Monday 9 January 2012

Cream of Celery Soup

We have had a good supply of celery from the garden this winter, and as soup is so warming, it often appears on the lunch menu!  Here is my recipe,  made up as I went along!


CREAM OF CELERY SOUP

3 medium onions chopped coarsely
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons of oil
1 whole celery plant (mine was from my garden so I used the many outside stalks for this; centre stalks kept for eating separately). The outside stalks were a bit stringy, so we chopped them into very short pieces (6mm/quarter inch) to avoid the strings
5 medium peeled potatoes, chopped coarsely
2 bay leaves broken up with stalk removed
1 chilli chopped (optional)
chicken stock or water with a stock cube
Milk
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
6 to 8 whole black peppercorns
10 parsley stalks with leaves. Chop the stalks and the parsley leaves separately
Cream or crème fraiche

In a large saucepan, sauté onion in butter and oil until soft. Add chopped celery, potatoes, bay leaves, chilli, parsley stalks and salt and peppercorns. Add equal amounts of stock (water & stock cube if using) and milk until the vegetables are almost covered. They will soon soften and settle under the liquid. Reduce heat and simmer vegetables gently until tender.

Put in liquidiser with the parsley leaves and liquidise until smooth. (You may have to do two lots).  I use a wand and liquidise in the saucepan.

Return the soup to pan if necessary, and heat through for 2-3 minutes until steaming hot. Season to taste.

Add a whirl of cream or crème fraiche just before serving.

This soup keeps well in the fridge for several days or it freezes well.

P.S. yesterday I added a tablespoon of herbes provence (mixed herbs) and it was even better!

Just liquidised in the saucepan, if a bit thick, add a little extra milk or cream

and the end product. Enjoy. 

66 comments:

  1. It looks wonderful. That is my way of cooking...make it up as I go along! This would be nice to pull out of the freezer later on too! Yum!

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  2. Many thanks my dear friend Diane, for this delicious recipe!!!
    I wish you, to be very good !
    Best regards an many kisses

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  3. This looks delish!! I love celery soup but have never actually made it.

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  4. That is the kind of stuff I like!
    Great idea, I'll try that one soon!
    Thanks, Diane!
    Hope all is well for the both of you!
    Cheers, à bientôt!

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  5. Lyndsay it was really delicious. I made some yesterday and added a tablespoon of herbes provence (mixed herbs) and it gave it a really nice flavour. Diane

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  6. Magda I was really happy with this soup. It turned out well. Take care. Diane xx

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  7. Jean this was really worth the effort, it was really good. The tablespoon of herbes provence that I added to it yesterday made it even better. Diane x

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  8. Noushka it was very yummy and not really much trouble. My celery was quite dirty with all the rain so washing it was a pain but... Diane x

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  9. Hiello Diane, I love this recipe. I'm definitely going to make this soup. I love the sweet scent of herb de provance. Hope you're well. Take care.

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  10. I love celery soup! I think you've inspired my lunch for tomorrow!

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  11. Une soupe bien délicieuse et bien saine pour le mois de janvier.
    Je note.
    A très bientôt

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  12. I have to admit i really dislike cellery. Probably the only food together with goats cheese that i can't eat. However, this soup really does look delicious. Bon apetit!

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  13. This sounds delicious and as it happens I have some celery that needs to be used very soon. I really like your recipe. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

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  14. Mmmmm.... (deep inhale) I can almost smell it. Nice to be able to cook from your own garden.

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  15. Bursting with goodness - what a lovely bunch of celery! fantastic soup - would love a bowl for lunch
    mary x

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  16. Marco Pasho we really enjoyed this soup especially all the vegetables were fro the garden :) Hope you enjoy. Diane

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  17. Ladyjustine, I guess you are not too far from us if you were at the La Rochefoucauld Church. Hope you enjoy your celery soup :) Diane

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  18. Aarthi it tasted pretty good to us so I hope you enjoy as much as we did. Diane

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  19. Nadji. Merci pour vos commentaires, A bientôt. Diane

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  20. Boye By Red, sorry not to your taste :( I am lucky as there is nothing I really dislike, though I am not very fond of peanut butter! Diane

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  21. Mary I hope you make the soup as it really was yummy. Keep well. Diane

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  22. Gaelyn, all the vegetables I used were from my garden, even the bay leaves. It is a case of what I have on hand to make up a recipe :) Diane

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  23. Mary (Mum's kitchen) how about popping over for lunch LOL Diane

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  24. Gosh, celery! Must have a go at growing that next year. But the 'wand' - is that some sort of special kitchen gadget that you wave in the air to make things cook properly. If so, can I have one too!......

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  25. That looks yummy. I am going to buy me a liquidiser so I can make this.

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  26. I loved eating canned cream of celery when I was a kid but never thought to make it as an adult. It looks wonderful!

