It's that time again...I'll admit right off the bat that I'm not a fan of celery. Next to green pepper, it's about the only vegetable I don't like. But I had very high hopes for this celery root from our CSA delivery, and the stalk given to me by my neighbor when he went away on vacation. Not only did I have high hopes, I had a plan.
Based on a reader suggestion, I was going to make this fabulous-sounding soup from Oprah dot com. Looking at the recipe now, I'm sorry all over again that I didn't make this Celery Root soup with Granny Smith Apples. I simply ran out of time. First of all, I had already made Butternut Squash soup, which was delicious. But even though I could eat soup practically every day, my husband isn't as big a fan. So I ended up waiting a little too long, and the root got mushy. Too bad. On the good side, it's food for the critters in the compost pile, instead of food waste on its way to the landfill.
If you're new to this blog and wondering why I'm posting these ugly pictures of rotten food, I'm following the lead of The Frugal Girl, who started photographing her food in an attempt to waste less. What's the big deal? Why should we care about wasting food? Because not only does food waste in the landfill turn into carbon dioxide, so it's bad for the environment, wasting food wastes money. If you eat everything you buy, you'll save on your grocery bill.
If you want to get more into the nitty-gritty facts and figures on the topic, check out Wasted Food, where Jonathan will tell you everything you need to know to inspire you to cut back on your food waste. And if you want to join in the Waste-No-Food challenge, head over to The Frugal Girl.
How did you do this week? Are you wasting less food these days? I'm finding it a little easier to keep track of our food because I'm buying less at the market. We might not have every option available at every moment, like every kind of cheese or nut, but it helps us waste a lot less. And a rough plan of what we're going to eat also helps. If you have any tips or advice to waste less, tell us about it in the Comments section.
7 comments:
I'm not a huge fan of celery mysel, but I like to use it up in classic vegetable soup and lentil spaghetti--yum!
What is it about celery? I never seem to be able to use it all up,
even when the shop sells it in 1/2 a bunch.
I usually buy it when I am making something in my slow cooker.
It may be too late for that particular bunch of celery but I think the next time I would try cutting it into recipe-sized pieces and freezing it. It would probably be fine in soup or casseroles.
Oh, I forgot to mention something else I've done. Not that long ago I had some broccoli which was still bright green but limp enough to sag in my hand. With nothing to lose I sliced off about ½ from the end and put it into a cup of ice water and then into the fridge for a while. It perked right back up to be extremely crisp and hard. It was delicious, in fact.
That, too, might have resurrected your celery.
You can bring wilted celery back to life by chopping the ends off and placing in water overnight. I just freeze the celery after chopping it to use later in dishes right after bringing it home from the store.
Thanks for the tips everyone!
Today's post is about perking up lettuce by putting it in water! Good to know I can use it for other veggies- especially broccoli. As far as the celery root, the whole blob was mushy, and as far as the celery stalks, I don't really buy those myself, because neither my husband nor I eat them. If we ever get celery in our CSA delivery, I'll use it in soup.
Thanks for your comments!
Next time you get celery root aka celeriac, you really MUST make some celery remoulade, a sort of slaw from the peeled, grated root. It's amazing what that ugly thing can be turned into.
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