Stuffed Celery

It was a Lyons family tradition.  Every year at family gatherings or holidays my Grandma Lyons would have stuffed celery somewhere included in the spread.  She would sometimes even just make it special if she knew you were coming to dinner, as it was one of the favorites!  I don't know of anyone in my family who didn't like it, everyone in fact loved it, and the last piece was often fought over!  My Grandma has since passed away, and sadly I have not had any stuffed celery in over 5 years, because she was the only person I knew who made it. 

But that all changed  last weekend, because I had leftover tofutti cream cheese from a dessert I had made, and I decided that stuffed celery sounded awfully good!  I don't have Grandma's recipe, so I put my own twist on this Lyons family classic.  I made it vegan, since I was starting off with tofutti cream cheese.   Grandma used to use Miracle Whip, but I used vegannaise to make the stuffing creamy, and swapped out her dried onion for fresh garlic.  She used to sprinkle her stuffed celery with sweet paprika, but I decided to give mine a kick and use chipotle powder.  

The stuffed celery turned out awesome, and I think grandma would be proud...as long as I didn't tell her it was vegan, since she never quite understood me being vegetarian!  It was just as good as hers, but I could call it my own!  It was nice to enjoy this tradition in my family's food that I haven't expirienced for a while.  Here is my recipe if you would like to try it for yourself to see what all the fuss in my family is about!