Celery seeds can be used in a variety of dishes in their whole or freshly ground form. Use the distinctive, pungent flavor of celery seeds in your bread, brine recipes, casseroles, chicken soup, cole slaw, eggs, meat, pickles, vegetable dishes, gravies, salad dressings, sauces, sauerkraut, stuffing, stews and fresh tomato juice.
When celery seed is ground and mixed with salt it becomes the popular Celery Salt.
Celery seeds works well in combination with salt, onion and bell peppers.
Celery seed has a hay-like, grassy, slightly bitter taste and aroma.
Celery Seed Substitutions and Conversions
You can also substitute Celery Seed in many dishes that call for fresh celery, one teaspoon of celery seed equals 2 tablespoons minced celery tops. Replacements for celery seed include dill seed or celery salt (reduce the salt elsewhere in the recipe).
Cooking tends to enhance its sweetness and reduce its bitterness. Too much celery seed can overpower a dish, whereas a little enhances the flavors in other foods. Celery seeds, technically considered a fruit, are a relative newcomer to the spice world, and these seeds are the smallest of any used for seasoning. Celery seeds are so small that it takes more than 45,000 of them to yield one ounce. But don't let their diminutive size fool you, as it only takes a couple of these tiny, aromatic seeds to bring on a mouthful of celery stalk flavor!
Celery seeds are grayish green to brown in color and their texture and size has been compared to poppy seeds. Celery seeds have a stronger and more intense flavor than the root, stem or leaf.
Celery seed is not well-known in Western herbal medicine, although it has been used medicinally for thousands of years in other parts of the world. During ancient times, Ayurvedic medicine used celery seed to treat colds, the flu, water retention, poor digestion, various types of arthritis and certain diseases of the liver and spleen. Ayurvedic medicine ("Ayurveda" for short) is one of the world's oldest holistic ("whole-body") healing systems. It was developed more than 3,000 years ago in India and is based on the belief that health and wellness depend on a delicate balance between the body, mind and spirit.
Celery Seeds have 2% to 3% essential oil primarily terpenes, mostly limonene (68%).