Creamy Celery Salad with Walnuts and Raisins
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Celery salad is a gloriously simple salad recipe that’s got all the elements we love. Crunchy celery, sweet bites of raisins, and a scattering of walnuts, all wrapped up in a creamy dressing. It’s delicious!
This celery salad recipe is loosely based on our popular creamy cucumber salad. We love the crunchy creamy combo, and it works just as well with celery.
Added to the mix are a handful of raisins (cranberries or chopped dates would be nice, too). As celery tends to be a bit bitter, the sweetness complements it—a few walnuts and some minced red onion round out the salad.
If you’re like us, you’ll always find a head of celery in your fridge. So many recipes call for a stalk of celery, and then you’re left wondering what to do with all the rest.
This celery salad is your answer. Since the flavors go well with so many main dishes, it makes pulling together a quick dinner a breeze.
READ MORE: Cozy Celery Soup
Celery salad variations
- Diced apple – make it an apple celery salad.
- Chopped dates – instead of the raisins.
- Festive – add cranberries.
- Switch up the nuts – pecans and walnuts are great.
What to serve with celery salad
This salad goes well with nearly every main, but two of my favorites are my baked pork tenderloin and my baked chicken thighs.
If you love crunchy salads, also try our Greek salad!
Creamy Celery Salad with Walnuts and Raisins
Ingredients
- 8 stalks celery (sliced thin)
- ¼ cup EACH: raisins, toasted walnuts, and minced red onion
- 3 tablespoons plain yogurt
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (or 1 teaspoon white vinegar)
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl.8 stalks celery, ¼ cup EACH: raisins, toasted walnuts, and minced red onion, 3 tablespoons plain yogurt, 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, ½ teaspoon pepper, ¼ teaspoon salt
- Mix until everything is well incorporated.
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
This is so good. I doubled the recipe and added half a chopped apple and some Feta cheese. Excellent! Thanks for posting
A chopped apple sounds wonderful!
“I was skeptical about this recipe, but it’s really, really, really delicious—fresh, crunchy, with a little tang from the vinegar. Incredible!”
Thanks, Caro!
Very quick and easy with super fresh and tasty result. I had to sub dried cherries and sunflower seeds because of nut allergy and no raisons. Delish.
Dried cherries is a great idea!
thinking of trying, do I need more dressing if I add apple?
It should be fine if you add a bit of diced apple to the salad. Great idea BTW!
It was an amazing salad. Tastes better with dates and raisins mixed.
This salad was amazing! Thank you for the recipe. I did tweak it a bit. To your original recipe, I added diced honeycrisp apples, a bit of red and green cabbage, switched out the raisins for craisens(that’s all I had on hand)
I also added honey, garlic powder, celery seed, and some grainy mustard to the dressing.
What a delicious way to use.celery, used sweet Maui onions and cranberries..
Used dates instead and spring onions. It was delicious
I loved this recipe! I made it last night and I think I’ll make it again tomorrow.
Easy, quick, delicious AND uses up celery! WIN 🙂 Thank you!
I can’t believe I’ve lived 55 years and just now discovered celery salad. If you like celery in any way, I think you will love this salad. It’s cheap, easy and sooooooooooo crunchy and delicious!!!! I put dried cherries in mine because it’s all I had, but I could have just eaten the whole bowl for dinner! It might even turn celery haters into fans!. Highly recommend this dish!
Loved this. I used celery hearts which are lighter in flavor, so upped the onion and added chopped apple and bacon
Easy and quick to make. I swapped yogurt and vinegar with a tablespoon of veganaise and olive oil and vinegar for the dressing. Yum!
I made a half recipe thinking it would be for me for a few days. My husband tried it and that was it, gone he loved it. I made one change to the recipe. I hate raisins so I used dried cranberries and a tablespoon of fine chopped dates.
This was truly delicious! Since I like to make soups about every 10 days, summer or winter, I can make this salad in between. I added extra raisins and next time will try an apple. Thank you
This is a pretty spectacular salad, surprising given how few ingredients there are. I added Parmesan crisps for fun, but even without it, I would give it 5 stars. I also used lime juice, which gave everything a sweet and fragrant freshness. I love how this makes it easy to make use of celery, which is so cheap and filling.