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This quick pickled celery recipe is perfect for your organic celery you want to preserve. You can use it in salads, soups, casseroles, and more.
We love pickling over here.
We pickle cucumbers.
And tomatoes.
And even jalapenos.
No Southern cook’s repertoire is complete without the pickle. And that includes pickled celery.
Our Southern Air Fryer Catfish Goes Great with Pickled Celery!
What else to eat with your pickled celery
You can enjoy pickled celery in a variety of ways.
- Chicken, tuna, or egg salad
- A side with hot wings
- Most pasta or chopped salads
- Top a green salad with the pickled celery
- Add the crunchy celery to the top of breakfast eggs or an omelet
- Grain bowl topping
- Serve with potatoes and seared trout
- Use with cold meats and cheese to make a charcuterie board (also works well with some other vegetables and peppers like cucumber, shallot, sweet pepper, and jalapeno!)
Choosing Celery for Pickling
Homegrown celery is usually more flavorful than your typical store-bought kind. Celery requires about 16 weeks of cool weather before harvesting. Living in the south, where we have warm spring and summer seasons, the best time to plant celery is in late summer to harvest in late fall or early winter.
If you aren’t into gardening or not able to grow your own, purchase fresh celery at a farmer’s market or your favorite grocery store. Be sure to choose the freshest bunch with the most taste and nutrition.
When buying a whole celery bunch, look for bright green leaves. The stalks need to be crisp and green. If the stalks are beginning to shrivel at the top, turn brown or yellow, or feel too soft, skip that bunch and look for a fresher one.
If you’re buying celery hearts, the inner stalks on a celery bunch, look for the same signs of freshness The inner stalks will be a lighter green and have a somewhat milder flavor than the outer stalks.
If you are grabbing a bag of pre-cut celery stalks, look for bright green stalks that feel crisp. Pay close attention to the ends of the stalks. They might be a tad dry and that is fine. Just don’t settle for any that are soft, shriveled, or turning yellow or brown.
Things To Remember When Pickling Vegetables And Fruits
- Use only fresh (not frozen), undamaged, and unspoiled fruits or vegetables.
- Always clean produce thoroughly.
- Cut uniform sizes, ideally small enough to both fit in a jar and keep bite sized for eating purposes.
- Prepare and measure out everything (from brine to veggie or fruit prep) before heating the pickling brine.
- Wash containers and jars well and let air dry. You can put quick pickles in any airtight container, but the mason jar is classic.
- This is a recipe for refrigerator pickles – they are not intended to be shelf-stable.
Boil the vinegar before pickling, here’s why…
Boiling the vinegar makes it hot enough to penetrate the cuke (or whatever is being pickled). It’s the same principle seen in making tea; hot water steeps more intensely than cold.
Careful! Over-boiling causes vinegar’s flavoring and pickling abilities to evaporate.
(You can also pickle with lemon juice, but we’ll cover that another time!)
Ingredients
Pickled Celery Ingredients:
- 1/2 celery stalk, sliced into spears or coins
- 2 each garlic cloves, whole
- 1/4 tsp. dill, dried
- 1/2 tsp. mustard seed, whole
- 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns
- 2 each Bay leaves
- 1/4 yellow onion, thinly sliced
Ingredients
Brine Ingredients:
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp salt
Directions
Pickled celery directions:
- Wash the celery. You’re going to use enough (depending on the specific size) in this recipe to fill a 16 oz. jar.
- Add the celery, garlic, dill, mustard seed, yellow onion, and peppercorn into your jar. Don’t worry that the spices settle at the bottom, they will rise up again and evenly distribute their flavor when you add the brine.
Directions
Brine Directions:
- Mix the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar in a stainless steel pan and bring to a boil.
- As soon as it reaches a good boil, pour it over the mixture in the jar until the celery is just covered.
- Put the top on immediately and put into the refrigerator.
These pickles will stay good for about 2 weeks in your refrigerator.
We hope you enjoy our Quick Pickled Celery recipe!
Other Quick Pickles You’ll Love!
Quick Pickled Celery
Ingredients
- 1/2 bunch celery stalks spears or coins
- 2 each garlic cloves whole
- 1/4 tsp. dill dried
- 1/2 tsp. mustard seed whole
- 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns
- 2 each Bay leaves
- 1/4 each yellow onion thinly sliced
Brine Ingredients
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. salt
Instructions
- Wash the celery. You're going to use enough (depending on the specific size) in this recipe to fill 16 oz. jar.
- Add the celery, garlic, dill, mustard seed, yellow onion, and peppercorns into your jar. Don't worry that the spices settle at the bottom, they will rise up again and evenly distribute their flavor when you add the brine.
Brine:
- Mix the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar in a stainless steel pan and bring to a boil.
- As soon as it reaches a good boil, pour it over the celery mixture in the jar until the celery is just covered.
- Put the top on immediately and put into the refrigerator.
Hello, this looks great, can you tell me how long those celery pickles would last in the fridge? Thank you!
Hi Nathalie! Thanks for checking out our recipe. The celery pickles will last a good two weeks in your fridge. Let us know how you like them!
Would give it 5 starts but just put it in the fridge. How long should I wait for them to be at a good, pickled flavour?
48 hours is usually the right amount of time for any type of pickle to get the full flavor. Hope you enjoyed the recipe!