I use sugar snap peas. I just chop them up in the salad, add some green onions, and that give a lovely crunch.

I've been making a potato salad with fresh cooked green beans and canned white kidney beans in a oil and vinegar dressing. Yummy enough to eat all by itself.

I got away from using celery, too, because I only used it in large batches of spagehetti sauce to freeze. And most people put too large pieces of celery in the potato salad anyway.

Frozen small peas. I put them in right from the bag (if they are frozen together, just run some cold water over them).

Frozen peas! What a good idea. I like frozen peas and have them in the freezer. I don't buy celery any more because of the same reasons Dotmom said. I also like water chestnuts and use them in several things for the crunch factor.

Sue

carrots, onions, green olives, & apples will give some crunch.

Thanks, Kiddos, I think I'll use both peas & water chestnuts. I like them both.

Here are a couple of tips.

If you only need a little celery (or other vegetable), don't buy a whole bunch/head/whatever. Head over to the supermarket's SALAD BAR and buy just what you need! Yes, the price per pound is probably higher than what you'd pay for the vegetable, BUT if you can buy just a bit, with no waste, it's worth it. I often use the salad bar for buying vegetables for things other than salads--it's a great resource, for example, for making a superquick stirfry.

My other suggestion is to buy the whole bunch of celery and make cream of celery soup with what's leftover. It freezes wonderfully, and your own homemade is SO much better than that horrible stuff in the cans.

Did you know that if you wrap your celery in foil, all the way around so no air/light get it, it lasts MUCH longer. I was quite surprised that this actually works.

You can also dry celery and other veggies, then freeze those. Or buy dried celery and add a bit of liquid before putting into salads.
I like the idea of buying some from a salad bar in the store, which ours does have a good one.

Greenbacks sells red bell peppers in a jar...for $1. There's about 2 peppers in each jar. It's not crunchy, but I'd grab them while you can and the flavor is still wonderful!

I like olives in my potato salad. And like someone else said....I buy green peppers when they're on sale, dice them and freeze them.

Try a grannie smith apple, diced, with or without the peeling. If you don't tell what it is no one will probably guess what the bit of crunch is, but they will probably will comment on how good it is.

I like jicama, chopped up for crunch. It's also yummy with dips....

I first thought of the salad bar/deli but you said that was not an option. I never thought olives were supposed to be crunchy but I don't eat olives! I like radishes both for taste and crunch and it's a part of my potato salad and many other salads.

Check to see i your store has any frozen celery. Sometimes there's a "seasoning blend", Pictsweet is one brand, that is a combination of celery, onion and bell pepper. Lately I've been annoyed with tossing so much celery too, even when it was $1 but now I chop it and freeze it. Same with bell pepper and onion. It'll be a bit watery to pull out for a potato salad so you'd need to drain it while it thaws or maybe mix it with other add-ins and let the moisture impart some flavor, then drain before you add your potatoes and dressing.

Celery, onion & bell pepper, known in the south as the "trinity" or "cajun trinity" freezes well. You don't have to blanch it either. Clean it, chop it up and freeze it. Break off what you need when you need it. And this way you can use the whole purchase.

I do chop and freeze gr. pepper & onion but never thought of freezing celery. I'm wondering if it loses it's crunch. I just wish I could get over this crave for raw gr. pepper and cuke with dip. Oh, well I could crave something much less healthy, and I don't splurge a lot so if I buy 2 each a week, it won't break us.

So happens I was making Tuna salad this evening and I used some of the little peas. I didn't put them in the salad; thought maybe they would get mushy. I just added some on top of the Tuna salad. It was really good like that and also I got an extra veggie!

Good suggestion.

Sue

Celery does lose it's crunch when frozen. I don't use celery in my potato salad. Chopped onions (preferably added at the last minute) are the only crunch thing I do use in potato salad. But I do buy celery for other things, and I like to chop the extra, cook it until tender, then freeze it right in it's own cooking juice to use in soups and stews. That works great and no waste.

I love the flavor of celery and think that no substitution matches it. When I purchase a pack, I make sure that I use it to make chicken, egg, macaroni, potato, or tuna salad, soups and stews, rice combinations, and stuffed celery. It doesn't take but a few days to use up a pack of celery in this house.

When I've got something on the stove cooking, I'll sometimes bring in a little plate of stuffed celery for us to munch on while watching the news together.

I've never heard of celery in potato salad. I use potatoes, boiled eggs, sweet pickle relish,and chopped onions,mayo, a dash of mustard and a little vinegar(sometimes) with salt and pepper.

I like mine plain without any extra junk in it.

patti

Jafralady is right. Jicama tastes sort of like a raw potato--no real flavor of it's own, but it's definitely crunchy and good in salads. I don't know if it'd be any cheaper than celery though. Check it out!

No help here. I don't like my potato salad to crunch.

Linda

I guess when I've used the frozen it's been in cooked items so I'm not sure about the crunch factor... Hmmm. Not sure. When I think about it, it could be softer. Have to try it I guess. Thaw some and see. Although the flavor should still be there. Maybe it's just gonna be go for the fresh stuff! Too bad you don't have an Aldi nearby. Their veggies are downright cheap.

Just a wild thought - since you can rejuvenate limp celery in ice water, I wonder if it would work with frozen?

I use water chestnuts and/or cucumbers in my tuna salad sometimes to add crunch. I suppose they would work in potato salad as well.

I still buy the celery. After I've used what goes into potato salad, I clean and separate the remaining stalks, stand them in a glass of water. They'll last with the water perking them up. For snacks/lunches, I love stalks of celery with peanut butter spread on the length.

I use the entire amount of celery this way.

Cynic, I think that celery is like lettuce in that the delicate cell walls are damaged by freezing, and no, you can't rejuvenate frozen celery as you described.

I, too, use apples in my potato, chicken and tuna salads. Hum... I'm going to make some for dinner. Thanks for mentioning it.