Give Campbell's a run for their money, of course!
We had celery** on hand already, and when our CSA (community supported agriculture) organic vegetable box arrived this week, we had still MORE celery. A gigantic bunch. Stalks like palm trees.
J. mentioned he liked Campbell's Cream if Celery soup so I was off and running! (And here was me thinking you just used that for a base for sauce when you didn't have any cream of mushroom...)
Here's my made-up, rather luscious recipe...
1 sweet yellow onion, chopped
8 or so HUMONGOUS stalks of celery or the equivalent, chopped (more if you really want to move celery)
2 carrots, sliced (or about 8 baby ones if that's what you have)
(Some recipes call for a potato, but I had potato yesterday and my arthritis gets grumpy if I have too many nightshade family members)
2 T. butter (we mix unsalted organic butter with canola oil to cut the saturated fat, and add a bit of sea salt)
Saute' the vegetables in butter till they begin to soften, then add:
2 Q. chicken stock--we'd bought a roast chicken the other day and J. made stock from the bones and bits
A splash of white wine (we had Pinot Grigio on hand)--1/4- to 1/2 cup, unless you're an alcoholic, then forget it...it's good without, anyway (and yes, of course the alcohol cooks out, but hey...)
1 bay leaf
A couple of sprigs of thyme if you have it
A shake of sea salt
Pepper to taste (we've got a wonderful pepper mix called Pepperman, and don't really need salt in that case--it's got some in it.)
Simmer till the vegetables are soft, then blend in batches in your food processor or blender. Make sure you hold the lid down, I HAVE caused Vesuvious' Return in the past...
Add about 1 C. milk and a couple of T of sour cream, if you want.
OK, so much for the saturated fat thing...go read Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
!
If you need to thicken it, stir 1 T. flour and about 1/4 C. cold water until smooth, and pour into the hot soup. Stir till it thickens, and serve.
Top with more pepper, if you like, and we discovered a sprinkling of Parmesan/Asiago cheese was a pretty decent accent.
....AND, since we still had celery left, I mad a variation on the theme today! ALSO really good...
1/2 sweet yellow onion, chopped
8 or so of those ginormous stalks of organic celery or the equivalent, chopped
2 carrots, sliced (or about 8 baby ones if that's what you have)
2 T. butter
Saute' the celery, onion, and carrots in butter till they begin to soften, then add:
1 potato, red or Idaho, chopped...we had a red one from our CSA
2 quarts chicken stock--this time I used the commercial organic stuff from the store. Still good, though not quite as flavorful, so I added a spoonful of Better Than Bullion's Chicken flavor...
A shake of sea salt
Pepper to taste (I used Pepperman pepper mix again, but a nice coarse-grained pepper would be good.)
2 or 3 T. Worcestershire sauce, white or original--try a bit at a time and taste!
Again simmer until the vegetables are soft, then blend till smooth,
Add about 1 C. milk, especially if the celery is strong flavored. Ours was!
Top with more pepper and grated cheese...tastes good with whole wheat crackers, too! We just had a cloudy-day lunch and it was lovely...
**And by the way, Joseph reminds me that unless you get organically grown celery--which we did--it's one of the most sprayed and contaminated vegetables out there. Sorry! <:-{
That's nearly exactly what I do with the celery we get in our CSA box, too. We hardly get any celery all year, then wham! We get a bunch or even two bunches each week for about 8 weeks. There are only so many Bloody Mary's I can garnish in that time frame, ya know?
ReplyDeleteI also wash and dice the surplus celery, then freeze it on a parchment or wax paper lined shallow baking dish. Then I store the frozen diced celery in a zip bag in the deep freeze for quick handfuls when making soup, sauces, etc. Defrosted dice celery isn't quite as good in cool fresh dishes like tuna or chicken salad, but it's just fine for cooked dishes like soups and eggplant caponata.
Thanks for the tip! I'll try that next time...I'm totally hooked on eating the pale, tender hearts immediately, fresh, but there's all that robust stuff to deal with, too.
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