Today´s recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group is „Celery-Celery Soup“, a lovely fresh dish, inspired by a recipe from the Paris bistro "Les Papilles". The soup pairs celery stalks as well as celeriac, hence the name of the soup.
Celeriac, is a large, knobbly root vegetable, the base of the stem of certain types of celery. It is from the celery family and tastes quite similar, but has a slightly nutty, milder and sweeter taste. To prepare celeriac, peel it like a potato, rinse and keep in acidulated water until ready to use to prevent it from discoloring. It can be roasted, boiled and mashed, steamed, made into soup or used to flavor stocks. And it is perfect for making vegetable chips.
For the soup, melt the butter in a large Dutch oven, add the celery, onions and apples, season with salt and pepper and cook for about five minutes. Add the celeriac cubes, bay leaf, and thyme. Add the hot homemade chicken or vegetable stock to the pot, cover with a lid and cook for thirty minutes. Pour the mixture into a blender and blitz until smooth. Pour the soup into a lovely vintage soup tureen and garnish with toppings of choice such as curried croutons (as per Dorie) or homemade crisp celeriac chips and crème fraîche as well as some fresh cress (as per myself).
This easy celery soup recipe is surprisingly elegant and was received very favorably by most of my devoted taste testers.
Because the vegetables are very slowly cooked, this soup has lots of lovely flavors. We really enjoyed the combination of the two types of celery as well as the addition of the two cooking apples to the soup - the celery stalks have a bright flavor, the celeriac added a bit of nutty flavor and the apples lend a bit of sweetness to the final dish. A little touch of thick crème fraîche and fresh, homemade crispy celery chips will not go amiss here. Celery was definitely the star of the show here.
To see how much the other members of the French Fridays with Dorie group enjoyed this recipe, please go here.
For copyright reasons, we do not publish the recipes from the book. But you can find the recipe for the “Celery-Celery Soup“ on page 65 in Dorie Greenspan´s cookbook "Around my French Table".
Beautiful presentation, all your photos are gorgeous. This was a simple soup to prepare and it turned out delicious. We loved it too.
ReplyDeleteRosemarie, thank you very much - you are absolutely right about this being a simple soup to prepare - with ingredients that were easy to find at this time of year, just perfect!
DeleteYour celery chips are to die for... gorgeous presentation. Glad you enjoyed the soup and happy unification day. I still remember when it happened.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Diane, we had a nice "day off" and took the kids on a wonderful trip, gorgeous weather too. And the celebration for the Unification Day are already in their 24th year...time does indeed seem to fly sometimes.
DeleteYour celery chips surely put this over the top!! Your tureen is surely lovely, and as always your photos are spectacular. I thought this was pretty good - I did use the curried croutons with this, which I thought was a nice addition. Hope you enjoyed your holiday!!
ReplyDeleteCandy, that is so nice, thank you - the soup tureen is a nice vintage one, oval shape and small enough for appetizer quantities as I have taken to calling them - we enjoyed the soup as an appetizer, followed by early fall pasta with lots of veg and herbs in the sauce.
DeleteSimply beautiful presentation and as always gorgeous photos! Love the idea of celery chips, Andrea! Such a nice addition to the soup! Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteKthay, soup is always easy to present in a nice way - I have taken a definite liking to veg chips these days and add them to many a dish. As I used only half for the soup, I had so much celeriac left over that I did not want to freeze, so, the chips were a tasty choice.
DeleteI love the celery root chips and herbs on top of your soup. It's gorgeous. Hope you and your family enjoyed your holiday. I took Dorie's suggestions and made curried apples and croutons. Try that version some time too. It was delicious!
ReplyDeleteBetsy, I will follow your advice and add the curried apples and croutons to my Celery-Celery Soup next time - we were just in the mood for crème frîche and veg chips yesterday and a bit "curried out" as I had used it in a few recipes last week. Thank you for the kind comment, so nice that we all seem to have enjoyed this soup so much!
DeleteAndrea! Its only elegant because you made it so, as with all your other culinary creations! Always a joy visiting you!
ReplyDeleteEmily, thank you - personally, I am convinced that velvety vegetable soups always have a certain "inherent elegance". But the Celery-Celery Soup was really nice served this way with crème fraîche and celery chips and a bit of fresh cress.
DeleteI won't say anything that the others haven't already said! Beautiful presentation - the soup looks so good. I can almost smell it :)
ReplyDeleteAhu, thank you kindly!
DeleteWow homemade chips I am impressed. I thought serving with some cream was essential.
ReplyDeleteDiane, homemade chips are a cinch to make, I make them with leftover veg pieces all the time. Thank you for stopping by!
DeleteYour soup looks wonderful - I'd love to try it, now that we're moving toward colder weather!
ReplyDeleteBeth, the Celery-Celery soup is quite easy to prepare with some cubed celeriac, chopped celery stalks and cooking apples - I am sure that the recipe for Dorie´s soup form "Around my French Table" can be found online - I am not sure but I believe I have rad you even own a copy of this cookbook and I just know that you will love the soup!
DeleteThe celeriac chip looks beautiful! That's something I can do with my Caribbean celery root. Thanks for the inspiration. :-)
ReplyDeleteAdriana, thank you very much - veg chips are "a big thing with me" these days - a great way to use up some leftover veg from the recipes.
DeleteHold the celery-celery soup and just pass me the homemade crisp celeriac chips. Who but The Kitchen Lioness would come up with vegetable chips made from celery root? You've made a silk purse out of a sow's ear (Do you know that expression?). Just a wonderful Post, Andrea, with gorgeous pictures and glorious food.
ReplyDeleteMary, that´s what I did, munched away on the chips, so that there were almost not enough left for the picture...they are such a treat when eaten warm with just a sprinkling of sea salt! Thank you kindly for your comment!
DeleteAndrea
I love the way you presented this soup - the celeriac chips alone are just gorgeous. Here's to our last six months or so of cooking through Around My French Table. I'm so glad you found the group and that I've been able to get to know you a little through our posts.
ReplyDeleteTeresa, thank you for welcoming me in to your group a while back - I truly appreciate all the kind comments and so much more of the last couple of years from all of the talented members of the French Fridays with Dorie group - you are all truly the very best!
DeleteYou have made this soup look elegant - ha ha, you should see the gloop I made. But it tasted fine.
ReplyDeleteGaye, thank you so much - these cream soups always seem to scream for some kind of elegant presentation.
DeleteBeautiful presentation, Andrea. I just love the way to set the table. If I lived near you, I would be SO fat!
ReplyDeleteBut Colette, you know that I serve a lot of veg - no one in my family can be considered "fat", not by any stretch of the imagination...it is all about the portions...thank you for the kind comment, dear friend!
DeleteBeautiful job:) The soup served in your lovely dishes topped with Celeriac Chips looks delicious. I do like soup made from Celery root so I need to get busy and make this recipe.
ReplyDeleteGeraldine, if you get a chance to make this recipe, you will not regret it - it has a mild and very pleasant celery flavor - just right.
DeleteThe chips were really a lovely idea! I grated mine and toasted them for a garnish, but I think I really would have enjoyed this much better.
ReplyDeleteCher, thank you kindly, I have a bit of an obsession these days with vegetable chips - they are so delicious on their own with a bit of sea salt as well as part of the topping for a soup.
Deletewell..well well... i love your presentation.. i must invite myself to your lovely place.
ReplyDeleteCandy, if you were in the neighbourhood, you would be quite welcome to come to dinner one day!
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