(GV, Veg)
A beautiful nourishing and relatively different take on soup. This roasted celeriac soup adds a splash of raw apple to give you just a hint of spring. Its light and refreshing for when you dont want the heaviness of winter fair or in the hotter months when you are feeling a bit under the weather and you need a bit of soup action.
Celeriac aka celery root, knob celery and turnip rooted celery. If there was an underdog of the vegetable world its celeriac, hard to find and often overlooked because of their interesting appearance (no judgement). They are covered in odd appendages, mud filled crevices and warty protrusions (personally, I quite like the look fo them and find their appearance mysterious). By appearance alone, celeriac looks neither easy to work with nor enjoyable to taste, so why bother?, because celeriac is actually pretty special and looks can be deceiving !
Raw, celeriac has a fantastic crunch and a supper nutty celery like flavour that makes it perfect for salads and slaws. Cooked, it takes on a a slight sweetness that works well mashed, baked, roasted or boiled, it all adds up to celeriac being an extraordinarily versatile vegetable thats well worth adding to our plate.
Packed with fibre, plant based goodness its impressive health benefits include improved digestion, microbiome health as well as anticancer effects. Celeriac contains B6, C & K a good source of antioxidants and important minerals such as phosphorus, potassium & manganese. You just need to slice off the outside ugliness and you have a little gem. After all it really is about what's on the inside that counts.
Roasted Celeriac
Peel a whole big celeriac and cut into cubes
7 garlic cloves peeled
1/4 tsp sage, thyme, basil oregano & celery salt
Dollops of olive oil
Mix the herbs, garlic, celeriac and coat with olive oil rubbing all the ingredients together.
Soup
1 Leek
1 Onion
1 Apple (use a sweet crisp apple)
(roasted celeriac from above)
3 bay leaves
2 litres of vegetable stock
Preheat oven to 180-190c, line baking tray with the celeriac and herbs and bake for around 30 minutes.
In a large pot heat some olive oil, add leak, apple and onion to cook until soft and translucent.
Add the roasted celeriac and bay leaves then cover with vegetable stock. Bring to boil and then reduce the heat and let the soup simmer for 30 minutes.
Take the pot off the head and remove the bay leaves, making sure that all the ingredients are soft and ready to blend with a stick blender.
Season with salt & pepper to takes. (if the soup is too thick you can add a little almond or oat milk)
To serve top with toasted walnuts, apple slices and a dash of yoghurt or cream.