Celeriac soup

What a delicious soup this is. Whether you love or dislike celeriac or even know what it is (!) you will like this soup.

Again, the recipe for our celeriac soup has been developed over the last few years, ensuring it’s kept simple whilst maximising on flavour.

For the soup – at least 6 servings

1 medium/large Celeriac
150gm Salted butter
½ ltr Vegetable stock
Sea salt

For serving

50gm Salted butter
100ml Double cream
Crème Fraiche
Finely chopped Chives
Crouton Soldiers
Truffle oil

You will need

Saucepan
Hand-held or small stand-alone liquidiser
Bowl

Making the Celeriac soup

Trim the celeriac and remove the outer layer of skin. You only want the white flesh. Take care, since this veg is a tough old thing and needs a sharp knife to cut it. Take care of your fingers.

Slice the celeriac into 2cm cubes. Hint: If there’s likely to be a delay between cubing the celeriac and starting to cook it, cover the cubes in a bowl of water with some lemon juice to stop the celeriac turning brown.

Melt the butter in a large pan, add the celeriac and stir with a wooden spoon to ensure everything is covered with butter.

Cover the pan and cook gently over a low to medium heat (don’t burn the butter) for 10 minutes, stirring every two minutes to keep everything covered in butter.

After these ten minutes are up, add enough stock to cover the celeriac and cook over a medium heat until the celeriac is just soft.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool a bit before liquidising really well. If it’s too thick for the liquidiser, add more stock or fresh milk.

Provided you’ve liquidised it well there’s no need to sieve this soup.

Return it to the heat and add salt as required. You may be surprised how much is needed but you’ll know when it’s just right – it’s obvious.

Don’t add pepper. The black specs will spoil the look.

Serving the Celeriac soup

Pour the soup into a clean pan and reheat – do not boil – and add the double cream. Stir well and check if it needs any more salt.

Finally, check the consistency is right. Add more stock or milk to thin, or keep on the heat to thicken.

Pour into warm bowls and add a sprinkling of chopped chives and a drizzle of truffle oil on top.

Finally, place a small dollop (a Play d’eau technical term) of crème fraiche on the top of each serving.

Each person should have six Soldier Croutons.

Additional touches

As with most soups, leaving them in the fridge to ‘mature’ brings a greater depth of flavour. Keeps well in the freezer.

This soup is also great as an Amuse Bouche, served either hot or cold without the croutons.

Coming soon…

• