Satay-Inspired Celery Sticks
Description
Celery sticks with peanut butter is a classic snack that I remember from my childhood, and it's a pretty good vegan keto snack as is. Peanut butter is high in protein and very nutritious, but it's also a little high in net carbs. Conversely, celery is extremely low in net carbs, which helps to balance out the peanut butter. That said, depending on personal calorie needs and carb limits, peanut butter consumption may need to be kept in check. A mere tablespoon (16g) of peanut butter has 95 calories and 2g net carbs. The satay-inspired peanut butter filling I've created here is packed full of delicious flavors AND has about half the calories and net carbs of peanut butter alone, which means you can eat twice as much. Double the flavor and double the fun! Enjoy these celery sticks as a snack, side dish, or have 2 servings and make them the main course.
Boost the Protein: add ¼ cup (40g) hemp hearts to the filling and increase the celery to 20 medium stalks (800g).
Macros (per serving filled celery): 275 calories | 16g protein | 19g fat | 6g net carbs
Macros (if divided into 3 servings of filled celery): 370 calories | 22g protein | 26g fat | 8g net carbs
Yield: 4 servings of about ¼ cup (59g) filling and 4 medium (160g) celery stalks each, totaling about 1 cup (235g) filling and 16 medium (640g) celery stalks ✎
Macros (per serving filled celery): 210 calories | 13g protein | 14g fat | 5.5g net carbs
Macros (per ¼ cup [59g] filling): 185 calories | 11g protein | 14g fat | 4g net carbs
Macros (per tablespoon [15g] filling): 45 calories | 3g protein | 3.5g fat | 1g net carbs
Prep: 20 minutes, but ideally an additional hour for flavors to meld
Storage: refrigerate filling for up to 5 days. Filled celery can also be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 to 5 days.
Ingredients
Instructions
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In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients apart from the protein powder and celery stalks.
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Add and mix in the protein powder. I use a small silicone statula for this.
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If time allows, set the filling aside for an hour to allow the flavors to meld.
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Prepare the celery as desired. They can be stuffed in stalks of preferred length, or cut into sticks and dipped.
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Fill celery stalks (unless dipping) ✎. Optionally, sprinkle with chopped peanuts and crushed red pepper flakes.
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Divide into 4 servings and enjoy cold or at room temperature.
Notes
- According to the USDA, a medium celery stalk is 7½ to 8 inches (19 to 20cm) long and weighs 40g. A head of celery is said to weigh about 1 pound (454g).
- Sunflower seed butter or almond butter can also be used, but will affect the macros. With both, the net carbs will be slightly lower: 4 g and 4.5g net carbs per serving, respectively.
- Those who don't like salty foods may wish to use a low-sodium tamari here. If coconut aminos are used, this will increase net carbs slightly.
- Sambal oelek is a chili paste that has little to no carbs. Many chili pastes contain sugar, and some contain fish or shrimp paste, so check your labels. Sriracha could be used here, but this will increase the net carbs.
- In the photo, to fill the celery, I've used a pastry/piping bag with a 5/16-inch [8mm] round nozzle. I find that I use about 1 tablespoon (15g) of filling per medium (40g) celery stalk.
- Macros for this recipe are calculated with American national nutritional data (i.e., NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from the coconut milk (Aroy-D), sambal oelek (Huy Fung Foods), protein powder (Now Foods pea), and hemp hearts (Manitoba Harvest) (in the protein booster option).
- Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.
