Double the amount of chopped celery used in egg, tuna, and chicken salads, while cutting back on the mayo.Everyone wants to know what I have in my fridge. Well, lots of healthy food, but one food is always there, in the vegetable drawer: celery. I love celery. It became my favorite weight-loss snack when I was trimming down. I use it in a ton of dishes, including soups, casseroles, meat loaf, dips, and side dishes because it has the most interesting flavor in the entire vegetable kingdom.
Often forgotten among vegetables, celery has an impressive history. It was a folk medicine in ancient times. Greeks crowned the heads of athletes with the vegetable. In the seventeenth century, an unknown gardener in Italy, who set great store by celery as a cure-all, cultivated wild celery in his garden. To his amazement, the resulting plant offered a rather pleasing taste. People have munched on it ever since (proving once again that so many good things come from Italy!).
A half cup of diced celery tallies up only 9 calories. It is virtually fat-free—a dieter’s delight. Celery is high in fiber and water, too, making it quite filling. Also, celery is rich in certain cancer-fighting phytonutrients.
The celery with the best flavor is light in color and appears shiny. It stays freshest when refrigerated as a bunch in a plastic vegetable bag. Properly stored, celery lasts for about a week in the refrigerator and, if chopped, up to a year in the freezer.
Use celery liberally to crowd out calories in popular dishes. Some suggestions:
Double the amount of chopped celery used in egg, tuna, and chicken salads, while cutting back on the mayo.
CALORIES SAVED: 53 TO 116
per ½-cup serving.
Thicken a ranch-style dip with finely chopped celery.
CALORIES SAVED: 70
per serving.
Replace a third of the ground meat in a meat loaf with finely chopped celery.
CALORIES SAVED: 324
per recipe.
Or simply nibble on celery rather than snacking on potato chips.
CALORIES SAVED: 150
per serving.