Celery
Avoid — On the avoid list of the leaflet this book follows, or restricted almost everywhere.
Celery is stringy.
Celery is built around long vascular strings that run the length of the stalk. They are what you pull off when you prepare it raw, and they do not soften. Braise celery for an hour and the strings are still there, intact and separate from the flesh around them. That is exactly the shape of thing this diet is designed to keep out.
Where hospitals differ
They do not. Celery is on the avoid list of the leaflet this book follows, on the Oxford ileostomy blockage list, and is named specifically as a stringy vegetable in the obstruction guidance. It sits with sweetcorn, mushrooms, nuts, seeds and popcorn in the group where every source agrees.
Where it hides
This is the practical point. Celery is one of the three vegetables in almost every stock, soup base and casserole recipe ever written, and it is in a great many shop-bought stock cubes, gravy granules and ready-made soups. It is also a named allergen, so it must be declared on a label, which makes it easier to check than most things. Read the pot.
Several recipes in this book list celery as an allergen for exactly that reason, because a stock cube may contain it even though no stalk of celery has been anywhere near your kitchen.
What to use instead
Extra carrot and swede build the same savoury base in a stock or a braise. Celery salt gives the flavour without any of the plant, and salt is allowed by the leaflet this book follows, though it is worth checking the label of a celery salt for anything else. A well-made clear stock and a little Marmite will carry a soup a long way.
Swaps
- Instead of Celery in stews, soups or a soffritto, use Extra carrot and swede for a savoury base, or a pinch of celery salt
- Celery stays stringy no matter how long it cooks, so extra carrot and swede build the same savoury base, and celery salt can stand in for the flavour alone.