Cream of Celery Soup

 13 April 2021

Recipe from Cook's Country, June 2013

Once a month we get small box of organic produce, a CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture) box. Recently our box contained not one but two bunches of celery. What are the two of us going to do with all of that celery? I did some hunting and found a recipe for celery soup that would use close to half of it. This would be a good start on making good use of this bounty.

Twelve chopped celery ribs, sliced potato, chopped onions, sugar, dried sage, salt, and pepper were added to melted butter in a Dutch oven and cooked to soften the celery and onion. Flour was added and cooked for a minute followed by chicken broth and a bay leaf. The mixture was brought to a boil then simmered until the potatoes were tender. The bay leaf was removed and the soup was processed in a blender until smooth. It was returned to the the stove,  cream was added and brought to a simmer. After seasoning with salt and pepper it was ready to serve. The recipe's estimated time of one hour was not even close as it took me two hours to make. I spent close to half an hour just preparing the vegetables.

This is a good soup. It was creamy and smooth with a nice blend of flavors from celery, cream, and sage. Like tomato or split pea soup it is probably better as a side dish than as the main course of a dinner. Some of it was frozen which caused it to separate. It did not look appetizing in this state but after re-heating it was fine. I don't know if I'll make it again but it was certainly a good way to use excess celery.