A chunky, warming celery soup recipe, with just a hint of apple
Make this delicious homemade veggie soup when celery's in season, during the winter months. Here in Norfolk, UK, we get wonderful celery from the nearby fenlands of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. These heads of celery are huge and still have the rich black fenland soil clinging to the stalks. This makes the very best of celery soups because it's so full of flavour, but if you can't get such excellent celery, don't worry. This veggie soup recipe will work just fine with more basic ingredients.
Celery Soup Recipe
The picture shows the soup as it cooks, before blending - it's very pretty and colourful. Blend it lightly in a food processor when cooked, so that it retains a good, chunky texture.Add a little more chopped flat leaf parsley to serve, if you wish.
You will need:
1 head of celery 2 onions 2 eating apples 1-2 cloves garlic few sprigs flat leaf parsley 600-700 ml (2.5 - 3 cups) chicken or vegetable stock 225ml (1 cup) milk 2 tbsp olive oil
Method:
Cut the root and leaves off the celery and remove any coarse strings. Wash well and chop.
Peel and slice the onions, peel and crush the garlic. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and soften the onion and garlic for a few minutes.
Core the apple and cut into chunks. You can peel it if you wish. Add to the pan with the parsley.
Pour in enough stock to almost cover the vegetables, bring to the boil, and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the celery is tender.
Allow to cool a little, and add the milk.
Pour into a food processor and pulse-chop so that the vegetables are coarsely chopped, not pureed. The soup should be quite chunky.
Return to the pan to heat through and thin with a little more stock or milk if you wish.
The picture shows the soup as it cooks, before blending - it's very pretty and colourful. Blend it lightly in a food processor when cooked, so that it retains a good, chunky texture.Add a little more chopped flat leaf parsley to serve, if you wish.