Tailgating, potluck, football food…
Have you ever eaten stuffed celery that wasn’t stuffed with peanut butter? Stuffed celery is thought of as a retro party food. It was quite popular about 30-40 years ago. You couldn’t go to a single get-together without seeing a variation of this appetizer. I don’t know why it slowly went out of style. I guess because it was so simple and so many people are “foodies” these days that the appetizers just got a bit fancier. Nowadays it seems like if it doesn’t include some sort of puff pastry or balsamic reduction – it’s not worthy of our more sophisticated palates.
Pffffftttt
That’s my reaction to the statement above about sophisticated palates. Appetizers with brie and puff pastry are very good – that is true. Fancy and gourmet have their time and place, right? But it’s finger foods like this that I always crave. They are simple and folks always gobble them up. Honestly, I could sit this appetizer next to some bruschetta and it is these that will always go first. Go figure!
Stuffed Celery
It’s sorta like deviled eggs. There are a lot of unique twists to make them these days – but when it comes down to it – most folks just want to the old-fashioned ones that they know. These stuffed pieces of celery are so easy to make and require very little prep time. You could even buy pre-cut celery to make it even faster!
Ingredients:
10 stalks celery, rinsed and dried very well
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened to room temp.
1 tbsp. milk
1 (1.25 oz) packet vegetable soup mix
1/2 cup walnut chips, for topping (optional)
1/2 cup bacon pieces, for topping (optional)
Directions:
Cut dried celery stalks into 3 sections each. Set side.
In a bowl, using an electric mixer, combine cream cheese and milk together (add additional milk for a creamier texture). Add dry vegetable soup mix, and stir well.
Stuff celery with cream cheese mixture. If your mixture is thin enough, you can use a piping bag with tip and pipe the stuffing into the celery.
Sprinkle with walnut chips or bacon pieces (optional).
Enjoy!
- 10 stalks celery, rinsed and dried very well
- 2 (8 oz) blocks cream cheese, softened to room temp.
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1 (1.25 oz) packet vegetable soup mix
- 1/2 cup walnut chips, for topping (optional)
- 1/2 cup bacon pieces, for topping (optional)
Cut dried celery stalks into 3 sections each. Set aside.
In a bowl, using an electric mixer, combine cream cheese and milk together (add additional milk for a creamier texture). Add dry vegetable soup mix and stir well.
- Stuff celery with cream cheese mixture. If your mixture is thin enough, you can use a piping bag with tip and pipe the stuffing into the celery.
Sprinkle with walnut chips and/or bacon pieces (optional).
I make mine with cream cheese,chopped green olives, chopped pecans, and a tablespoon mayonnaise. Mix it up and stuff the celery. Its always the first to go.
I love olives – sounds good to me!
Yum, that sounds good
My Mom always served these at Holiday time. She used plain old homemade pimento cheese for the stuffing. So good and so easy.. You’re right, the oldies but goodies are really good even if they don’t require a degree in culinary science to prepare! LOL!
You can never go wrong with pimiento cheese!
Take a thin strip from the bottom of the piece of celery so that it stays flat on the serving dish. Then stuff as usual. It’s a good recipe.
Great tip! Thanks Virginia!
I’ve found a delish pimento cheese called Palmetto Cheeses that has jalapenos in it, and also a plain Palmetto cheese both available at Publix and Sam’s. It’s wonderful in celery!
This is the absolute truth!!!! It is delicious.
Walmart sells it too. I got hooked on it when I lived in SC. It’s the best.
You could always find this on the table at my mom’s holiday meals.. I continued the tradition and my family has always loved it.
Why not fill it first then cut it ?
You could certainly do that! 🙂
My mom always made it stuffed with her homemade pimento cheese for the holidays. We (family) loved it! So one year I hosted Thanksgiving, none of my own family, just friends and my wife’s family. I thought that this would be perfect since we loved it so much. I made it and not. one. single. stalk. was. eaten. Not one. I realized then, it maybe wasn’t a “normal” holiday dish. But yours sounds like an alternative…sprinkle some crunchy bacon pieces on top. yep.
Jaxx! Ha – I know what you mean. People either LOVE pimiento cheese or totally avoid it at all costs! I gotta say – I like your idea of the bacon on top!
I am currently on Weight Watchers and whenever I see a recipe I like with the nutritional information posted, I like to figure out who many points are in a serving. This recipe says it serves 12 yet there are 30 pieces of celery which means each serving is 2 and 1/2 pieces? It looks great and I love the crunch of walnuts!
Hi Kathy! That’s a good question! The recipe card system I use automatically provides these figures. I do my best to guess number of servings. If you are on a laptop or desktop computer, you can place your mouse over the number of servings and slide it up or down and the nutritional values will change. Hope that helps!
My grandmother made these for every Thanksgiving and Christmas. Although she just piled on the cream cheese and nothing else.
I’ll have to give yours a shot this year. Hosting my first Thanksgiving at my house and have to make everybody happy so I won’t have to travel next year. 🙂
Hope you love it Cory! If you are running short on time, you can always just pick up veggie cream cheese. Taste it slightly different but still very good! 🙂
Gram and Mom always made this. They would chop up stuffed green olives and mix them with softened cream cheese. At 70, I still make these around the holidays, or for special occasions, and they are always well received. 🙂
Kroger stores sells it too!.
My dear mother just used Old English Cheese, that came in a little jar – it’s hard to find now, but it was always a treat at Thanksgiving.