I know I say, "You just gotta trust me!" a lot on this blog, and here I go again.
Celery Soup? Why on earth would I make celery soup? Well, I had been making mineral broth for one of my clients, and I had quite a lot of celery left over in my crisper bin. I chopped it up in salads, added it to salmon burgers, tossed into my stir fry, but I still had so much left over. I always look at that as an opportunity to do something new. Why not soup?
I started out by melting butter & olive oil in a pot, then tossed in onion, celery and baby red potatoes.
After they were good and tender, I added some homemade chicken broth and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. If you're a vegetarian, you can use vegetable broth, but I have learned that some simple soups, like this one, benefit from the fat that you get from the chicken broth. Next I pureed the soup in my Vitamix until smooth (the potatoes help give it a creamy texture without the cream), returned it to the pot and added lemon zest, apple cider vinegar and fresh dill. As always, I hit it with a couple pinches of salt and tentatively took my first taste. Delicious! My mom was in town, and was less than thrilled when I told her what I was making for lunch (I'm fully aware that celery soup sounds dull....but turns out, it's not!). Even she thought it was "divine" and asked if there was enough left over for lunch the next day. High praise, believe me!
So, "trust me!" and give this a try the next time you find yourself with excess celery (or virtually any other veggies for that matter, just pick different herbs to go with what veg you have on hand).
Creamy Celery Soup
Serves 4
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup chopped yellow onion
6 celery stalks, sliced
1/4 lb baby red potatoes, quartered
3 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch fresh ground pepper
- Heat oil and butter in a saucepan over medium high heat.
- Add onions and sauté for 5 minutes, until softened.
- Add celery and potatoes and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for an additional 5 minutes.
- Add chicken broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes.
- Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth.
- Return soup to pot and add vinegar, dill and zest.
- Season with salt & pepper.
Yum it up!
