Recipes · Health Shot
Crisp Celery & Lemon Shot
Reader ratingsA cool, clean, low-sugar shot of fresh celery juice brightened with lemon and a little green apple.
Celery seed has been used in Ayurvedic and European herbalism for gout and joint pain; drinking stalk juice on an empty stomach is a recent wellness trend rather than a tradition.
Safety
- Celery is a common food allergen, and people allergic to birch or mugwort pollen often react to it (itchy mouth or throat). Stop if you notice itching, hives or swelling.
- Celery preparations lowered blood pressure in trials, so mention it to your prescriber if you take blood-pressure medicines or diuretics. Large daily amounts of celery juice also add up to a lot of potassium, which matters with kidney disease or potassium-raising medicines; a single shot is small, but ask your clinician if that applies to you.
- Celery contains psoralens: in one reported case, a very large helping of celery root before a tanning-bed session caused a severe sunburn-like reaction. Normal amounts are fine, but avoid big celery servings before tanning beds or intense sun.
- A shot is a small extra, not a substitute for a meal.
Why it’s good for you
Celery juice is a hydrating, low-sugar way to take in potassium and the flavonoids apigenin and luteolin, with lemon adding brightness and a little vitamin C.
Evidence
Limited evidence
Mostly small, early, or laboratory studies.
No trial has tested celery juice for the digestive, detox or inflammation claims popular online. The closest evidence is for celery seed extract: a 2022 crossover trial in 52 adults with high blood pressure found 1.34 g a day for four weeks lowered 24-hour blood pressure, and a 2025 meta-analysis of ten small trials (511 people) found celery preparations modestly improved blood pressure, fasting glucose and triglycerides, with seeds and doses above 1,000 mg a day working better than other parts of the plant. Stalk juice is mostly water with some potassium and plant flavonoids, so think of it as a hydrating, low-sugar vegetable shot.
General information from research and traditional use — not medical advice, and not a treatment for any condition. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication or managing a health condition, check with your clinician first, and seek care for symptoms that are severe or do not improve.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Wash the celery well and trim the base, keeping the leaves — they are the most flavorful part. Chop the stalks into 2-inch pieces and cut the apple into chunks.
- Juicer: run the celery, leaves and apple through the juicer. No juicer: blend them with 1 cup cold water on high for 60 seconds, then pour through a nut-milk bag or fine sieve and squeeze firmly.
- Stir in the lemon juice, which keeps the color bright and the flavor fresh.
- Pour into a sealed glass bottle and shake before pouring. Drink one 2 oz shot at a time, chilled.
Tips
- Keeps 3 days in a sealed glass bottle in the fridge — celery juice oxidizes quickly, and the lemon helps. Freeze in ice-cube trays for longer.
- Celery alone can taste very green. A thumb of ginger or a few mint leaves lifts it without adding sugar.
- The inner pale stalks and leaves are sweeter; the outer stalks are more bitter.
- A shot a day is plenty — drinking pints of celery juice is an internet trend, not a researched dose.
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