The great folks at Duda Farm Fresh Foods asked me to come up with an easy appetizer for entertaining…with their celery and I know you'll like these. Some may say this is too easy…how can it be a recipe? I'm going to for easy a lot these days, sometimes we don't need overcomplicated recipes to have super tasty food. This one is one of those.

Earlier this year, my friend Jessica, posted a recipe for whipped feta and I filed it (in my brain) away thinking one day, I need to try that. Once this assignment came along, I knew what I wanted to pair the celery with. I love dipping celery in peanut butter or my all-time favorite stuffing celery with cream cheese and sprinkling paprika on it. This takes it one more level up!

These “handy” Dandy Fresh celery sticks (found in your produce department) make this recipe even quicker. Already washed and cut and ready to go.

Crumble up that feta cheese even more in your food processor.

Add the cream cheese and whip it up. I used a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides.

And it only takes a few minutes to make whipped feta for this recipe. Refrigerate it while you're working on the rest of the recipe.

I hope this is easy to see. I used a knife to cut a small slice into the bottoms of my celery sticks. To help them sit upright right when I flip them over.

Then, fill the celery boats with the whipped feta. Then, cut the celery. If you cut the celery and then fill them, it will take longer but you can do it that way also.

Sprinkle with pepper, add the olives and tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil.

Superrrrr easy and the sharpness and bite from the whipped feta, the saltiness from the olives and the sweetness from the tomatoes…make this is a killer combination! This is the perfect easy appetizer for your next get together!

Be sure to stop by and check out the wonderful giveaway from Dandy Fresh Celery too!

Print

Greek Salad Celery Appetizer Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 40 to 50 appetizers

Ingredients

• 3 ounces crumbled feta cheese room temperature
• 8 ounces cream cheese room temperature
• 8 Dandy Fresh celery sticks
• 1/2 cup chopped Greek Kalamatta olives pitted
• 1/2 cup cherry tomates quartered or cut into eighths
• pepper
• olive oil

Instructions

• Add feta to your food processor and pulse until the feta resembles small crumbs. Add cream cheese and whip for about 4 to 5 minutes until feta is creamy. Refrigerate while prepping the rest of the recipe.
• Flip celery sticks over and slice a small sliver from the bottom, so that the celery will sit straight on a board. Using a spoon or butter knife, fill celery with whipped feta. Cut celery into 6 to 8 pieces (bite-sized pieces).
• Place celery bites on a serving dish and grate fresh pepper on top. Add tomatoes and olives and drizzle olive oil on top. These can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge (drizzle olive oil before serving).

Notes

Whipped Feta slightly changed from How Sweet It Is (originally adapted from Ina Garten).

Some more recipes that use celery:

Celery with Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese Dip
Goat Cheese and Walnut Stuffed Celery
Curried Chicken with Apples
Tuna Pasta Salad with Celery and Egg

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Duda Farm Fresh Foods. As always, I only work with brands I know and love and always share with you my honest opinions. Thank you for supporting the sponsors of The Little Kitchen, without yours and their support, I wouldn't be able to run this blog of mine!

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My husband, Curtis, is a picky eater. There are things that Curtis refuses to try, like tofu. I can't convince him to try it for the life of me. I always joke and say when I'm looking at recipes, magazines or other blogs, before I run through the scenario of how I would make it myself, it goes through the Curtis filter. Will he like it? Do the ingredients interest him?

We recently went to a local favorite, the Green Turtle Market. We stopped in and I loaded up on some fun ingredients and stuff like ginger beer. They have a prepared foods section and without even saying a word, we both thought that we should get a snack.

I immediately looked at a tortellini pasta salad and thought, Curtis won't eat that. It has feta cheese in it and then I saw olives and thought maybe I wouldn't like it. But then a strange thing happened, we both looked at each other and said why don't we get that pasta salad?

It's funny how these things happen and because I found now that Curtis doesn't “mind” feta cheese and that I love Kalamata olives…love them.

This tortellini pasta salad was inspired by the one we had at the Green Turtle Market. I love it because it's so easy to throw together and can be served as a side at a party, brought to a potluck and you can even snack on it.

Print

Feta and Kalamata Olive Tortellini Pasta Salad

Resting Time 2 hours hours

Servings 6 to 8

Ingredients

• 20 oz 1 lb 14 oz dual or tri-color tortellini
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• salt & pepper
• 3/4 cup feta cheese crumbled
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomates sliced thin
• 1 pint grape tomatoes rinsed and dried
• 1/2 cup Kalamata olives
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 5-6 basil leaves chopped

Instructions

• Heat a pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Cook the pasta according to instructions on the package. Drain and remove from pasta pot. Allow the pasta to cool.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together olive oil and red wine vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste.
• In a large bowl, combine cooled pasta, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, grape tomatoes, olives and red pepper. Add olive oil and vinegar mixture and thoroughly combine. Add crushed red pepper and basil leaves. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Refrigerate pasta salad for at least 2 hours before serving. Store in tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

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