I'm all about celery with peanut butter as a healthy snack. I keep a jar of peanut butter at my desk at cut celery every morning at home to bring with me to work. combine the two and yum!

Celery is great in stir fries (think kung pao). You could also use it to make broth or soup, or to make stuffing.

Vegetable soup.

My family has a filetto di pomodoro recipe that includes a LOT of celery so when I have a bunch, this is what I make. It's essentially: celery (I thinly slice on the bias), onion, s&p - sautee until soft; hit w/some white wine & reduce; add a pinch of sugar and a large can of san marzano/plum tomatoes (I crush them w/my hands before adding) and serve over some pasta (I like penne). It's a thin, but chunky sauce and the celery mellows nicely.

Soup soup soup... corn chowder, chicken noodle, lentil, potato, etc. I use celery in almost every soup I make. If you sautee it first in butter with onions and salt, it won't be tough and stringy.

Whoops! forgot the herbs... basil/sometimes I use oregano... sometimes a pinch of red pepper flake, etc. You can add garlic, etc.

You could make a pot roast (or roast chicken) and roast a bunch of celery along with carrots and onions.

Glazed parsnips and celery from Cook's Illustrated is so good: very light and quick to make; and almost any caponata will also use up a lot of it. I also am not the biggest fan of raw celery, but if you have a really good vegetable peeler, try removing the outer layer and see if that helps with the stringiness factor.

Celery is great in tomato sauce. Add (vegetarian) meatballs!

cut it longways and stirfry with firm tofu (the vacuum packed stuff) and chicken slices. add some garlic and a pinch of salt. 5 spice powder if you have it.

This recipe is amazing and has been appealing to many who normally dislike celery (blanching it seems to soften the strong celery flavor):

http://markbittman.com/this-weeks-minimalist-chinese-celery-and-tofu

I don't have the recipe on me, and can't find it online right now, but Marion Cunningham's "The Supper Book" has a simple but lovely celery & 2 bean soup that is one of my go-to recipes.

I know it sounds odd, but I had a boyfriend who used to put pieces of celery in his chili. I wasn't sure about it, but it turns out I rather enjoyed it - it can brighten up the flavor in chili and offsets the heat ever so slightly when you get a bite with celery. Not for everyone, I'm sure, but every now and then I find myself adding celery to my chili.

My mum's recipe for chicken casserole uses it.
Fry onion, celery, garlic, mushrooms and bacon til soft and put in the bottom of a casserole dish. Coat chicken pieces (I use thigh fillets for flavour) in seasoned flour and brown the pieces. Place these on top of the mushroom and bacon base. Then pour over a can of chopped tomatoes (or two if it's a big casserole). Put it in the oven for around half an hour. Serve with rice or potatoes.
Om nom nom nom

4 cups sliced carrots + 2 cups sliced celery + 1 can cream of chicken soup (dilute with a couple Tbsp. milk). Pour into baking dish and top with 1 cup (or more) shredded cheddar cheese. Bake at 350' for an hour (or until veg are done). YUM!! The original recipe (from the '70s) is called "Celestial Celery"...can't beat that for a name!!

I always need celery for gazpacho (I think...). That stuff is really good.

I love celery kinpira, stir-fry with salt and pepper. Super simple and you can eat it with just about everything.

Soup is the first thing that comes to mind for me. Chicken noodle soup, lentil soup, etc. Also, you can use it to make stock.

Mirepoix, soffritto, holy trinity...

Whatever you call it- celery with carrots and onion sauteed in butter is the start of a million great dishes.

I *just* made a celery salad earlier this week that was delicious - Cooking Light's July 2010 recipe for Celery, Walnut, and Parmesan Salad. As the celery are chopped up you get to avoid the stringiness that can happen when you eat celery sticks. I didn't measure the recipe, just tossed together all the celery I had (chopped up into little celery "U"s), diced parmesan, and a handful of walnuts, and then tossed it with the recommended 1.5 TBs olive oil, 1.5 TBs lemon juice, and a dash of salt and pepper. It turned out sooooo good! The walnuts and cheese give it great flavor. Though it has a bit of olive oil it still tastes light (so no heavy icky cream feeling!).

Peeling and blanching the celery makes a load of difference.

Braised celery is amazing - cut your celery into about inch long pieces then stir fry in a large pan, on a high heat until it just starts to brown. Then add some mixed herbs, a healthy crunch of salt and pepper and enough vegtable stock until the celery is almost covered. Simmer for about 40mins -its a great side dish that i tend to serve with roast meats as it has a good flavour.

When all else does not appeal, wash, chop each stalk into 2 or 3 pieces and freeze for making chicken or vegatable stock.

I have 2 ways of doing it.

1. Clear chicken soup (chinese style) - thinly sliced or diced celery really adds incredible flavour!

2. Stirfry - shitake mushrooms + carrots + celery + hoisin sauce + light soy sauce + a dash of salt/pepper/sugar (if non-vegetarian, add some thin pork or beef strips) => make sure to take some 15-20mins to simmer to have the veggies soak in all the flavours and you can use some cornflour to have a slightly sticky sauce if you like.

- incredibly yummy [my picky 5yo niece will eat this though she's very fussy!]

I like using celery in risotto, with butternut squash for example.

I'm not that crazy about cooked celery, except in combination with onions & carrots for a mirepoix or in poultry stuffing, where I think it is a basic requirement. I do LOVE the way it smells while cooking (odd?).

I keep it chopped in freezer bags for later use, because it always seems like I buy a bunch to use one stalk, and waste the rest if I don't freeze it.

This weekend I made a vegetable soup that called for 1 1/2 cups of chopped celery, so all I had to do was pull out 3 baggies of celery (I put them away in 1/2 cup measurements) and I was set in that department. I still had to chop everything else, but it was one less thing to do, and a much better alternative to trashing the celery.

http://www.maddhatterskitchen.com/dinner/vegetable-soup-italian-style

I agree with sambuka- peeling celery makes a big difference! Just take a vegetable peeler to the back of the stalk and it gets rid of all the little stringies.

Flavor, i can't help you out much but to say that the inner stalks are much milder- I used to beg for 'the baby celery' as a kid.

It's cold out now, so do up a roast! Whole chicken or a pot roast is such an easy meal, and I always roast up a bunch of celery, carrots, onions and potatoes with them. Just make sure you put everything except for the potatoes in for an hour (less if you don't like them too soft), and potatoes for 30 mins. Then stir the veggies up with the meat juices every 10 mins or so (or use a baster if you have it) and they'll soak up the delicious meat juices and be so tasty!! That's it, I'm making a roast next week. Talked myself into it.

Following on from Charlotte's comment above, use the mirepoix (finely cubed onion carrot and celery sauteed in butter) as the basis for any soup, casserole or stew.