Why is it such a common ingredient?
Because it became standard as part of mirepoix, the French base of mixed vegetables for various dishes. As French cooking became highly regarded, it became a standard in a lot of different cuisines.
this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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Celery is genuinely one of my favorite parts of soups that use them. I LOVE the flavor or celery, and it is even better when it picks up the rest of the flavors of the dish.
To answer yours and the other questions about “why this ingredient”, the answer is very simple. Some people like it.
If you don’t, then don’t use it, problem solved.
...celery has a flavor?
I used to think that it didn’t but then my CSA (local farm) sent me some locally grown celery and the taste was astounding. Much smaller stalks but the flavor was incredible and I realized there is a celery flavor.
Yep. If you've ever tried Old Bay seasoning, it's the dominant flavor in that. Apologies to the state of Maryland, but I find it foul.
Of course you could also just bite into a stalk, you'll taste it.
It does, but I only really noticed it first when using celery salt in my tuna sandwich mix. That's probably the easiest way to spot it that I can think. Make a can of tuna and add a lil celery salt and you're like halfway to a proper tuna salad taste just with that alone.
If "some people like it" then I would expect it in some soups. But it seems to be present in the vast majority of them, like to a disproportionate degree.
I mean, the reason is that it’s one of the main ingredients of mirepoix, and most people don’t find it offensive. It’s one of those background flavors that you don’t pick out, but is part of the typical base.
What I’m getting at is that if you don’t like it, just don’t use it. It’s there because whoever made it, decided to put it in.
Now, I’m sure there are all kinds of explanations about the enzymes, and the fiber and so on, but it’s soup, doesn’t have to be complicated. Just delicious :)
Also Cajun cooking uses celery, green bell pepper, and onion as their mirepoix. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find celery as an aromatic used in other cuisines as well.
In addition to what the others said about mirepoix, or stock, soups are experienced as more full-bodied or wholehearted when celery root is added. The earthy, bitter taste can be balanced by the right combination of sweetness (from other vegetables) and saltiness or used as intensifying effect for a strong umami taste, e.g. in poultry stock.
I haven't met anyone who specifically disliked the taste of celery root in soups yet.
Out of curiosity, do you also dislike other earthy tastes, like truffles, lamb, champignons, girolles?
I find a bit of soy sauce works well if a soup needs more umami.
Yep I enjoy truffles and lamb. Don't recall if I've tried those other two items but mushrooms in general are nice.
It is a basic ingredient in mirepoix, which is used as a base for a variety of sauces, soups, gravies, and stews. It's just one component of what is basically just a fresh vegetable mix. You can always just substitute whatever you have on hand or local that fits, just like you would with a stir-fry or fried rice. It's less about the specific vegetables than it is about the way they are prepared and what they contribute. Onions and carrots add sweetness. Celery balances those with its saltiness. Celery and garlic feel to me like a bridge to the other proper herbs like parsley and thyme that usually go in the mirepoix I combine with a good roux to make gravy.
Sure, I'm familiar with mirepoix and I know my capabilities in a kitchen.
I'm asking why practically every soup recipe or chef or manufacturer includes it. Before this thread I didn't think anyone had a better-than-neutral opinion of celery.
I think you are an outlier in your palate for celery. Could you have an allergy or something? I like it fine, it tastes good and adds a really nice flavor to stock for soup. If you don't like that flavor just leave it out when you make it, the rest of us might think your dish is missing something but who cares, if the something it's missing is something you don't like?
My penultimate child loves "cooked salted celery" as she puts it - she will rescue it from the stock pot, and likes stir fry of just celery and beef.
No allergy.
If you don't like that flavor just leave it out when you make it
I do. But that doesn't help me with soups from a restaurant or a can. I would enjoy so many more from a menu or grocery if they weren't loaded with celery.
I like celery, but am really interested to learn the answer here. The other ingredient that gets added to everything is onions. Fwiw I know the answer to that one: they're full of sugar. "First, soften some onions..." is basically a way of adding sweetness to food
Yep and when those onion sugars caramelize, which adds a ton of flavor complexity. That one makes immediate sense to me. I actually like to add onions at various stages of soupmaking (for some recipes) so you get a variety of pungency and sweetness.
Celery though? I taste the same flavor whether it's raw or cooked to mush.
Do you also think that salt is too spicy?
It fucks
Celery contains nitrates naturally, which are carcinogenic.
"Quack expert here"
If the celery in soup is crunchy or even detectible as celery, the soup is being made wrong. It should melt into the dish along with the onions and garlic. The only part of the mirepoix/trinity that should possibly be detectable should be the bell pepper or carrot, and even then they should be very broken down and no longer have a distinct flavor by themselves.
Which part of the celery? Only North America sticks to using the stalk only like it's some miracle growth. Most European cuisine discarded stalk for centuries, using only the root for soups and stews as a staple. It wasn't until fairly recently when celery stalk started seeing use in salads in Europe.
Yep, exactly. If it's palpably in the dish then it wasn't chopped finely enough or cooked long enough.
And if it is done right it can add a dimension of flavor. Carrot and onion develop a bit of sweetness when cooked a while. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but it's not exactly what you're looking for in a bowl of chicken noodle. Celery, being disgusting when raw, doesn't do that and helps break that pattern up.
Raw celery with peanut butter is a good snack
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Celery is part of the mirepoix trinity. Celery, carrots and onions , cooked low and slow in fat before adding to soup. It makes a sweet and savoury vegetable soup base.
What a day to be alive! A person called StinkyFingerItchyBum has just taught me about mirepoix. I'm disgusted, enlightened, and grateful. Thank you!
Or the Holy Trinity of Cajun and creole cooking, celery, onions, and bell pepper.
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Water Chestnuts are a fantastic substitute if you like the crunch.
Your opinion of celery vs water chestnuts is apparently the exact reverse of mine.
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As someone who disliked celery in the past, I still find it enriches vegetable soups a lot. And by now I actually like the taste of cooked(!) celery. So yes, I would say most people just like it.
I love celery and hate water chestnuts. Everyone's different.
When I make soup my wife always tells me I put too much celery. I never feel like it's enough.
I used to hate both, now I love them both. So not only are we different from each other but also from ourselves temporally.
I don't care for crunch in soup, but a like the celery flavor. I've added celery seeds to things I don't want actual celery in. I'll make stock with celery, onions, and carrots, and then strain them out.
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