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How to Make Dehydrated Celery and Celery Salt Recipe

Celery is an inexpensive and versatile vegetable that can be used in a wide range of recipes. And the stalks can be dried to make homemade celery salt. Learn how to do both in this article.

Homemade Celery Salt Recipe and How To Dry Celery and Celery Leaves

Fall is celery season and our garden is over flowing with it! And even if you don’t have your own celery growing in your garden, you’ll also probably be seeing lots of it at your local farmers market! Making this is the prefect time of the year to [creatively] preserve fresh celery for the winter storage!

Celery is a good source of vitamin A, followed by Choline, vitamin C, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid. There are trace amounts of Riboflavin, vitamin B6, Betaine, Folate, and vitamin K. In the mineral department, celery is rich in Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, and Phosphorus.

There are trace amounts of Iron, Selenium, Zinc, Manganese, and Fluoride.

The Best way to Preserve Celery

While Freeze Drying is the best way to preserve the taste, texture and health properties of celery, most of you don’t have a freeze dryer at home, so today I’ll be focusing on the second best way to preserve celery; drying, aka dehydrating. What makes dehydrated food so wonderful is that it’s (a) shelf stable and (b) when stored properly has an extremely long shelf life, plus extremely versatile!

If you freeze celery, it becomes soft and watery, where as dehydrated celery is fantastic re-hydrated – it plumps up really well and you can’t tell the difference from fresh!  You can use dehydrated celery just like you would use fresh. We divide our celery into to 2 categories prior to drying; Leaves & Stems, even though The entire celery stalk is edible and has the same celery flavor, and it all can be used interchangeably.

Homemade Celery Salt Recipe and How To Dry Celery and Celery Leaves

Leaves – After washing your celery to remove any dirt, pull off the leaves and arrange them on your dehydrator trays. The thicker the layer the longer they will take to dry. Consult the manufactures’ instructions for the recommend temperature/setting for herbs & vegetables. Dehydrate them until they are dry, but don’t worry you can’t over dry them.

Dried celery leaves are what you will find at the store more commonly known as “celery flakes”

Homemade Celery Salt Recipe and How To Dry Celery and Celery Leaves

Stems – For best results I recommend slicing your clean celery (smaller pieces always dry better). And arrange in a single layer on your dehydrator rack. Consult the manufactures’ instructions for the recommend temperature/setting for herbs & vegetables. Dehydrate them until they are dry, but don’t worry you can’t over dry them.

Consult the manufactures' instructions for the recommend temperature/setting for herbs & vegetables. Dehydrate them until they are dry, but don't worry you can't over dry them.

Many other recipe sites MAY encourage you to blanch your celery (submerging fresh celery in a large pot of water/boiling water then quickly chilling by submerging it in ice water/cold water and draining) prior to dehydrating but I do not feel it is necessary. I have dehydrated both fresh celery and blanched celery, and trust me the extra effort is a waste of time.

How long does it take to Dehydrate Celery

Generally, you will be drying your celery & celery leaves for 6-18 hours at 125ish degrees. When they are completely dry, they can be stored in an airtight container for YEARS. I like to use celery leaves in the same way I would use dried parsley. I think their flavors are similar and easily interchangeable. I also toss a handful of dried, sliced celery into pots of bone broth.

How to Store Dehydrated Celery

Like with all dehydrated foods, make sure all moisture is removed prior to packaging. Seal in glass jars for spices, mason jars or seal with a foodsaver or chamber vacuum sealer. Adding an oxygen absorber, for the best results and to ensure that is no humidity in the container. Store in a cool, dark place until ready to use.

How to use Dehydrated Celery

You can use dehydrated celery in any recipe where you would use fresh celery. In recipes for soups and stews it can be added right into the pot while still dry. However in recipes for chicken salad or other salads, you will want to rehydrate your dehydrated celery prior to using it.

How to Make Homemade Celery Salt

Once you have your own dehydrated celery, of course you can use it to make the most amazing Celery Salt! Homemade Celery Salt is so much more flavorful and healthy than the packaged spice mix at the grocery store.

