by Texas Homesteader ~ 

I use celery from time to time when I’m cooking. But it’s always just an ingredient and never the main event in my kitchen.

So here’s what I do to make sure it’s all used up or preserved before it goes bad.

Photo by: Ashley
(because heaven knows *I* can’t make a photograph of a bunch of celery look like it belongs in an art studio!)

(Note: Some links in this post will take you to other related articles for further information. But links preceded with * are affiliate links. If you click and buy something I could receive a tiny commission.)

Fresh Celery Used Sparingly

RancherMan only tolerates a little celery taste. So it’s often only an ingredient I buy, use a little and place the rest of the bunch back in the refrigerator hoping to use it all before it goes bad.

I’ll use that fresh celery for several days. I like to add chopped celery in my chicken salad spread – but certainly not an entire bunch!

So I make sure to dehydrate the rest of the celery while it’s still fresh. That way I can use it to flavor our food later.

Dehydrating Celery – Blanche or No?

Blanching celery is not necessary to dehydrate it. But it’s said to result in a softer product when it’s rehydrated later. But to be honest I never do and it always turns out just fine for me.

To blanch celery just chop it into the pieces you’ll be dehydrating and drop it in boiling water for about 30 seconds

Then remove the celery from the water using a sieve and drop it into ice water for about 2 minutes.

Now you’re ready to dehydrate your chopped celery.

Dehydrating Leftover Celery

I washed the celery well and chopped the ribs to reduce the length of the strings. Those can sometimes stay tough even after the celery is rehydrated. So shorter is better here.

To dehydrate my celery I brought out my * trusty countertop-sized dehydrator.

This small countertop version is perfect when there’s a smaller amount to be dehydrated. (I’ve used the dehydrator lots this year!)

But what about when I have almost an entire bunch of celery to dehydrate?

Dehydrating A Full Bunch of Celery using an Excalibur Dehydrator

I also have a large 9-tray *Excalibur Dehydrator. I use that one when dehydrating larger quantities of food. Those 9 roomy trays will dehydrate a lot!

I typically place the temperature on the ‘vegetable’ setting of 125 degrees F. and dehydrate for about 4-8 hours.

The dehydrating time for you can vary based on how thinly you chop your celery, how much airspace around your celery pieces, and even the relative humidity in your home.

For me, it usually takes about 4 hours.

How To Dehydrate A Small Amount of Celery

Sometimes just need to dehydrate small amounts of trimmings, say from a single rib of celery. Don’t worry, I still dehydrate it, but for FREE. 

I Use Residual Oven Heat to Dehydrate those small bits when there’s not enough to even fire up the smaller dehydrator. No electricity used and no food waste!

I’ll chop the leftover celery ribs and the leaves and place them on a small low-side cast iron skillet. I slide it into the oven after it’s turned off from cooking something else but before the oven’s cooled completely.

The residual heat will help dry the celery for free!

How Do You Want Your Dehydrated Celery?

After the celery is dehydrated, there are two ways I enjoy for the finished product:

* Chopped Dehydrated Celery: Most of my dehydrated celery is chopped. That way I can include it in dishes where I typically like small bits of celery.

* Powdered Dehydrated Celery: Some of the dehydrated celery will be ground into a powder. I will sprinkle small amounts to my recipe to add that celery flavor without the actual chunks of celery being present.

Powdering the dehydrated celery is easy. I’ll put it into a *coffee grinder I keep just for grinding seasonings and herbs.

With a few quick pulses it’s quickly ground into a powder.

Storing Dehydrated Celery

The powdered celery is poured into a repurposed seasoning can I’ve had for years and stands ready to be used to flavor our food.

The dehydrated chopped celery is placed into a clean glass jar.

I can’t believe that entire leftover bunch of celery fits inside a tiny spice jar when it’s dehydrated!

So with a quick label the jar’s ready to be added to my herbs & spices drawer to be used throughout the year.

Dehydrated Celery Means No Food Waste

So by dehydrating this leftover celery I’ve kept it from being wasted. Plus I’ve kept myself from having to purchase yet more when I’m ready to make chicken salad again.

And I love the fact that dehydrated produce takes up just a fraction of the space as before it was dehydrated. Plus it uses no additional energy to store as would be the case with freezing.

Rehydrating & Using Celery

I’ve read that 1.5 tablespoons of dehydrated celery is equal to 1 cup of fresh celery. But in my experience it seems to be about 1/4 cup dehydrated celery to 1 cup fresh celery. Maybe it depends on how small/thin you chop & dehydrate celery?

Top the dehydrated celery with boiling water and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Again, this is dependent upon how small/thin you’ve chopped your celery. 

When it’s fully re-hydrated drain off any remaining water and stir the now-plumped celery right into your recipe for that distinctive celery taste.

There’ll be no more healthy yet expensive produce languishing in the depths of the refrigerator until it becomes science experiment fodder!

And you know how eliminating food waste appeals to me.

~TxH~

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Other Dehydrating Posts

Garden Vegetables

• Preserving The Harvest: Dehydrating Fresh Carrots
• Cubed Tomatoes Dehydrated For Winter Cooking
• Preserving Produce: Dehydrating Celery
• Dehydrating Fresh Pumpkin For Easy Storage
• Dehydrating Spinach To Enjoy All Year Long
• Using A Dehydrator To Preserve Fresh Onions
• Dehydrating & Storing Cabbage
• Dehydrating Shredded Potatoes For Hash Browns
• Bell Pepper Dehydration

Fruits & Berries

• How To Make Dehydrated Blueberry Powder
• Dehydrating Plums

Herbs

• My Simple, Zero-Waste Herb Drying Setup
• Dehydrating Mint For Caffeine-Free Herbal Tea

Other

• Simple Homemade Jerky Strips & Snack Sticks
• Easy Egg-Free Cotton Candy Meringue Cookies
• Dehydrating Tomato Sauce Into Leather For Pizza

See All Our Dehydrating Posts

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