You know, there are some vegetables which when you see them, you immediately have an idea of what to do with it. Like a broccoli for example. When I think of broccoli, a broccoli soup, or a gratin or just plain boiled as a side dish come to my mind. It would be the same with the cauliflower, for which I shared quite few ideas of what to make with it. Or a sweet potato. Easy, right?

And then we move to a celery. It’s not the prettiest of the vegetables that’s for sure. But when I see it in the store baskets, I have only soups that require soup greens in my mind. I tried to puree it to serve as a side dish, but the taste was just too… overwhelming. And truth be told, I did avoid it a bit afterwards. Until once, I bought a whole bulb.

I think it must have been one of those days when you go out grocery shopping looking for one thing and coming home to find out you bought anything else. I only could guess it should have been for a soup. Other than that, what else to do with a celery?

But as I used up all the other veggies, I probably would have it die eventually out of loneliness in our fridge, if I wouldn’t find this recipe in one of the cooking magazines first. Funny thing to that-the whole thing was full with pumpkin recipes, so it felt like finding a hidden gem. But I mean, it should have been used for a soup anyway and a cream soup sounded even better. It turned out much better than anticipated. Creamy, fresh and soooo delicious. We made it many times since and somehow, even though the pot was always full, we rarely had any leftovers. The best thing about this dish, aside of the taste, is the fact that you can garnish it any way you like. We tried it with croutons, seared sausages or bacon stripes and plain herbs. We loved it every time. And with this recipe I can say celery definitely cooked its way to my heart.

Do you have any celery recipes you like? What do you use it mostly for?

Preparation time: 10 min

Cooking time: 30 min

Serves 4

250g celery (around ¼ of the whole bulb)

250g potatoes (ca 3-4 potatoes)

1 onion

1-2 garlic cloves

800ml vegetable stock

100ml whipping cream (you can easily use soy cream)

A knob of butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh parsley

Fresh chives

FOR THE CROUTONS

2-3 toast slices

A little bit of olive oil

And here is how to do it:

Peel the celery and potatoes and cut in cubes. Peel the onion and garlic and cut in small cubes. In a large pot melt the butter, add the onion and garlic and sear until golden brown. Add the vegetables and cook over a medium heat for ca 10 min.

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Pour in the veggie stock and let everything cook for 20 min. After that time, using a hand blender pulse the soup until smooth and creamy.

Leave on the stove just for few minutes and reduce the heat to a minimum. Add the cream and taste with salt and pepper.

To make the croutons, brush the toast slices with a little bit of oil, on both sides. Cut into cubes and sear in a pan until brownish and crispy. You don’t need any additional oil. Chop the parsley and sprinkle some of it- not all, over the toasts.

Pour the soup on a plate, decorate with croutons and fresh parsley and chives.

One COMMENT: It is important to keep the potato and celery ratio 1:1, otherwise one of the vegetable will be too dominant in taste-trust me, it’s out of experience.