What do you do with all that Celery?

lk1234

Tue, Jul 09 2013, 10:46 am

Often a recipe will call for 1 or 2 stalks of celery- like in a soup. So I buy the celery, use the stalks but them I'm always left with a whole head of 9 celery sticks. They end up in a ziploc bag only to be found a week later rotting away.

So my question is, what do you use celery for?

nameless

Tue, Jul 09 2013, 10:53 am

I don't buy it so often for that reason. But when I do I usually make a ton of vegetable kishka for the cholent and freeze in week size portions. And then I try not to buy until I run out because I know that I won't have anything to do with it Smile

Rutabaga

Tue, Jul 09 2013, 11:04 am

My daughter likes to eat celery with peanut butter as a snack.

Celery usually keeps in the fridge for a while. It might get somewhat limp, but you can still toss it in a soup then. I often make a base for thick soups with onions, garlic, and celery (boil for 20 minutes and then puree) that can be frozen if you don't want to make soup right away. Celery also makes a nice addition to stir-fries.

seeker

Tue, Jul 09 2013, 11:05 am

Same dilemma here! So annoying, why won't they sell it in smaller packages? I toss some into salads but still, it is strong enough you don't need to use so much. Good thing it doesn't spoil too quickly.

Dolly Welsh

Tue, Jul 09 2013, 11:09 am

Celery is a charming steamed vegetable. You can put it in the top layer of a rice cooker, cut up bite size.

If you are frying or steaming anything, cut it up and put it in that. Anything.

It is a lot of fun raw. The children might like it with peanut butter in the convenient little groove.

Don't say one word about how healthy it is. But it is.

If you put it through the slicing blade of a food processor it will be useful in a salad.

It is one of the Magic Trio for soups, which is celery, carrot, onion. But it's not soup season.

It is cheap, wholesome, pretty to look at, natural, and interesting tasting.

If you have a garden or window box, plant the bottom. It comes back up, I hear. That might interest the kids to watch happen. Takes two weeks. Water it.

aleza

Tue, Jul 09 2013, 11:26 am

funny, celery is one thing I use up too soon!

- any kind of soup... adds a lot of flavor
- any kind of saute or stir-fry
- with steamed veggies
- any kind of salad including green salad & potato salad, sometimes even cole slaw
- minced into tuna salad or egg salad
- crudite
- as a snack, alone or with a dip (peanut butter, cream cheese, etc.)

Someone once told me that uncooked, it has "negative calories"... it takes more calories to chew & digest it than there are in it... so that makes it popular with me!

alef12

Tue, Jul 09 2013, 12:34 pm

Dice it up and add to salad. Adds a nice crunch.

Any soup or stew recipe that calls for sauteed onions. After onions are translucent add diced celery and sautee a few minutes more.

My favorite is raw. Cut into small spears and enjoy with chumus.

zaq

Tue, Jul 09 2013, 8:54 pm

I chop it up, put it in a ziplok bag and toss it in the freezer. Then when I need celery for soup or other cooked dishes, all I need to do is grab a fistful and throw it in.

I learned from a former imamother to save funky-looking "useless" bits of veggies like the core of lettuce or cabbage, or the ribs of bell peppers, or wilted, unattractive celery leaves or limp carrots, for vegetable broth. Every time I make something with veggies, or clean out the bin, I add these odds and ends to the pile in a ziplok bag. When it's time to make soup, this stuff gets boiled in water first to make the broth. The solids get strained out and then the other ingredients go in.

penguin

Tue, Jul 09 2013, 10:36 pm

A great cream of celery soup.

Basically just sautee onions, chopped celery, a little carrot. A little thickener if you like. Milk or cream or pareve milk.

Handy blender if you want.

If you hate strings in your soup, pull them off first.

Chayalle

Wed, Jul 10 2013, 10:38 am

zaq wrote:

Use a net soup bag. I get a package of those at my grocery. I put my chicken, herbs, etc...in, knot the top, add salt and spices, and cook for 2 hours. The bag gets lifted out and tossed, and I am left with delicious, clear soup.

Cream of Celery Soup is yummy. Just saute some onions with chopped up celery, add a potato or two, salt, pepper, and water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1/2 hour. Puree. Garnish with fresh dill and/or parsley.

Mrs Bissli

Wed, Jul 10 2013, 1:46 pm

Chop up and line the bottom of pan (together with carrots and onions) for roast chicken, pot roast, etc.

Make into pickles. Dissolve salt and sugar in vinegar, add peppercorn and cover trimmed celery sticks. It would keep for a week to 10 days. You can also mix raw cauliflower florets, sliced carrots.

Slice thinly and make into stir-fry, goes nicely with beef, tofu, mushrooms.

I think I've posted recipe for sweet-and-sour braised carrots and celery (apio)

Flavour and texture get milder when cooked.

Mrs Bissli

Wed, Jul 10 2013, 1:58 pm

Apio (sweet and sour braised celery and carrots)

2 whole bunches celery
3 large or 4 medium carrots
juice of 1 lemon (or more if you want it tart)
3 tbsp. oil
1 teasp salt
1 tbsp. sugar

Wash, separate stalks and trim celery. Cut into 1inch chunks. Top & tail, peel carrots, cut into 1inch matchsticks (or 1/2 inch thickness disks and halve into semi circles). In a large saucepan, heat oil and sautee vegetables with salt for 5-10min till they wilt and soften, but make sure not to brown. Add 1 cup water and salt, cook for 20-30min over low heat till vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally and make sure there's small amount of liquid in the pot. Turn off heat, add lemon juice and stir to distribute. Check seasoning.

Can be served hot or at room temp. Enough to serve 8-12.