Learn How To Store Celery for Making It Last Longer
When it is crisp and fresh, a stalk of celery could be a nice addition to a bloody mary. However, sometimes, if you are being realistic, often celery is limp, wilted, and chewy. That’s not good because then your cocktail will be less impressive than it could have been. One can avoid this because it is fairly easy to keep your celery crispy and fresh. But, how to store celery? All you need to do is correctly store the celery. With a few know-hows, you can comprehend how to keep this misunderstood and often-finicky vegetable at its best.
Celery is anactual workhorse in the kitchen but we rarely use the entire bunch in a single cooking session. Many recipes need just one or two ribs and when you get to the rest, it is often mushy and limp. Storing celery rightly prevents wilting and helps keep this vegetable crisp. Celery tastes better when it is firm and crunchy. Using some simple tricks, you can make it last a bit longer. So, here are some best ways to store celery for keeping it crisp and fresh for a longer time.
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How to Select Your Celery
Before we move onto how to store celery, it is important that you select a quality celery bunch. It sounds mundane but this makes the whole difference. Also, it helps you to save money and stops you from wasting food. So, you should always select celery with fresh leaves and right, straight stalks. Plus, you should avoid bunches having stalks that look limp or woody. Another amazing way to find out the freshest celery is to employ your nose. Smell the celery and find a bunch having a fresh scent.
Method 1: Store the Celery in Water
Forstoring celery in this way, you need a big glass bowl or a plastic container. If your container does not have a lid, use plastic wrap for sealing it. You can use filtered water if available. Even if the celery has begun to wilt, it could be brought back to life once immersed in water. Select celery that has rigid and straight stalks, having fresh leaves.
Get rid of the stalks from the base of your celery for keeping it fresh. Now, slice off the base from the stalks and then, the leaves using a kitchen knife. You need to cut the celery’s stalks in half. Put them into the plastic container or glass bowl. Leaving an inch of space between the bowl’s top and celery.
Now, it is time to add clean, fresh water into the container. Put on the lid of the container or cover it with plastic wrap. Ensure that you change the water every other day or just every day. This will keep your celery freshest. If you need some of the celery, remove the same from the water, rinse, and eat.
Another method to add water is to hack off the bottom of the celery before immersing the stalks into a glass of water. If you store celery in this way, it can last up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. For this, stand the whole celery bunch in the glass inside the fridge. Use a large glass like a pitcher or souvenir glass for this purpose.
You have to change the glass water after a few days. In this way, your celery will remain crisp as it absorbs water inside the glass. This method even works for other vegetables like parsnips or beets.
Method 2: Wrap the Celery
Another best method to keep the celery fresh and crisp is to wrap it up. For this, you can use aluminum foil or paper towels. Most people have aluminum foil in their houses. If you store this way, your celery stays fresh for weeks.
Wrap your celery in aluminum foil, either intact or cut. You have to do it tightly. You can even place your celery on a damp paper towel before wrapping it in aluminum foil. Now, place your wrapped celery in the crisper drawer of your fridge. In this procedure, the foil enables a hormone known as ethylene to come out. This ripening hormone keeps your celery fresh. Also, you can use the foil again for other celery bunches.
Do not use plastic bags as they do not work well. This is because the ethylene hormone does not get out and your celery will decompose. If you do not have the foil, you can use paper towels. For this, cut off the celery’s end and separate the stalks. You can cut the celery in half, but it is not necessary.
Next, dampen the paper towels as moisture plays an important role. Wrap your celery and place the wrapped towels into a big plastic zip lock bag. Now, seal this bag and put the same into the fridge. Check out this video to know how to store your celery and also, how to grow celery from the celery’s base!
Method 3: Freeze the Celery
This is another best way to store celery for making it last longer. Here, you have to freeze your celery. First, you need to blanch your celery, which means you have to plunge your celery into boiling water for some minutes before freezing it.
After that, chill your celery rapidly by plunging the same into ice cold water. This will end the blanching procedure. Now, drain off excess water and put your celery into an airtight container or freezer bag to freeze.
Now, keep this celery bag into the freezer. It is recommended to employ frozen celery in cooked meals after thawing it because it loses its crispness. So, freezing does not keep your celery fresh but it prevents it from wilting or spoiling. Frozen celery lasts for more than a year in the freezer without getting bad.
First, wash your celery for removing dirt from it and cut off the base of your celery. You can cut the stalks into 1-inch pieces and remove its leaves. You can even spread it onto cookie sheets. Now, place that sheet in the freezer. After your celery is frozen, remove its pieces and keep them into a freezer bag. Lastly, put this bag back into your freezer.
Conclusion
In earlier times, celery used to be a revered vegetable. This vegetable was considered to have medicinal value and rare. Celery is nothing but 94 percent water. It contains fiber, minerals, and several vitamins like A, E, B-complex, and C. So, do not leave this vegetable off your meal. Now, do not ponder over how to store celery!
Use the different methods listed here for keeping your celery crisp and fresh all the time. It is so easy to store the celery in these ways that there is no point to let your celery wilted so soon. Now, enjoy this crispy vegetable and render its benefits! If you still have questions or queries, post them in the comment section below and we will reach you in no time!
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