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  27. lovely soup must try celery is great

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  28. Diane, the soups looks just delicious. Soups are just so soothing during the winter months. How wonderful to be able to grow your own vegetables - it must make everything taste so much better. I use celery a lot, especially in juices, stocks & broths and of course in lots of dishes along with carrots and onions. I will definitely give this recipe a go once it cools down here in Australia. Fifi

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  29. Vera you just make a wish and put the wand in the food and hey presto LOL. It is actually a stick blender, but it is so much easier than an ordinary liquidiser. I planted winter celery in late September and again in October, and it has been fantastic. The warmer weather has probably helped a lot :) Diane

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  30. Becca I find the stick blender, or wand is actually far more useful than my liquidiser and probably cheaper as well. I use it almost all the time now and the liquidiser does not get much use any more. Diane

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  31. Pam it was really worthwhile it was so much better than the tinned soup. Diane

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  32. Rebecca Subbiah if you try it I am sure you will enjoy, it was very good. Diane

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  33. Fifi B. I envy you your weather at the moment that you do not need soup to warm you, but I an sure you will enjoy this come winter. Diane

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  34. Always enjoy seeing what you are cooking..Looks so good.
    Hope you are doing much better..George/CaraRose are doing better..What an odd cough, it was.
    Off to read what I missed, since I have been very slow getting back to blogging..xoCarolyn

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  35. It looks like great soup. And while we've not had snow to any great degree, it's been cold and damp, which is the best soup weather!

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  36. Should you ever feel like sending out soup parcels.... add us to the list, please!

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  37. Wow that looks a heart warming soup Diane.

    Take care.

    Rose

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  38. Hi Diane .. sounds delicious and I love celery at any time of day or night .. your recipe looks good too .. thank you .. cheers Hilary

    PS love Colin and Elizabeth's idea - I'll add my name please!

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  39. Carolyn with my break in the internet connection and Christmas and New Year I just cannot catch up.....
    As for the cough, I seem to be getting worse again and I only see the specialist at the beginning of February. I am really fed up now with the whole thing and it just exhausts me. Nigel is still not well from the flu/cold he had at Christmas!! Glad to hear some improvement at you end. Diane

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  40. Niall and Antoinette it was yummy :)) Diane

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  41. Marjie it sounds like your weather is similar to ours. Not that cold (as yet!) but damp and grey skies. Soup is very definitely the answer for this weather. Diane

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  42. Colin and Elizabeth You are on the list LOL. Diane

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  43. chubskulit it is a great soup, or we think so! Keep well, Diane

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  44. Hilary, we are also very fond of celery. Our plants are so thick the outer leaves being a bit stringy just make the best soup so long as they are chopped short. The centres are great to eat. Have added you to the soup parcel list :)) Diane

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  45. Hi Diane .. excellent to read I'm on the sloppy parcel list!!

    I do hope you both feel better soon - more rest .. by the sound of it.

    Cheers for now - Hilary

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  46. Merci Diane pour cette recette! J'ai les ingrédients et nous allons tester! Cela me semble délicieux!
    Bonne soirée à vous!

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  47. I love celery soup... it's so delicate and delicious. I found out something interesting about celery too. I forgot a core of celery with small stalks in the crisper. When I found it, it was nearly white and terribly delicious... go figure. I usually toss the leftover bits and now I save them to get that lovely middle section. It was a good discovery.

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  48. Looks so warming & delicious !! You have a 'Versatile Blogger Award' at my space. Grab it from this link: http://teenzyummydelights.blogspot.com/2011/11/liebster-blog-award.html

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  49. Lucie J'espère que vous apprécierez la soupe. Nous avons adoré. Gardez bien. Diane

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  50. lostpastremembered, thanks for the tip I will remember that one. Diane

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  51. Teena Mary thanks for your visit and the award, but as I am an Award free blog, see the message in my right hand column, I will not be picking it up.
    Thanks for your kind comment, take care Diane

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  52. Yum! It looks delicious, Diane! And it would be perfect for today as it's cold, windy and snowing like mad now. I've never made celery soup and must give it a try! I just bought Herbes Provence and just need celery.

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  53. sometimes i do get celery that's very stringy like what you said here, i cut the bottom of the celery with a knife and from there, cut it slantly at the sides and middle and with the help of the knife, just pull the strings off the celery.

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  54. Pam it has certainly cooled down here but no snow to date :) I am sure you will enjoy this soup we really enjoyed it. Hope all well over there other than the weather. Diane

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  55. Hi Lena, good tip I will remember that. For the soup it is quite easy to just chop short as once liquidised it is fine. The first lot of soup that I did, I didn't chop short and the liquidiser did not cope properly!
    Thanks Diane

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  56. Diane I am reading this and looking at those yummy photos in the library at college and my tummy is growling. Pure torture! Looks delish!

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  57. Dolly I can't even say pop over and have some as we have finished it all. I need to make a new batch. Maybe that is some consolation that we nave none at the moment :) Diane x

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  58. Bon week-end et à très bientôt

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  59. looks delicious...& healthy too...just joined you....ur blog is interesting & unique...

    if you like you may visit me at my blog :))

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  60. Vegetarian Surprises thanks for the visit my blog is about so many different things I hope that everyone finds something of interest. Take care Diane

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  61. i love celery but have never thought to make it into a soup this looks delicious thank you for sharing!

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  62. Your celery soup look so yummy, dip it with baguette must be wonderful!

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  63. Sonia it was great with baguette, you are right:) Diane

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  64. looks incredibly good!Wonderful for the weather!

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  65. ramya, it is a lovely soup and so warming for lunch with a baguette. Diane

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