All you have to do to make homemade celery salt is to grind dehydrated celery (stalk, leaves or combination) into a celery powder using a food processor or blender. Mix ground celery powder in equal parts with salt to make homemade celery powder. (you can combine them while processing or in a separate bowl and mix with a spoon.

If you like this Dehydrated Celery and Celery Salt Recipe, try these other homemade seasoning recipes next:

Homemade Celery Salt Recipe and How To Dry Celery and Celery Leaves

Celery Salt Recipe

Celery is an inexpensive and versatile vegetable that can be used in a wide range of recipes. Plus the stalks and leaves can be dried to make Dehydrated Celery and homemade celery salt. Learn how to do both in this article.
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Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon Celery Seed
  • 1/4 cup dried Celery
  • 1 tablespoon dried Celery Leaves
  • 3 tablespoons Sea Salt

Instructions

  • In your blender or coffee grinder, process dried celery and celery seed until a powder.
  • Add celery leaves and sea salt, plus to combine.
  • Store in an air tight spice jar and use in recipes in place of store bought celery salt.

Notes

You can use any combination of celery seed, dried celery and/or dried celery leaves – the ideal ratio is 1 part ground celery to 1 part sea salt. Adjust recipe according to the ingredients you wish to use.
Tried this recipe?Mention @hayley_inthekitchen or tag #hayley_inthekitchen!

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20 Comments

  1. This a great site! I have a bumper crop of celery this year and didn’t know what to do with it. Now I can keep it to use for the whole winter. Thanks

  2. What do you use to grind it into a shake. I dehydrated some and they came out as hard as a brick. Did I do something wrong?

  3. Quick question, I have been juicing celery for a long time now and when I first started I dried scads of the remaining celery pulp. I want to grind some of the dried pulp as a seasoning but can’t find equivalency measurements. Can you give me an idea where to start on subbing dried ground celery for celery seeds and celery flakes?

    1. Hey Tracey – Great question. From my experience with juicing and the fibrous pulp leftover, the good stuff (flavor and nutrition) is extracted through juicing, leaving only fiber and I personally wouldn’t use it as a seasoning. IF you work with it and find a suitable substitution ratio, please come back and comment with what works for you!

  4. I can’t thank you enough for this article. I love celery, but unfortuately i am the only one in my family who does. I can get away with it in soups, stews, and roast. As a result, i hated buying it because so much of it went to waste, even with keeping it in water in the fridge. I even tried growing it usung a hydroponic method. Now i can buy it guilt free, use as needed, replenish as needed.

  5. 5 stars
    I love everything celery but I can’t use it fast enough before It goes bad as the family isn’t quite as thrilled. I have started pealing it to remove the strings. Never thought to dry it! I’ll be rummaging through my fridge this afternoon and start drying right away! Thank you!! Yours was the best out of 6 other pins I opened and rejected!

      1. cut end of stalk off. Wash your celery. Wrap it in paper towels-yes, the paper towel will be damp/wet. Wrap in AL foil. It will keep a lot longer in the refrigerator. I’ve had it keep for 2-3 weeks.

  6. thank you so much for this advice on how to preserve celery…I guess my question is by drying them do i loose any of the nutritional properties. I recently found a receipe for diabetic that uses celery so I want to try the receipe with a family member who is residing in another country. The problem is that I have never spotted celery in the market over there, I was wondering how to preserve my celery but was not sure if I dried (sunlight outside) whether I would still retain its nutritional properties.
    pls let me know when you have a second
    thanks

    1. you always loose SOME nutrition through preservation, but this is the easiest method. I encourage you to share THIS BOOK with your diabetic family member.

  7. When you’re saying in the recipe here: “Add celery leaves and sea salt, plus to combine,” what does that mean? Did you mean to say: “Add celery leaves and sea salt and PULSE to combine?”

  8. This is one of the few blogs with metric conversion – awesome thanks. I did notice on another recipe the oven temperature was Fahrenheit though.

  9. Thank you so much! My husband and have converted our entire backyard in to a garden, so this site will really help me. Thank you ever so much! Sherrie Tucker San Jacinto CA

  10. Wonderful! I’m working on the stalks as I type. The leaves dehydrated beautifully and I have no idea why I didn’t do them at the same time. Really nice presentation on your page of the finished products.

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