Celery, garlic, and two beans walk into a bar.

I’m not yet sure there’s a punchline worth waiting around for.

Celery from the grocery store, celery from an order of wings… these things just don’t do justice to the flavor a fresh-picked head of celery can pack.

These petite stalks, to me anyways, just beg to be chopped up and mixed in with a nice red wine vinegar and some garlic. And don’t you dare toss the leaves out. There is so much flavor in those leaves.

Ingredients:

– 2 cups cooked beans – the great northern (white) and kidney (red) made an aesthetically pleasing combination, I’ll say.
– 1/2 cup chopped fresh celery, stalks and leaves
– 1 large tomato, chopped
– 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
– 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
– 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
– 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
– 1 tbsp lemon juice
– salt, paprika, crushed rosemary, black pepper, to taste
– up to 1/4 cup chopped parsley, optional

Simple Steps:
1. Combine all ingredients except beans in a large mixing bowl. Once coated, gently stir in beans. Can be served immediately but best if allowed to marinate, chilled for 1-2 hours.

This is going to save me dozens of nickels!

Every year, there are bound to be the onions that just don’t size up… and while I want to eat onions on just about everything, I mostly see a tremendous amount of work when I look at these adorable little flavor bites, aka ‘pearl onions.’

What’s the word for the feeling when you finally Google something you’ve just wondered about before, and realize that someone else discovered the solution and put it on the Internet 10 years ago?

That word, for peeling pearl onions.

So here’s what I learned:

How to Peel Pearl Onions

…without breaking a sweat (or shedding a tear!)

1. Cut off the bums, i.e. the root ends of the onions. For my sample batch, I tried some red, white, and yellow onions; almost scientific of me, you might say.

2. Boil enough water to submerge your batch of onions. Drop the onions into the boiling water, and simmer for 2 minutes. Drain. (Optional – drop them in an ice bath, or rinse with cold water).

3. When cool enough to handle, hold an onion at the stem end, and squeeze. Depending on how you cut, you may need to give a little finger-peel at the root end to get it started. The onion should pop right out, quite to your delight, I’m sure. Repeat!

Add pearl onions to dishes like:

Cool Bean Salad

Tahini Dip

Seared Shishitos with Lemon

See here, the pretty pearls have landed themselves in a beer and ‘Better than Bouillon’ broth for Braised Mustard Greens.

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