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This is the best way to keep celery fresh for a really long time! Store your celery using this trick, and you’ll be amazed at how long it can last.
Celery is such a staple in so many kitchens, especially during these chillier months of the year. It’s an essential aromatic ingredient in so many stews and stuffings, and raw celery is a classic low-calorie snack. The challenge of how to keep celery fresh is one that most home cooks struggle with. Most recipes don’t require you to use more than a few stalks at a time, so the rest of the head of celery tends to sit in the fridge until the next big comfort food cook-up days or weeks later, with floppy, bendy stalks being the frequent result. If you’ve dealt with the frustration of having your celery go bad before you have a chance to use it up, today’s little tip is for you and you are going to love it. I’ve been doing this for years and I’m still amazed at how well this works.
See also: Can You Freeze Celery?
A Culinary Necessity
Most people who cook meals at home on a regular basis will agree that having celery in your vegetable crisper is pretty much necessary to be able to function well in the kitchen, especially during the cooler months. So many healthy, hearty, comforting dishes begin with an onion-carrot-celery trifecta, and celery is such a flavorful, fragrant part of that magical group of veggies. I might not always have certain thing like fresh herbs or ripe tomatoes in my fridge, but if I have basics like onions, garlic, lettuce, cucumbers, and a pantry stocked with basic dried herbs, salt, and pepper, I’m all set for making soups, salads, and other nourishing meals for our family. Freshly chopped celery leaves can even stand in for fresh herbs as a garnish or flavoring in many cases.
Keep your favorite ingredients close at hand: Harvesting Basil for Strong, Healthy, Productive Plants
How to Keep Celery Fresh
First, pick up some celery at the store and bring it home. Use a bit of it for a snack or for a recipe if you need to.
When you’ve finished with your celery for the day, remove it from the plastic bag. Take your roll of aluminum foil and tear off a sheet about twelve to fourteen inches long.
Now, here’s where there’s a bit of controversy:
I’ve seen it done a few different ways. Some people swear you need to wrap the entire bunch of celery in the foil, sometimes with an extra layer of paper-towel tucked in; some people like to just wrap the end. I just wrapped the ends the first time I tried it because that seemed less wasteful and honestly just easier. I placed my celery back in plastic produce bag after that. I’ve been following the same method for years now, and my celery stays fresh, crispy, and crunchy for months if I need it to, so I would like to conclude that wrapping the entire thing is completely unnecessary. I’m not sure that the plastic bag is actually necessary, but I still use it because it’s available and to keep the precious celery stems protected.
After wrapping the celery, all you need to do is refrigerate it as usual and take it back out when you’re ready to use some more. The next time you use your celery, make sure you replace the tin foil cover over the end when you’re done. A new sheet of tinfoil isn’t necessary, so just use the same one over and over again until your celery is gone.
Favorite healthy comfort food recipe: Veggie Pot Pie With Biscuit Topping
How I Figured Out That This Works
The first time I tested this out, I stuck the whole thing back in the fridge after wrapping it up and promptly forgot about it. We traveled to Virginia for a soccer tournament, then Washington D.C., then back home for a few days, and finally to Michigan for a few more days. After arriving home and being here for a few more days, I decided I would make some stew freezer meals that I could throw in the Crock Pot later and realized that I had that several weeks-old celery still in the crisper drawer. I decided that this was the perfect chance to test things out, and, what do you know? That celery was still perfectly crisp! As crisp as the day I bought it, and maybe even crisper if that’s possible. 🙂
I’ve been storing my celery this way ever since that initial test of extended neglect with several bouts of even more extended neglect, and it’s never let me down. Try it out yourself and let me know if this works for you too.
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.