We love celery soup. Celery is a fine thing; tall, proud and distinctive tasting, but heat mellows it, rounds the edges, seduces the non-celery lover into a helpless admirer. Marvellous. Neither Ian nor Alex are fans of raw celery, but they both love this soup. Really, they LOVE it. What’s even better? It couldn’t be easier to make.

Peel and chop a medium sized onion and put it into a large saucepan with a drizzle of oil and a tbsp of salted butter.

On a medium heat, saute it for 5 – 10 mins until it’s softening and beginning to colour.

Acquire a head of celery

Argh!

OK. Then chop it up and add it to the softening onion. There will be leafy bits in the middle – fling them in as well and stir around.

Then reach for a medium sized potato. Peel it (I only had a huuuuuge potato, so I cut it in half)

Dice it up and add it to the celery and onion.

Saute and stir until the vegetables are beginning to get into the groove- just getting a bit warm and interested.

Heat about 500 ml of chicken (or vegetable) stock and add it to the veg.

Give it a good stir, then cover it and let it simmer away.

How long to simmer it for depends on lots of things – how woody the celery is, how large you chopped everything; but reckon on around 30 mins. Start poking the veg at that point anyhow, to see that they are all tender.

I then cool it overnight to let all the flavours come together, but that’s more out of convenience. There is nothing stopping you from liquidising and serving it straight away.

I pour the soup into a large bowl and use my stick blender. Mine is cold here so all I have to worry about is getting splashed, but if you’re doing yours straight away, do mind that you don’t get scolded.

Serve in mugs or bowls, season to taste and if you wish, add the merest dribble of cream and swirl it through to make pretties

or just stir the drizzle of cream through and serve with some sweet potato bread.

Instant veg into kids, but cunningly slipped under the radar.

If it’s too thick, simply add some boiling water and stir that through, but do check the seasoning. If it’s wildly thick because you used a very big potato, just water it down with some more stock.

Mmmmmm.

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Celery Soup

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1 head celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 medium potato, diced
500 ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp salted butter
salt and pepper
cream (optional)

Melt the butter and a drizzle of oil in a large saucepan.
Add the onion and saute for 5-10 mins until colouring.
Add the celery, stir to combine.
Add the potato, stir to combine, saute until the veg is hot and beginning to look like it might soften sometime soon.
Season with salt and white pepper.

Stir in the stock.
Cover and cook until the vegetables are soft. Check at 30 mins.

Liquidise and serve or freeze. It freezes very well.
Drizzle a little cream to serve, if you wish. If you want to keep it low calorie, don’t bother – it can stand on its own two feet!