A Storage Hack for Crisp Celery

But what should you look for at the grocery store? For the best flavor and crunch, skip the bagged trimmed “celery hearts” and look for loose heads of celery, which tend to taste fresher. Seek out heads that still have plenty of leaves attached (they add great flavor to salads too!). 

Once you’re home from shopping, do as we do in the test kitchen and wrap your celery in aluminum foil; this keeps the celery moist but still lets it breathe, which helps keep it fresher longer (often up to several weeks!).

Looking for ideas for what to do with your fresh-for-weeks celery now? 

• Use it as a dipper. 
• Employ it in the usual manner (in soups, braises, and sandwiches). 
• Let it steal the scene as the main ingredient in a salad. 

In our recipe for Strip Steaks with Celery and Blue Cheese Salad, crunchy celery gets sliced thin and tossed with funky blue cheese, toasty almonds, and a potent smoked paprika and sherry vinaigrette. These additions are strong enough to stand up to celery’s peppery bite, making a salad that I couldn’t stop thinking about for days after tasting it.