Roasted Cream of Celeriac Soup

It’s cold. I know it’s the understatement of the season, but February is the worst! Snow has been predicted for twice this week, and the total new snowfall will be over a foot. Everything in me is saying “Stay Warm” – and so I shall, with a fantastic soup I made this weekend. It adapts perfectly well to a vegetarian version, but you might want to leave out the cream….

Roasted Cream of Celeriac Soup

4 C (about 2) peeled and cubed Celeriac
2 Tb. Olive Oil
1 Onion, chopped
2 cloves of Garlic, chopped

2 stalks of Celery, chopped

1 Leek, chopped
1 Potato, peeled and chopped
4 C Chicken or Vegetable Stock
1 sm bunch fresh Thyme
3 Tb. fresh Italian Parsley
2 C Heavy Cream
Salt and Pepper to taste
Homemade Croutons, if desired.

Preheat oven to 425. Toss celeriac with 1 Tb. oil and roast

for 30 min. stirring occasionally. In a large pot, heat oil and add onion, garlic, celery and leek. Saute for 4-5 min. or until onion is soft. Add potato, stock, thyme and parsley, then bring to a boil. Then reduce heat, partially cover and simmer for 20 min. Add celeriac and cook for 10-20 min. more. Remove from heat and cool slightly. (I just put mine outside the kitchen door. It was cooled in no time!) Make the croutons by tossing bread cubes in olive oil and salt until browned. Remove from heat. Back to the soup: strain the veggies well and puree the soup in batches using a food processor, until smooth. Return to sauce pan and add cream. Then slowly add the leftover stock until you like the consistency.

Season with 1 Tb. salt and LOTS of black pepper. When you serve this soup, make sure it’s very hot. Grind even more pepper on top as you serve it. The deal is, you get a nice hot spoonful of soup that warms you all the way down, followed by a warm feeling from the pepper. It’s DIVINE!

To warm this soup up the next day, spread the soup in a bread pan and cover with foil. Set the bread pan into a 9x13 pan with water poured into it. When the bread pan sits in the water, it should be about 1” deep. Set this into a 425 degree oven for 40 min. It will be piping hot!