Dehydrating Celery.... Great for Soups and Stews

Celery has never been my favorite vegetable.  Slather some cream cheese or peanut butter on it or dip it in some bleu cheese or ranch dressing and I'll munch on it, but plain, no thanks!

Seldom do I buy celery unless I really need it for something.  Most recipes only call for a stalk or two and then you are left with the remainder of the bunch.  In my house, unfortunately, it hangs around in the crisper until no longer crisp and then finds it way out to the chicken house to be enjoyed by the flocks.  I really do enjoy it in soups and stews, but I generally just leave it out rather than risk the waste.

Not so any more.  I recently purchased the book Dehydrating Food, A Beginner's Guide, by Jay and Shirley Bills.  In it they dehydrate things I had never thought of, and list not only how to do it, how to store it, but also how to use what you've dehydrated.  If you've ever thought about drying your own foods, this is a great book!

Although I was not a newbie to the world of dehydration, my attempts had mostly been in the arena of jerky-making and creating my own "sun-dried" tomatoes.

So yesterday when I checked my weekly Kroger ad and saw that celery was on sale, I decided to go for it.  I bought two large, good looking bunches and brought them home to dehydrate. 

Following the instructions in the book for slicing 3/16" thick, steaming for 2-4 minutes, I placed the celery on the rack of my Snackmaster Dehydrator and turned the knob to the 135 degree setting for vegetables.  That was about 5pm.  The book indicates that it should take 12-15 hours for celery, but here in the south with such high humidity it usually takes a bit longer.

This morning around 8am I checked and most of the trays were dry.  The dry celery was put into jars and vacuum sealed with the Foodsaver jar vacuum.  The pieces that were still wet went back onto a single tray and returned to the dehydrator for a few more hours and when I checked them at noon they were all finally done. 

If you dehydrate your own vegetables you will quickly learn just how much water those veggies contain.  Two big bunches of celery dehydrate into a pint and a half of dried.  Placed into soup they will quickly hydrate back to regular size and still retain the nutrients of fresh. 

Now I have celery for my soups and stews without the waste, and that makes this country gal very very happy!

Happy dehydrating!