The Garden Freshness of Celery

Even celery's smell means garden freshness and goodness. this is the most aromatic of all garden vegetables and the most versatile too. You can make a fragrant soup with it or the base for a dip. It adds crunch and flavor to salads while giving subtletaste to dressings. It's also refreshing and low calorie - perfect for foodies on a diet.

Celery comes from the Apiaceae family and is a cousin of the carrot , dill, parsnip and even the pretty weed , Queen Anne's Lace. Both the plant's stalks or petioles or roots can be eaten. The seed is ground into a salt and used for Bloody Mary's as well as Old Bay seasoning. It's also the main spice in Chicago style hot dogs.It is a natural diuretic and hence a well preferred diet food. It's also low in calories with only 9 1/2 calories per cup of diced celery. It's also high in calcium which is good for the lactose intolerant tor milk haters out there.Another good thing about celery is that you can grow it in your garden. It''s known as a filler because people use it and lettuce to fill out any bare patches.

My favorite way to have celery is as an hors d'ouevre . This comes from a family recipe where we stuff cut stalks (usually cut tow to three inches in length) with a mix of hard boiled eggs and cream cheese. Salt and pepper are added for flavor and once the stalk is stuffed, then dusted with paprika. This last is done for coloring and taste. To be honest this is the easiest but also the most elegant appetizer to make. It goes well with summer cocktails or decorating a tray of Italian cold cuts. Celery soup is also a good way of using the veggie. The soup is richly laced with root's fresh , taste and blends well with the other ingredients. A great summer recipe is celery salad with red onion. The stalks are diced, mixed with cut Bermuda onions and tossed with just a simple vinaigrette.

Use celery as often as you can this summer. It's a great way of getting much needed calcium but also a versatile stalk. Add it to your Bloody Mary's or serve it up as an appetizer. Chop it in a salad as well. it;s so versatile. You can use it a hundred ways.