Peeling Celery, and Other Semi-Useless Things

[Toliver]

Excuse me?

 

For an in-depth nutritional profile click here: Celery.

Thanks for the schooling.

Having grown up on Weight Watchers, the one food you were allowed to eat tons of, was celery because it added little to no calories to your diet. There was even the myth at the time that it was a negative calorie food because supposedly your body burned more calories eating and digesting the vegetable than it received from ingesting the vegetable itself. So I stand corrected.

 

edited for clarity

Edited February 24, 2015 by Toliver (log)

[FeChef]

I hate raw broccoli by itself or even with Veg dip. The only way i can eat raw broccoli is mixed with italian dressing in a pasta salad and marinated atleast overnight.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On ‎2‎/‎19‎/‎2015 at 6:00 AM, Anna N said:

For sure I will peel the waxed cucumber but the English one which is not waxed I almost always peel to leave alternate strips of peeled and unpeeled. Sometimes I will score them with a fork just to give them a little interest.

 

I am in possession of an organic fair trade cucumber from amazon.  I detest having to peel cucumbers but I've never been thrilled with the English hothouse types.  I enjoy the texture of cucumber skin.  Peeled cucumbers are bland and watery.  Should I burp politely, so much the better.

 

Howe'er dark legends there are that cucumber integument is toxic.

 

Nonetheless, when I finish tonight's mai tai (and can I still stand) I shall address the aforementioned unpeeled amazonian cucumber.  With my recent Cuisipro hexapartite grater, which sports a manxome vorpal slicing blade not unakin to a mandolin.

 

Should you never hear from me again it was either the Cuisipro or the cucumber that got me.

 

[Katie Meadow]

I detest raw broccoli, but I also hate it cooked. I like roasted or sautéed cauliflower in various dishes such as curries or with a lot of garlic and tomato sauce, but I don't like it raw. I I don't touch either of them on a crudite platter, or raw peppers, either. I don't eat raw stringbeans but I would eat them with aioli or other dip if they were blanched or steamed first. I don't peel cucumbers but I do wash them. I string celery in a casual manner, except for the very inner ribs which don't seem to need it. It has negative calories only if you don't string it.

 

@JoNorvelleWalker  please don't hexapartition any of your body parts. Just in case, I will look out for you on the "I will never again...." thread. Maybe you should do your cucumber prep before you have that Mai Tai. And I believe you are the first person I have ever encountered who used the word "unakin." I like it, but it's a stretch. But not in an unbad way.

[heidih]

OK wow - bit of tension - --- celery is on my no list mostly due to bad very old diet issues - though cottage cheese has nudged back in.  Step mom peels everything. I just take my produce to a back sink area and she has no idea how non-conforming  I am.  I like texture she likes smooth -  why we cook - to make to taste

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I survived the Cuisipro.  Remains to be seen if I survive the cucumber.  In truth I was disappointed.  The skin of this organic fair trade cucumber was tough and unpleasant.  But I ate it.  Hellmann's helped.

 

 

[weinoo]

I actually can deal with certain aforementioned vegetables in their raw state, but thusly:

 

Fresh (not 2 week old) asparagus, peeled (and of course the bottom half of asparagus ought be peeled), sliced super thin diagonally, dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, s & p, and topped with shavings of real pecorino Romano.

 

Ditto for the stems of young broccoli, albeit not the florets.

 

And please, keep your stringy celery...and its alleged fibrous benefits! Peeled and sliced thinly on the diagonal, however, it makes a fantastic, classic Sicilian salad topped with bottarga.

 

ETA: I mean Sardinian! 

Quote

 

Another classic Sardinian dish is celery hearts cut very thin on a mandoline with just a little olive oil and the thinly sliced bottarga on top. "That's it!" he says. "It's the best way to respect the bottarga."

 

 

Edited June 2, 2019 by weinoo (log)

[Katie Meadow]

9 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

And I believe you are the first person I have ever encountered who used the word "unakin." I like it, but it's a stretch. But not in an unbad way.

I'm quoting myself because I must untangle my mistake. "Not in an unbad way" is NOT what I meant. I meant, simply, "in an unbad way." 

 

As for celery, I'm always surprised how divisive it is. There are plenty of people who just hate it, including my next-door neighbor. I know because she wouldn't eat the potato salad I brought to her pot luck. How can you make potato salad or tuna salad or egg salad without it? Hard to call that a salad. Okay, so you hate it. Celery is extremely useful, especially when it comes to a blue cheese dip, which is otherwise pretty weird. Also good in certain stir fry dishes. And good in the company of apples and walnuts. The only way it is truly NOT unbad is when it is slathered with peanut butter. My mother is turning over in her grave (figure of speech only, as she was cremated) at the very idea. But then I don't think she ever even bought a jar of peanut butter in her life.

 

You would need a lot of celery to make a salad of hearts, no? Sounds yummy, though.

[lindag]

A friend's husband is ALLERGIC to celery.  How weird is that?!

[cdh]

11 minutes ago, lindag said:

A friend's husband is ALLERGIC to celery.  How weird is that?!

He also can't eat "uncured" cured meats?  Celery is a huge source of nitrates... all "uncured" cured meats you see are dosed with celery juice concentrate in place of powdered chemically refined nitrates.   Can he eat real cured meats, or is his issue with the nitrates themselves, regardless of source?

[weinoo]

Sometimes I buy the 3-hearts of celery package...plenty for a salad.

 

But - even better braised. And à la Grecque -can't be beat!

 

https://www.marthastewart.com/1142933/crudite-salad-la-grecque

[suzilightning]

1 hour ago, lindag said:

A friend's husband is ALLERGIC to celery.  How weird is that?!

Not at all for me...I developed a problem with celery when I was about 30.  

[Margaret Pilgrim]

2 hours ago, weinoo said:

Sometimes I buy the 3-hearts of celery package...plenty for a salad.

 

But - even better braised. And à la Grecque -can't be beat!

 

https://www.marthastewart.com/1142933/crudite-salad-la-grecque

During an early "stringent economic phase" of our life, when fresh vegetables seemed impossibly expensive, braised celery appeared several times a week on our table.   Like 3 or  4.   I vowed I'd never eat it again, but I think it's now time for a revival.

 

And, for the record, I always peel celery and cucumbers.    And Broccoli stems for one grandchild who will not eat the florets but adores the stems, raw or cooked.

[lindag]

Peeled and trimmed, for me, the broccoli a stems are much tastier than the florets.