One of the best things about celery is that it is easily available and easy to take care of. But if you were looking for a little guidance, here are a few things you should know about how to store it.
What is Celery?
Celery is a green vegetable that has stalks that are known to be a healthy snack. It belongs to the same family as parsley, carrots, and parsnips. Most of this vegetable is made of water, but it also has a good deal of fiber.
It offers numerous heart and digestive health advantages. Antioxidants are also included, which are advantageous to the immune system. They help prevent damage to the cells caused by free radicals.
A 4 inch long, 4 gram celery stalk has around 0.1 grams of fiber. It also contains a large number of plant chemicals, including p-coumaric acid, kaempferol, limonene, and selinene, from which it derives its antioxidants. It also contains a lot of potassium, vitamin K, vitamin A, and folates.
What’s the Best Way to Store Celery?
Thankfully, there is more than one good way to store celery. Here are three different options that are both effective and easy. These methods will help you keep the green vegetable fresh so that you can snag it whenever you want a quick and healthy snack.
1. Storing it in Water
Storing in water not only works well but will also help you revive celery stalks that have gone dry or limp.
Gather your celery sticks and place them in a big container. Make sure there’s enough space for water. Add the water so that the stalks are completely submerged in it. Seal the container with a wrap or a lid.
When you want to eat the stalks, get rid of the water and rinse them once. If you keep them in water for more than a day, make sure you change the water. This will work for about two weeks.
2. How to Wrap it
If you don’t want to keep them submerged in water, you can wrap and store them too. This is how it’s done.
Get rid of the plastic bag you got from the grocery store. Those bags are usually made of plastic meant to keep ethylene trapped and let the moisture escape, which is not a good plan.
Take enough aluminum foil so that you can wrap the entire celery inside it. Double-check so that the moisture is trapped inside so that it is a better option than the plastic bag the celery came in. You want to leave a little bit of window to let the ethylene out. So, don’t crumple the sides of the foil and be crafty.
Place this packed celery in the crisper in your fridge and it will be good for about four weeks. You don’t want to cut it or wash it until you are ready to use it.
3. How to Freeze it
Freezing celery is another way to store it long-term.
Start by washing the celery well so that it does not have any dirt on it. This is very important. Cut the stalks into little pieces so that you can use the frozen pieces directly later on.
If this is for use in the next 4-6 weeks, dry the celery pieces and find a plastic container for later. If you want to keep it for longer than that, you should first blanch it.
Otherwise, boil a pot of water and add the pieces to it. Keep a bowl of ice water ready. Let the pieces cook in hot water for three minutes and transfer them right away into ice water. Keep them that way for another three minutes and remove them to dry.
Once the moisture is out, place them on a baking sheet in one layer and freeze them for a night. You can also use an airtight plastic container.
How Long Does it Last?
If you store it in water and change the water every day, it lasts for about two weeks. If you wrap it in aluminum foil, it has a longer shelf life but that also depends on where the wrapping is kept.
What if it’s in the Refrigerator?
If you wrap celery in aluminum foil and place it in the fridge, it will be good for two to four weeks. And if you freeze it, you can extend that shelf life for almost 18 months as long as you treat it well before freezing it and don’t disturb it too much along the way.
How Do you Know it’s Gone Bad?
This is an important aspect when it comes to all eatables. Unless you are growing celery, you need to be extra careful when it comes to vegetables because you cannot control the way they are stored. The same is true for celery. So, start by looking at the dates on the packaging.
When celery is fresh, it is in vibrant green color and the bottom of its stalk will be ready to turn white. You need to pay close attention to the stalk because they are the prime indicator of how fresh the celery is.
Then you must touch the stalk to see how crispy it is. The crispier it is, the younger they are, which means they will stay that way for a while. Otherwise, it will be rubbery. If the celery is limp, it is old and you don’t want to get it. Although you can revive it by storing it in water (point 1 in this piece), getting fresh veggies is ideal.
Parting Thoughts
Celery is an incredible green leafy vegetable that is easy to use and store. There are lots of things you can do with it and if you’re really not up for anything, you can eat them as is. If there is a dip in the house, be sure to get some of that and you have a tasty and healthy snack at your disposal.