Dehydrating Celery
It seems our family rarely uses and entire bunch of fresh celery before it turns limp and yucky. I’m not sure why this happens, but I think it has something to do with the clutttered state of our refrigerator. As a result, I started dehydrating any fresh celery I have left after I use it for a veggie platter or recipe. It’s a snap to dehydrate, requiring no blanching, and it rehydrates beautifully in soups, casseroles, and pilafs. If you have never dehydrated it’s a perfect place to start.
First wash the celery and chop it into quarter inch pieces.
Place it in the dehydrator trays making sure pieces aren’t too crowded. Ideally they shouldn’t touch, but I don’t stress this too much since they shrink so fast that if they are touching they won’t be after an hour or so.
Dehydrate at 135 degrees for about 8 hours. I leave it in the dehydrator overnight.
One bunch, minus two or three stalks we used fresh, makes about half a pint. If you don’t have a dehydrator you can use the oven on the lowest setting with the door propped open with a wood spoon handle, and check and stir the pieces now and then. You know it’s done when its hard and the pieces are tiny. I put mine in a closed canning jar for a couple hours to check if any moisture forms in the jar, if no moisture forms it’s ready for the pantry. If it does (has never happened to me) you can put it back in the dehydrator for another hour or two. To use it you just add a handful to any moist cooked recipe that calls for fresh celery. Yummy!
Maugi, excellent advice as celery adds a lot of flavor and texture. How long does it take to rehydrate when added to hot dish? I don’t have dehydrator…broke.
Thanks Tracie, It should take just a few minutes depending on the moisture of what you put it in. I just toss a handful in whatever i’m making when I add the liquid, and have never had a problem. If you aren’t sure it will rehydrate in the cooking process you could toss a handful in boiled water and let it rehydrate before you add it to what you’re making.
A great alternative to what I’ve been doing: cutting and freezing when I buy a lot on the el cheapo sale. I’m going to do one of my baggies so that we can take it with us camping and my prepper stash.
I just bought a dehydrator two weeks ago. I starred at it for one week before I got the nerve to try it out–I did kiwi and apples. I can’t wait to try the celery. Please keep posting more recipes for us newbies at dehydrating and storage prepping.
How long will the celery keep in the pantry, provided the temperature is relatively stable?
In an airtight container, and in cool, dry storage it should keep for about a year. I’ve never kept it around for more than a few months though, because when I have it on hand I tend to toss a handful into practically everything.
Is it really important that they do not touch? I used a mandolins and then just spread them out fairly evenly, but they are all touching. Do I need to redo my trays?
No, it’s not crucial. Like I mentioned, in an hour or so they’ll shrink enough that they aren’t touching anyway, I just like to speed the progress a little by having them spread out to begin with.