Making your own celery salt is a great way to create a zero waste product, especially when using the leaves of your own homegrown celery. It is very easy to make celery salt from celery leaves in just a few steps.
Celery Salt
Homemade celery salt, and celery powder, are great products to have on hand while establishing a zero waste product from your own fresh produce. To make celery salt from celery leaves, all you need are the leaves off the celery and some salt.
First, strip the leaves from the stalks of the celery removing as much of the stem as possible. Then you need to blanch and dry the celery leaves. You can do this in a dehydrator or in an oven.
Blanching
Before dehydrating celery, you need to blanch it first. This helps to keep the lovely green colour of the celery. To blanch the celery:
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil.
- Wash the celery well, cut off the whitish bottom ends and the leafy tops, saving and freezing these for stock, if you wish or see below.
- Cut the celery stalks into small pieces, about ½ inch thick crescents, and place them in the boiling water. Leave them there for about 3 minutes, then remove and place in ice water.
- If you are not dehydrating straight away, store in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
Dehydrating
- Arrange the blanched celery pieces on the trays of a dehydrator, leaving space between the pieces.
- Dry at 135˚F or 60˚C until the celery is crispy and dry. This takes around 2 hours.
- If you are using an oven to dehydrate, place the celery pieces with space on lined baking trays. Set the oven to the lowest heat setting, prop the oven door open with a spoon. Remove from the oven when the celery is crispy and dry – around 2 hours later.
Making Celery Salt
Once the leaves are dry, you need to grind them and mix them with salt. How much salt is your preference. Some like to you two parts celery leaves to 1 part salt, though I prefer to not use that much salt, so use 6 parts celery powder to one part salt. I also grind up the leaves without salt to use as celery powder. Store your celery salt and celery powder in air-tight containers.
Uses for Celery Salt
Use your homemade celery salt in place of store bought celery salt. It goes great in cold salads like coleslaw, potato salad and egg salad or use in a meat rub or as a seasoning to soups. It can also be added to French fries, corn on the cob, popcorn, baked potatoes and devilled eggs.
Just remember when using celery salt, you will need to cut back on the salt added to your dish to account for the salt mixed in with the celery in the celery salt.
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Question – the blanching instructions state (& the picture shows) stalks, but the recipe only takes about the leaves. Can the salt/powder also be made from the stalks?
I used the leaves to make the celery salt. The stalks were also dehydrated to use in soups and other dishes. I just dehydrated both the leaves and the stalks at the same time. You can read more here: https://simplelivingcreativelearning.com/how-to-dehydrate-celery/