What To Do With Lots of Celery?

January 18, 2011   9 Comments

After the success of last week's pickled carrots post, I thought it would be fun to talk about celery.

Luckily enough, I have a friend who as a fabulous celery salad recipe. Andrea writes Andrea's Wellness Notes and she is an inspiration.

She encourages us to be healthy. From Andrea:

I have struggled at times with not making me enough of a priority. I have realized that to be the best wife, mother to my two boys - a teenager and a toddler, friend, and employee, I must put myself and my health first.

I hear ya, sister!

From Andrea's Wellness Notes:

A while back, my mother-in-law gave me six, yes six, bunches of celery. Initially, I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. I used some in a stir fry, put some in a salad, and ate some for a snack.

Unfortunately, my family isn't the biggest fan of celery. They eat it, but they don't love it. What's more, they prefer it in small doses.

So there I was with five bunches left, and I thought: What should I do with all the celery? So I thought, why not make a celery-only salad? I know, not the obvious choice, especially in light of the fact that there aren't a lot of celery fans around here.

But, here is what I was thinking (yes, I was actually thinking!).

I thought that celery in my salads wasn't very popular with the family because the dressing didn't go very well with the celery.

I usually make a vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard, and I don't think these flavors go very well with celery (but the vinaigrette goes great with the rest of a mixed salad).

I thought that a slightly sweet dressing would go much better with the celery. Before I started making the dressing, I thought I would be adding some Agave Nectar, but the dressing actually turned out quite sweet and delicious even without it because I used Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar. I also added just a little Feta cheese.

The celery salad was delicious, and everyone honestly loved it despite being EXTREMELY skeptical when I first introduced them to this creation...

I ended up making a lot of salad (I had resigned myself to eating it for the next days for lunch and dinner by myself in case they didn't like it!) and used all of the remaining five bunches.

I cut the celery into thin slices and marinated them for about 30 minutes in the following:

Celery Salad Recipe

Dressing
4 parts Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar
1 part Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Feta Cheese - add at the end and lightly toss the salad with it
The salad kept in the fridge for three days. I think it tasted a bit better every day, and it stayed nice and crunchy. Hubby actually asked me to make another batch again soon so that he can take it for lunch! I call that a successful recipe! :o)

Thanks, Andrea!!

Do you like celery? What's your favorite way of eating it?

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