How To: Dehydrate Celery

Got extra celery? Dehydrate it! Drying celery is the best way to preserve it. Dehydrated celery is great for adding flavor to soups, stews, sauces and more easily and without the mess. The process of dehydrating celery is so easy, you'll actually enjoy it! Plus, when properly stored, it can be kept for over 12 months.

5 from 4 votes

Prep Time 45

Dehydrating Time 6

Total Time 6 45

Ingredients

1 fresh celery

Instructions

Wash + Blanch:

Prepare a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Prepare a large bowl with ice water. Set aside.
Meanwhile, trim the broad whitish ends of the celery stalk and the top to remove the calloused harvest cut. Separate all of the ribs, and wash and scrub them well in cold water to remove any dirt, bugs, or contaminants. Avoid soaking your celery in water.
If you're dehydrating the celery leaves, there is no need to separate them from the ribs. Cut the prepared celery into pieces that will fit into your pot.
Once the pot is at a rolling boil, place the trimmed celery ribs into the pot. Allow them to blanch in the boiling water for 30-45 seconds.
Transfer the celery to an ice water bath to rapidly cool. After 1-2 minutes in the ice bath, remove the celery and place on a clean kitchen towel.

Prepare:

Once the celery has been blanched and cooled, it's time to chop or prepare as desired.
Slice the celery into rounds or slice down the ribs lengthwise and dice, being mindful to keep the size consistent.

Dehydrate:

Spread prepared celery pieces on dehydrator trays in a single layer.
Place the trays in the food dehydrator and dry at 125f for 6-8 hours or until completely dried. To test the celery, remove a few pieces, allow them to cool to room temperature, then check out the texture - they should be very hard and brittle.

Store + Condition:

Once the celery flakes and leaves are completely dried, allow them to cool in the dehydrator for 30-45 minutes. Then transfer to an airtight container or mason jar.
Once the dried celery is in it's storage container, shake the jar each day or so for a week and observe the container for signs of moisture. If there are no signs of moisture, you're good to go, place them in a cool dark place for long-term storage! If there is evidence of moisture in the container, you must add the celery back to the dehydrator and dry it longer. After they've been dried the second time, you'll need to go through the conditioning process again.

Notes

to blanch or not?

Blanching your celery before dehydrating can stop chemical changes within the celery associated with spoilage, preserves color, stops ripening, and although it seems counter intuitive, blanching can help improve dry time as cooking can help to break down fibrous cell walls within the celery.

rehydrating celery

The guidelines for rehydrating celery are the same as most dehydrated foods - add an equal amount of dehydrated celery and water - by volume - and allow to soak.

The dried celery can be reconstituted using hot water or cold water, hot water will begin cooking the celery while cool water will take longer to rehydrate. Avoid soaking for longer than 2 hours - it can get a little gross!

If you're adding dehydrated celery to soups and stews, just toss them into the boiling pot. The soup will do all the work for you!

You'll know the celery is rehydrated when it is nearly the same size as it was before it went into the dehydrator.

celery salt

Simply add 3 parts of dehydrated celery pieces, or leaves to a spice grinder or high powered blender along with 1 part of coarse kosher salt - blend until fully combined. Some people prefer this to be a powder consistency, but I like a little bit more structure to my celery salt.

For example, blend 3/4 cup dried celery and 1/4 cup kosher salt in a blender. Once it reaches your desired consistency, transfer it to an airtight container for storage.

To make dried celery flakes, simply place dehydrated celery pieces between 2 pieces of wax or parchment paper and roll over them with a heavy rolling pin!

limitations

You won't be able to rehydrate a rib of celery, smear with peanut butter, sprinkle with raisins and call it ants on a log.

Dehydrated celery is excellent in cooked dishes that need celery, like soups, stews, stocks, sauces. Any time you need celery flavor and not the crunch or structure, you can use dehydrated celery!

storage

Dehydrated celery, properly stored in airtight, preferably glass jars, in a climate controlled location will maintain its quality for at least 12 months. Aim to keep yours in a cool, dark location, away from light that can degrade the quality during long term storage.

I store dehydrated celery in mason jars and vacuum seal them in my Avid Armor USV32 chamber vacuum sealer! It works amazing for removing the air from mason jars, giving my dehydrated goods a longer shelf life.