How To Make Celery Root Soup
On a cold night there is nothing better than a pot of hot, homemade soup. It is especially nice if you can have it on a weeknight. A good pureed soup is not that difficult to make, but it can be made even easier if you employ your slow cooker. Just load the vegetables in the cooker in the morning and puree them when you get home. Simple. Easy. Delicious!
How To Make Celery Root Soup – The Celery Root
Celery root is one of those available vegetables that you know someone is buying, but you know it is not you. I never gave celery root a second thought, but somewhere along the way, and I am not exactly sure when, it appeared in my diet. I think it was a mash of some kind. I am pro celery flavor, so a root cooked and pureed into a nice soup that has rich celery flavor is all right by me. Others I know are pro celery flavor, but are anti celery texture so celery root can get you over that hump, too. Celery root not only tastes great, but also purees very smoothly. A celery root soup can certainly be velvety. By cooking it in the slow cooker, this is easily achieved.
How To Make Celery Root Soup – The Stock
Cooking the celery root in the slow cooker makes it simple. If you have vegetable stock, it makes a great medium in which to cook the root. A chicken stock works, too. Celery root does have plenty of flavor so if, in a pinch, you only had water around, not to worry. The soup will be fine.
How To Make Celery Root Soup – Vegan, Vegetarian or Neither
After 7-8 hours of cooking, celery root is ready to puree. This is a perfect job for a stick blender. The question is, do you make it vegan, vegetarian or neither. If I am in the vegan mood, I use a little soy cream or almond milk to smooth it out. Then I top with a little celery seed and pine nuts. If the soup is headed in a vegetarian direction, I go all out with whipping cream. The celery seed and pine nuts are still a go. If it is neither, I go for the cream then top with celery seed and crispy pancetta. Pancetta is a delicious cured bacon. Regular bacon will do the trick, too. So would crisped guanciale!
The “How To Make Celery Root Soup In The Slow Cooker” video is below. The full recipe follows.
- 1 medium sweet onion
- 4 pounds of celery root
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 cups of vegetable stock or chicken stock or water
- 1 cup of cream
- salt and pepper
- celery seed
- Peel and rough chop the onion.
- Peel the celery root and cut it into large chunks.
- Place the celery root and onion in the bowl of a slow cooker.
- Add the bay leaf.
- Add the stock.
- Cover and cook the celery root for 7-8 hours on low until it is very tender.
- Blend the celery root soup until smooth with a stick blender or in batches with a regular blender.
- When the soup is fully pureed, blend in the cream and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve hot garnished with celery seed.
- You can also garnish with pine nuts and/or pancetta.
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