Can You Freeze Celery

by Raksha Hegde last updated - May 29, 2020

If you have bought fresh celery from the supermarket, most times you would need just a stalk of celery to flavor your soup or stock. The celery then probably gets shoved to the crisper section in your refrigerator and could likely get spoilt soon. Instead, you can freeze celery to save money as well as your time. This also works if you got lucky with seasonal celery at the farmer’s market and picked up several bundles for smoothies and celery juice. So, can you freeze celery, and what is the best way to do it? Here are the details.

Can you Freeze Celery?

You can easily freeze raw celery. If you plan to use it for soups, stews, casseroles, and stocks, it is best to freeze diced celery. You can directly add it to the hot dish without thawing it. For healthy smoothies and green juices, you can also freeze individual stalks. The only catch here is that frozen celery stalks won’t have the same crisp texture as the fresh ones. So frozen celery cannot be used for crudites, ants on a log, stir-fries, or as a snack with nut butter as it will be soggy once it thaws. ^[1]

Frozen pieces of celery in a bag on a wooden board

You can freeze celery for up to 12-18 months. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

How To Freeze Celery?

If you want to enjoy your celery all round the year, you can follow these steps to know how to freeze like a pro.

Clean the celery: Wash the sticks thoroughly under tap water. Make sure you separate the stalks and clean so that all the dirt is removed properly.

Blanch the celery: Most people skip this step as they intend to use celery in a couple of months. But you can blanch the stalks to keep them for longer. Just make sure to pat the celery dry with paper towels after you blanch it. ^[2]

Flash freeze: Spread the stalks on a baking sheet and freeze for a couple of hours. If you are freezing diced celery, chop them and spread the pieces on a baking sheet, taking care not to overcrowd them.

Pack and store: Now remove the stalks or diced pieces and add them to a zip lock bag or a vacuum seal pouch and store in a freezer. You can also stick a label with the date on which you store the celery to ensure that you do not use it after a long time. You can also freeze celery leaves separately – make them into a shape of a log and freeze. This way, it will be easy for you to cut off how much you need. They make an excellent flavoring in soups.

How Long Does Frozen Celery Keep in the Freezer?

Frozen celery can keep up to two months if the celery has not been blanched. If you blanch it, it can easily keep up to 8 to 12 months. Here are our recipe recommendations if you want to use frozen celery:

Refreshing Apple & Pear Juice Recipe using celery for a juice cleanse
Celery Juice Benefits & How To Make
Simple & Satisfying Chicken Soup

A pro-tip for freezing celery for soup: If you find yourself making soups and casseroles frequently, you can freeze diced celery along with diced onion and diced carrot together. You can also sauté the vegetables with olive oil and parsley and then freeze for an extra punch of flavor.

References

About the Author

Raksha Hegde is the content director at Organic Facts and helps oversee a team of brilliant, dynamic content writers. She completed her MS in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University, US. A former business news journalist and editor, Raksha followed her passion for wellness to become a certified Yoga teacher and a wellness festival curator. She believes that learning is a life-long process; she did a certificate e-course on “Introduction to Food and Health” in 2019 from Stanford University, US.

Rate this article

Average rating 0.0 out of 5.0 based on 0 user(s).