i have chicken for dinner... looking for side dishes. anything to do with celery?
thankyou
toadfish,
Apr 27, 5:52am
Not sure on tonights dinner. But when I buy celery I "process" it when I get home.
I cut off the leafy parts and outside stalks, chop them up and freeze those in Soup Size portions. Then I wash & chop the nice middle celery into about 10cm strips. These store in an icecream container for at least a week and can be grabbed as a snack or chopped up in a stirfry. Then the yellowy heart I add to the soup bags... that way no waste due to limp celery. $1. 25 is a great price!
missmuppett,
Apr 27, 6:10am
Celery in our house is only salad or soup worthy - or a couple of stems taken for work snack or something... . dunno what the heck to do with celery actually! haha :)Oh, or stirfries - as toaddfish said. YUM!
brish,
Apr 27, 6:19am
I'd leave it raw, and cut into pieces stuffed with blue cheese, or cream cheese or sour cream if you have any of these, even grated cheese would do or mayonnaise if you're really stuck. I'm not a fan of cooked celery, unless in a stir fry or soup or salad. I hope someone suggests a tasty cooked one for you.
cookessentials,
Apr 27, 6:22am
I use it ( leaves and all) to make a lovely soup with ham hocks and what ever vege i can think of including potato, kumara, swede, onion, carr- ot, a can of chopped toms, stock etc... when it is finally cooked through ( I do it in the crock pot) I add either macaroni elbows or spiral tri colour pasta-it makes a beautifully thick soup which I also freeze in batches.
beaker59,
Apr 27, 7:13am
Thats exactly what I did with my 1. 25 celery bunch Bacon Hock soup but without the pasta and feed my family of 15 when they decended on us in the weekend along with a loaf or two of sourdough bread cooked saturday night for sunday lunch.
charlieb2,
Apr 27, 7:22am
Well you were ripped off... . lol... I picked up celery for . 99c last week! !
calista,
Apr 27, 7:24am
cookessentials I don't know why I never thought of adding a can of tomatoes to my soup, but I just did to the batch I'm making thanks to you - looks good. Also didn't know if the pasta would freeze - I'll add that too.
grannymum,
Apr 27, 7:46am
I slice &dice it & freeze it too when it is cheap, then use in soups, stews etc. I dont blanch it or anything & it seems to work just fine.
st_allie,
Apr 27, 7:49am
thankyou GrannyMum. . I just make soup with all the leftovers.
calista... make sure you also add tomato paste - this will give it a far better tast and add some depth to it. Basicall I cook the hock in the crockpot until the meat falls off the bone, then I strain off as much of the fat floating on the top. I break up the meat and set aside. To the water that the hock has been in I add a large chopped onion, then a good few celery stalks ( including the leaves) sliced, a tin of chopped toms, sliced carrotsas well as a bay leaf or two and all the really hard vege such as the swede, kumara and potato ( I just cube them in decent pieces) I add Campbells stock - either chicken or vegetable and let it cook away. I add back in the meat and other seasonings. If there is too much liquid, I decant some off and reserve because you can reheat it all in a stock pot later, when it is cooked through. Keep tasting it to get the taste that suits you. I do add plenty of freshly ground pepper to mine as well. Once it is cooked through, I add either the macaroni or spiral pasta-I dont measure, I just throw it in. You will find that once the pasta cooks, it is lovely and thick. I serve it as a complete meal as it really is quite filling- nice made with some 1 hour white rolls on the side which I can give you the recipe for if you want it.
if I have celery, often put it in any casserole. just seems to give a nice flavour.
cookessentials,
Apr 27, 9:38am
Here you go tich50 One Hour White Rolls For those of you who have never attempted making bread, these rolls are really easy to make and are delicious too. Great to whip up on a weekend to serve with hot soup. Ingredients: 1/2 cup warm water 1tsp sugar 1 tsp dried yeast 1 cup white flour 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 cup extra white flour. Method: Dissolve sugar in water. Sprinkle yeast on top. Do not stir, leave in a warm place ( I heat the oven to a low temp and pop bowl in there) leave for ten mins until frothy. Warm a medium size bowl (you can just rinse in hot water and dry). Grease and warm muffin tins. Sift flour & salt into warmed bowl, leave in warm place while waiting for yeast to froth. Stir yeast mixture, pour it into flour and stir with wooden spoon for 2 mins. Cover bowl with gladwrap and leave in warm place 10 mins. Stir in enough of the reserved flour to make a soft dough. Combine into a ball with your hands. Put on a floured board and knead for 5 mins (to knead, use the "heel" of your hand, that is the flat part near your wrist. Push heel of hand into dough-pushing it away from youthen fold dough over towards you and repeat) Roll into a long sausage shape and cut into 8 even sized pieces. Shape each into a ball and place in warmed, greased muffin tins. Cover lightly with gladwrap or a teatowel and leave in a warm place 10 minutes or until well risen. Bake until golden brown -10-15 mins in a hot preheated oven (220c) Serve warm with butter.
lookin4adeal,
Apr 27, 10:59am
I bought some the other day and my kids took some for lunch today stuffed with peanut butter and some cherry tomatoes on the other side not a thing left! !
elliehen,
Apr 27, 11:34am
calista, I sometimes add a can of creamed corn to a soup after it's cooked - thickens it up, makes it go further and goes well with other veg like carrots, celery, onions, tomatoes, along with barley & red lentils, to make a very hearty winter soup.
alewis,
Apr 27, 10:03pm
I do like a celery soup - with chicken stock (read oxo cubes) and if you dont like the texture throw it in the food processor. thanks for the bread receipe cookessentials, I have NEVER made bread but brought some yeast the other day so have been thinking about doing it,
cookessentials,
Apr 27, 10:44pm
You are welcome - the recipe does not make a heap and I make reasonably small ones but they are a great way to get started making your own bread and then progressing from there.
calista,
Apr 28, 8:58am
Cookessentials thanks. I make my bacon hock soup in a similar way to you, but I hadn't been very creative on the ingredients, although I always keep canned tomatoes in the house. I'll give the rolls a try too.
Last night while decanting the soup into a bowl I spilt around a litre of it - now after cleaning it up I'm sick of the smell so it may be some time before I eat it. Maybe I'll make chickpea soup instead.
charlieb2,
Apr 28, 9:04am
yaye! ! ! lol
calista,
Apr 28, 10:11am
I now have 11. 5 litres of soup sitting in the freezer. Yay. Hope we don't have a power cut.
toadfish,
Apr 28, 5:51pm
I am 99 center as well... can't remember it being that cheap... . off to deal to it now... gee I wish I didn't ping awake so early... ...
fisher,
Apr 29, 12:12am
Its a long walk to my garden to go and get mine LOL :}
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