Healthy Celery Garlic Toasts Recipes

BEST GARLIC TOAST (QUICK & EASY!)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Thinly slice the bread.
• Mince the garlic. In a small bowl, mix together the garlic with the olive oil, dried oregano, and salt. Use a brush to brush the mixture on both sides of each slice of bread and place them onto a baking sheet. Try to pick up some of the minced garlic with the brush, as it tends to sink to the bottom. (If the oil runs out, depending on your size of bread, just add a splash more to the bowl with the garlic.)
• Add a pinch of garlic powder to the top of each toast.
• Bake for 5 minutes until the crust is crisp but the inside is still soft. If desired, sprinkle with finely chopped Italian parsley. Enjoy immediately.

CLAMS WITH CELERY AND TOASTED GARLIC

Steps:

• Preferably using a natural bristle kitchen scrubber (a brand new kitchen sponge will work as well), scrub the clams well under running water. After the clams have been scrubbed and scrubbed again, let them hang out in a large bowl of cold water. This will allow any residual sediment or grit to free itself from the shells and settle at the bottom of the bowl while you do everything else.
• Heat oil, butter and chorizo or other pork product, if using, in a large pot (make sure it has a lid) over medium heat. Cook, swirling the pot occasionally until the butter has started to brown a little and the fat has begun to render from the pork, 3 to 4 minutes. (The pork won't be crispy, but that's O.K.; you're not looking for that.)
• Add the garlic and cook, stirring a minute or two until it begins to take on a toasty, light golden-brown color. Add wine and cook, letting it simmer until it's a little more than halfway reduced, 2 to 3 minutes. Add celery and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally until the celery is bright green and just tender, 2 to 3 minutes.
• Add clams and shake the pot so they settle nicely. Place the lid on the pot and give it the occasional shake, letting them steam open and release their juices, 3 to 5 minutes. (Larger clams will take longer.) The shaking of the pot is not only fun to do, but it gives all the clams quality time with the hottest part of the pot, which will encourage them to open around the same time, although there's always one or two clams late to the party. If there's one that just never makes it to the party (as in, it never opens), it's dead and should be thrown away.
• Toss the parsley, chives and celery leaves in a small bowl, then add lemon or lime zest and juice, and season with salt and pepper. Serve the clams with a hunk of crusty fresh bread or thick slices of toast that have been drizzled with lots of olive oil and rubbed with a cut clove of garlic, scattering the parsley mixture over everything.

CELERY TOASTS

Steps:

• Toast the bread to golden. Butter generously, "wall to wall." Lay cheese slices on top of buttered toast, neatly, evenly.
• In a small bowl, stir together the celery and the scallions. Microplane the garlic into the celery mixture.
• Dress with olive oil, lemon juice and salt, and stir very well, until completely dressed, almost wet with dressing.
• Mound the shaved celery salad evenly on top of the blue-cheese toasts, and grind black pepper over them very generously. Cut each in half or quarters.