up in a bin with a few inches of cool clean water in the bottom.

 

[Quicker Thinker Upper]

thanks for all the great responses

 

[Constance]

Breezy knows her stuff about the celery.
I grew it a few years, but our hot weather is pretty hard on it, and I had a greenhouse to run. Still, I got plenty to cook with. I had an older friend who grew it all the time, though. He had an irrigation system built, and rigged up shade cloth to protect his tender plants during really hot weather. But even he didn't bother to blanch it.
I like home garden celery...it's kind of strong and peppery, and good in soups.. But it's definitely not sweet and tender like the blanched kind.

 

[jpmcgrew]

I dont use celery leaves as I believe they are bitter but I think its a personal preference.I think it depends on which one of your four taste buds is dominant.So you got sweet,sour,salty and bitter mine is the bitter I can taste it where others cannot other people cant handle sour which I can I love saurkraut,pickles and so on.

 

[philso]

celery tops, onion peels, carrot peels & ends, and perhaps tomato & mushroom trimmings are the basic ingredients to store up in your freezer for soup stock.

but use your own discretion. if in doubt, taste. if the celery was bitter, using them would make the stock bitter also. other veggie trimmings wouldn't normally be used for most stocks; for example, cabbage trimmings from near the stalk can be peppery tasting, eggplant peels would give an unwanted color, etc. at other times, you might want these, depending on what you were going to make.

 

[bethzaring]

I raise my own celery. I do not fool with blanching the plants. I harvest from the center of the plant, usually have 12 plants. I harvest the outer leaves for the goats (pre-marinateing?).. I also dry excess leaves for winter soups. My bitter taste buds don't work particualry well, celery nor green peppers do not taste bitter to me. The inner, lighter colored celery leaves should not be bitter. I would definitley use them in some manner.

 

[college_cook]

Reading through the other posts, it seems like a lot of people use their stock pot almost like their garbage pot. I always peel my carrots, always use fresh, skinned onions, and always scrub my celery before it goes it. Potato/mushroom/carrot peels? No thanks! Somebody said once about putting peels in your stock "Would you eat it on a salad? If no , then why put it in your stock?"

That said, I do think the leaves add a good amount of flavor, and once cleaned, I always toss them in.

 

[BreezyCooking]

I completely disagree with that!! Garbage pot indeed!! Where the heck have you been - obviously not up on veggie nutrition.

I can see not wanting to use the skins of old, tired, commercially produced vegetables; but organically grown purchased produce along with what I grow in my own garden has quite a bit of the nutrition IN & just beneath the skin. There's absolutely NOTHING wrong or garbage-like in using it for stock. Good grief!!

In fact, I rarely if ever peel my organic/home-grown carrots, potatoes, etc. - for any recipe. What a waste. And there's also absolutely nothing wrong with using mushroom stems - regardless of type. While they may be too tough to use in a recipe, they can impart fabulous mushroom flavor to a stock. Again - garbage indeed!!

I suppose you also disagree with using lobster & shrimp shells, meat & fish bones & poultry carcasses for stock. Where exactly do you think these stocks come from??

If you want to waste food, go to it - but don't tell the rest of us that we're making our stock out of garbage. Shame on you!

 

[GB]

Somebody said once about putting peels in your stock "Would you eat it on a salad? If no , then why put it in your stock?"

The simple answer is flavor and color. Clean peels are a great thing to use for stock. The are loaded with nutrients and flavor and also lend color to the finished product.

This person that said the quote above, do they make chicken stock? Would they put chicken bones in their salad or ever eat chicken bones? If not then by their logic they would not use chicken bones in their stock either.

Those scraps and peels are only garbage because that is what you do with them. If you have a good use for them then they are not garbage, but viable parts of produce.

 

[Quicker Thinker Upper]

This is great stuff, thanks everyone! Does anyone know of a good book that covers this "home ec" part of cooking? I'd love a book that shows you how to stretch your food dollars (in other words, how to turn parts of food that I've been considering "garbage" and throwing out into other dishes)?

I asked this question the day after making a veggie stock. At that point, I had thrown out probably 8 or 9 mushrooms (because they'd gotten a little old), some celery (which had gotten soft), and some other veggies that in hindsight could have still been used...

 

[BreezyCooking]

Uh, QuickerThinkerUpper - you're completely missing the point here.

No one is saying that you should use old/stale/spoiled vegetables or other foods normally thought of as garbage in other dishes. Read for comprehension - no one here has said that at all, & hopefully there is no "good book" out there advising you how to do so. The only thing that sort of stuff is good for is turning into compost.

If you go back & read the posts here you'll see that what we're advocating is using the peels & scraps from BRIGHT, FRESH vegetables to make stock. Period.

 

[GB]

I disagree Breezy. I think those things that Quick Thinker Upper is talking about most certainly can be used. Will it make the best tasting broth you have ever had? No. Is it better than just throwing away some celery that is a little past it's prime? absolutely.

 

[Quicker Thinker Upper]

Thanks GB, that is exactly my point. And Breezy, I see your point and would never use really garbage-bound veggies to cook with. But those mushrooms I threw out the other day weren't fresh enough to eat raw in a salad so I threw them out. I'm sure their flavor was still fine though, but I didn't think to use them in a broth, where their texture wouldn't matter as much. Also, the idea of using veggie trimmings (from fresh veggies as you said) is new to me. I've bought veggies specifically for the purposes of making broth. Maybe I would have saved a couple of bucks here and there by using trimmings instead....I never knew you could do that. That's the kind of information I'd be looking for in a book.

Also, my post did say "how to turn parts of food that I've been considering 'garbage'"... like the leaves from celery, the bones from chicken, the peeled skins from carrots, etc.