Celery Salt Substitutes

When you need celery salt for your next recipe, but can’t get it anywhere, what should you do? Try one of celery salt substitutes. Substituting ingredients is all about understanding the role your ingredients play in the overall dish. Without any further ado, let’s take a look.

9 Best Celery Salt Substitutes

Celery salt is a very useful seasoning that can be used for a variety of recipes. It goes great with meats, vegetables, potatoes, and plenty of other foods, too. It’s a more aromatic, flavorsome variation of salt. Sometimes, however, you just don’t have any at home. As other herbs and spices have become more common, it feels like celery salt has fallen by the wayside in many grocery stores.

That’s why we compiled this list of excellent celery salt substitutes.

What Is Celery Salt?

Celery salt is made using seeds from celery or the closely related lovage plant. It’s actually very high in micronutrients like vitamin A, vitamin K, folic acid, beta-carotene, and potassium.

Celery salt is typically made from two parts salt and one part ground celery seeds. Sometimes, ground celery and stalks or lovage seeds will be used either instead of or in conjunction with celery seeds.

Celery salt is widely used in savory dishes and cocktails like the Bloody Mary. It’s a very versatile seasoning. Sometimes, vendors will add paprika or red pepper flakes to enhance the seasoning. It’s a versatile spice that you can use instead of salt to enhance the overall flavor palate of your favorite savory dish.

Substitutions for Celery Salt

If you already have some celery seeds in the pantry, we’re off to a great start. You could make your own celery salt with a mortar and pestle. If you don’t have celery salt to hand, here are our favorite celery salt combinations.

1.Celery Seed and Salt

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The obvious choice is to make your own celery salt. You want a 1:2 ratio of celery seed and salt. Grind them together in a mortar and pestle and you’ll have some celery salt ready to use. Making your own will be far more aromatic and flavorful than anything you can get at the store.

2.Fresh Celery

Fresh celery has a similar flavor profile to celery seeds, but its flavor is much more subtle. Accordingly, you’ll need to use more. To substitute celery seeds for celery salt, simply dice your stalks and leaves. You can add them to a potato salad for crunch factor. Celery juice is very useful in cocktails. You can even use roast celery roots with potatoes.

Note that celery stalks are very fibrous. This texture may not be suitable for all recipes. Be sure to consider what texture you’re going for when substituting celery for celery salt.

3.Dehydrating Celery

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If you have a dehydrator, dehydrating your celery stalks is a great way to concentrate the flavor. All you need to do is chop the stalks into small pieces, using your dehydrator (or your oven) to dry them out.

Once all the moisture has been extracted from the celery, use a blender to reduce the stalks to a powder. Alternatively, you can purchase celery powder. Pour this into a jar to store alongside your other spices and seasonings. You can add powdered celery to salt in a 1:2 ratio to make your own celery salt that will have a subtly different profile from the salt made with celery seeds.

4.Dill Seed

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You can use ground dill seeds the same way as you would use ground celery seeds. Dill has a similar flavor profile to celery salt so you can use grind up dill seeds with salt to make a usable celery salt substitute.

5. Celery Seed Essential Oil

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You can use essential oil from the seeds with a salt. The oil is actually not that frequently used in cooking. It will, however, provide the aroma and flavor of celery salt.

6.Caraway or Fennel Seeds

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Caraway or fennel seeds can be used with salt in a similar fashion to celery seeds. Grind them up in a mortar and pestle in the same 1:2 ratio as you would to make celery salt. Both caraway and fennel are more strongly flavored than celery seeds, so be sure to use a touch less of this substitute than you would celery salt so they don’t dominate the palate. They are much sweeter than celery salt, and suit meat dishes very well, especially pork.

7.Nigella Seeds

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Nigella seeds actually have quite a similar flavor to celery. They are from different plant families, but have plenty of smell and flavor.

They’re commonly used in Indian cuisine, so check your local Indian or Asian grocer to see if they have nigella seeds available. You can use in the same proportion as celery.

8.Mustard Greens

Mustard greens have a bitter, peppery taste not unlike that of celery. You can chop them finely and add during your cooking process, especially to a high-moisture dish, as a healthy, if surprising, replacement for celery. Be sure to start with a lower quantity of mustard greens than you would celery as the flavor can be quite potent.

9.Onion or Garlic Salt

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An easy substitute for celery salt is a similarly aromatic flavored salt. Onion salt and garlic salt add plenty of flavor to any dish, but they don’t really taste at all like celery.

Other Alternatives

There are plenty of other options when it comes to making alternatives to celery salt. You can use other vegetables instead of celery in recipes where celery is required. It depends largely on the overall flavor profile of the dish you’re making, of course. Texture is also an important consideration. If you need celery salt to season a piece of meat, you can’t exactly cover it in diced celery stalks. However, in some recipes, where you can match the texture and flavor appropriately, we love to use chopped romaine lettuce, chopped cabbage, carrots, bok choy, water chestnuts, jicama, onion, or fennel stalks.

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