(Please pardon the iPhone photo.)
A little trick I learned back in my early cooking days in the Dominican Republic…
When you see baby carrots, carrot sticks, and celery stalks starting to dehydrate or go limp, all they need is a little water to revive them! Simply place them into a container with some water. When I have baby carrots or cut carrot sticks go dry, I like to submerge them in water. When I have celery stalks running low on water, I cut the bottoms off and place the bottom into a vase with water. The “capillary action” kicks in and the water is drawn up the capillaries inside the celery stalk. (You remember that changing the color of the leaves experiment that from 6th grade science class, don’t you?!) Same concept.
No need for those dry carrots and limp celery to go to waste! And if you’re planning on using them for soups, stews or stirfries, you can slice or dice both carrots and celery and freeze them for later use.
What do you do with your dehydrated vegetables?!
[email protected] Balance Sheet says
I wrote about this a while ago too. I shred the carrots in the food processor and then put in a freezer bag to throw into soups and casseroles.
As for celery, if I don’t think it will get eaten, I clean and cut into small stalks and throw into a freezer bag. When I make my own chicken stock, I just pull from the freezer bag what I need. It saves me having to buy a new stalk of celery every time I make stock.
Rebecca C says
This seems so obvious, but it never occurred to me before that I can rescue carrots with water. Thank you!
Stacia Jahnke says
Here’s a nifty trick to keep your celery fresh for weeks: when you bring your celery home from the grocery, wash it off but don’t cut off the leaves or root, then wrap the entire celery stalk in aluminum foil and place in your veggie drawer in the fridg. After each use, rewrap the celery and it’ll stay fresh and crisp. No more limp celery! I’ve done this for several months now and my celery usually lasts 2-3 weeks. 🙂
Nicole says
I also wash, dice or chop any veggie starting to look like I wouldn’t want to eat it raw. Pop it into a freezer bag and freeze. Instant stir fry addative, or spaghetti sauce, or soup fixings!