How To Dehydrate Celery + Celery Powder

Today I’m going to show you how to dehydrate celery and make celery powder as well. I love the texture and taste of celery, but I realize some people are not fond of it. My husband is one of those people. The texture of celery may not be pleasing to some family members, so if we make celery powder we can add it to various meals as well as to our morning smoothies!

I watch for fruits and vegetables to be in season because they taste better and they typically go on sale. This is when I stock up and dehydrate the ones I can use in meals and save money at the same time. Today I was able to pick up some celery for $1.00 each.

Kitchen Items Needed

• Colander
• Excalibur Dehydrator or Nesco Dehydrator or your oven
• FoodSaver
• FoodSaver Lid Sealer w/Accessory Hose
• Mason quart-size, or pint-size jars, or these jars I used today:  16-Ounce Jars with Clamp
• Magic Blender or High-Powered Blender
• 6-Quart SaucePan
• 4-Quart Saucepan
• Spoon Skimmer Ladle

How To Dehydrate Celery

Step One

Cut the ends off the celery stalks as well as the leaves. Look for any ribs that may be bruised or anything we wouldn’t want to dehydrate.

Step Two

Now, cut the ribs into 1/2-inch to 1-inch sections. I like the 1-inch size for soups and stews.

Step Three

This is when I wash the celery because I can clean almost every nook and cranny of the celery pieces. Let it drain.

Step Four

Grab a soup pot, this one I use for so many things. It’s a 6-quart pot for blanching the celery in boiling water for 1-2 minutes, and then a 4-quart pot for plunging the celery in ice-cold water. (We don’t want to cook the celery so we plunge it in cold water.)

I quote, Clemson Education College of Agriculture “What is the purpose of blanching? Blanching stops enzyme actions which otherwise cause loss of flavor, color, and texture. In addition, blanching removes some surface dirt and microorganisms, brightens color, and helps slow vitamin losses.”

Step Five

Have a pan or bowl ready to plunge the blanched celery into the icy water. I use a spoon skimmer ladle and place the drained celery onto the dehydrator racks.

Step Six

Spread the celery pieces evenly onto your dehydrator racks. My Excalibur Dehydrator recommends setting the temperature at 125 degrees F and 52 degrees C and dehydrate it until the stalks are leathery and somewhat brittle.

Step Seven

The time to dehydrate will always depend on the humidity of the room you have your unit in. This batch took about 8 hours. Oh, and the house smells so good! I love dehydrating, can you tell?

Step Eight

How To Condition Your Fruit or Vegetables

If you live where it is HUMID: “To condition the fruit, take the dried fruit that has cooled and pack it loosely in plastic or glass jars. Seal the containers and let them stand for 7 to 10 days.

The excess moisture in some pieces will be absorbed by the drier pieces. Shake the jars daily to separate the pieces and check the moisture condensation.” https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/dry/pack_store.html

I live in the DRY DESERT: I set my fruit and vegetables on my countertop for 5-7 days. Ten days is even better to make sure everything is dry before using your FoodSaver unit.

Step Nine

When it’s totally dry, use a FoodSaver to seal the jars.

Step Ten-Celery Powder

When you are ready to make celery powder, place about 2 cups of dehydrated celery in a high-powered blender. Use the pulse button to pulverize it into a fine powder.

Step Eleven-Celery Powder

Then place the powder into airtight jars. I don’t use my FoodSaver to seal the powders, it’s a personal preference.

Step Twelve-Celery Powder in a Jar

You should smell how wonderful this celery powder smells, oh my gosh, it is so awesome!

Have You Tried Growing Celery?

All you do is fill a bowl with fresh water and place the cut-off celery ends in the bowl. You will have celery forever, literally. Just change out the water and use a fresh bowl to keep the celery growing without rotting. I have tried growing celery with seeds outside and it didn’t germinate. I may try planting the seeds inside next time and transplant the seedlings. Either way, I always have celery if I do this.

Can I dehydrate these in my oven?

Yes, you can. Set your oven to the lowest temperature available. Place a ball of foil to keep the oven door ajar. You will need to check them every 15 minutes or so because they will dry very fast.

Health Benefits of Celery

Those of us who really enjoy eating celery probably tend to take it for granted. Besides providing a unique flavor to many meals, celery has a number of health benefits we can take advantage of.

Celery provides a significant amount of vitamin K, registering 40% of what we should intake each day. On that basis, it’s 10% of vitamin A, 10% of folate, and 6% of vitamin C. It also provides decent amounts of manganese, potassium, calcium, and sodium, all critical to our healthy approach to eating right.

Studies have shown other possible health benefits from consuming celery on a consistent basis:

We are using the word MAY today for obvious reasons. It MAY help fight cancer, reduce the inflammation that comes with chronic disease, MAY reduces our risk for heart disease, MAY help support fertility in males, and MAY help with natural digestive processes. We use MAY since each of us is different and could benefit to various degrees from the contents found in celery, and how our body reacts to them.

How To Dehydrate Celery + Celery Powder

Final Word

Dehydrating is such an easy thing to do and it saves us money since we’re never wasting any fruits or vegetables we have in the refrigerator or in the garden. If you can teach your kids and grandkids to dehydrate celery, or any other fruit and vegetable, they will have a skill they can use for a lifetime. May God Bless this world, Linda

Here are the other Dehydrating Posts I have done:

• Dehydrating Apples
• Dehydrating Bananas
• Dehydrating Blackberries and Powder
• Dehydrating Blueberries and Powder
• Dehydrating Cilantro
• Dehydrating Cucumbers and Powder
• Dehydrating Ginger and Powder
• Dehydrating Green Onions and Powder
• Dehydrating Kale and Kale Powder
• Dehydrating Kiwi
• Dehydrating Lemons and Powder
• Dehydrating Marshmallows
• Dehydrating Peppermint Marshmallows and Powder
• Dehydrating Mushrooms and Mushroom Powder
• Dehydrating Onions and Powder
• Dehydrating Pears
• Dehydrating Pineapple
• Dehydrating Raspberries and Powder
• Dehydrating Spinach and Powder
• Dehydrating Strawberries
• Dehydrating Tomatoes and Powder
• Dehydrating Watermelon