Dehydrate Celery

I recently discovered my dad hates celery. My mom, on the other hand, loves it. I was raised eating raw celery, especially as a snack with cream cheese or peanut butter. I’ve always added dehydrate celery to soups, stews, and salads.  It is a go-to veggie for my house.

Some facts about celery:

It grows naturally in marshy soils, in a wet salty habitat. It was first cultivated in the Mediterranean region.

If you’re in Louisiana the Holy Trinity in Creole and Cajun cooking is celery, onions and bell peppers.

In France, it is the French Mirepoix which includes celery, onion, and carrots.

Celery salt consist mainly of ground celery mixed with salt.

Let’s get dehydrating

Chop to 1/4 inch. The thinner it is the better it is drying in the dehydrator.

I used a food processor to chop my celery this time. I am going to make celery powder out of it. It doesn’t matter if it looks pretty or not.

If I was going to use it in soups or stews I would use a mandolin or chop it by hand. I like to see the chopped pieces of celery in my food.

Some people like to pretreat their celery with the blanching method. I’m not one to do the extra step if it doesn’t make a difference in the outcome. I don’t see or taste a difference between blanched and unblanched celery.

To Blanch celery:

Plunge celery into boiling water for 1 minute. Then immediately plunge into cold water until cool.

Chopped celery loaded on a tray ready for dehydrating. I use the mesh screens. The celery pieces can get small and fall thru the regular tray holes.

Should feel dry and crisp when done.

Dehydrate celery at 130 degrees for 6-8 hours. To test break a piece of celery in half. It should feel dry and crisp when done.

I use a NESCO FD-60 Snack Master Express Food Dehydrator.

Vacuum Sealing Dried Celery

Store in either a mason jar or food saver vacuum bags.

I vacuum seal my celery in mason jar.

I use a Seal a Meal vacuum sealer with the Food Saver vacuum lid regular and wide mouth accessory.

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