Description: Easy and quick to prepare. This is suitable for party canapes or appetiser, or even as a snack. It is one of the best ways to feed vegetable haters.
Serves: 2
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• Celery – chopped into a bite size, 2 stalks or 120g
• Cream cheese – 30g
• Bacon – chopped into small pieces, 20g or 1 rasher
• Garlic – chopped into small pieces, 1 clove
• Chive – chopped, 1 teaspoon

Method

1. Wash the celery and pat them dry.
2. In a non-stick pan, fry the bacon and garlic with black pepper, until it gets crispy. Remove the bacon and garlic from the pan and leave it to cool down for a bit. Then fry the celery in the same pan to absorb some smell from the remaining oil.
3. Mix the bacon and garlic in cream cheese.
4. Stuff the cream cheese in the celery and put some chives on top.

To serve: Squeeze lemon or sprinkle ground black pepper if you prefer.

Nutritional Values Per Serving

Kcal	Protein	Fat	Carbs	Fibre	Sugars	Salt	Saturated Fat
93.1	3.3g	7.8g	3.1g	1.0g	1.4g	0.5g	3.9g
4.7%	6.6%	11.1%	1.2%	3.3%	1.5%	8.3%	19.7%

Nutritional Tips

This can be cooked without frying celery. If you fry the celery, it helps reduce the strong smell and taste for vegetable haters. Celery is a low-calorie vegetable, 14 kcal per 100g which is even lower than courgette for the same weight and 1 stalk is just about 9 kcal. It is not particularly high in vitamins or minerals and is low in protein, carbs, and fat as it is mostly made of water (about 95 percent). It is a good source of vitamin K, some folate, potassium, fibre and contains small amounts of vitamin C, vitamin A, and vitamin Bs. It is also known as a great source of important antioxidants (flavonoids such as luteolin, and kaempferol) which protect our cells, blood vessels, and organ systems from oxidative damage. You can eat it raw, so it is one of the best snacks for munching to help weight control / avoid eating sweets or crisps. Especially in summer, it would prevent dehydration.

If you add one more stalk to this recipe which is 180g in total, it will be one of 5-A-Day per portion. Using less cream cheese per piece and just adding extra celery is a good way to achieve this if you are not a big fan of eating raw celery as a stick (including myself: I don’t like celery sticks but I can eat celery like in this recipe or in a soup).

Celery can be kept in the fridge for a longer time compared to other vegetables such as bean sprouts, asparagus, okra, or avocado. However, it is better to consume as soon as possible (5 to 7 days, I would not recommend keeping more than a week). While some nutrients are stable in storage, amounts of phenolic antioxidants greatly decline through a long storage period. Due to the changes in flavonoid content, I would recommend chopping it only before consumption and this will help preserve nutrients better. Do not pre-cut and store in the box, less nutrients will remain in the vegetable while you might think you are still eating healthy or making an effort to eat vegetables (which is a waste).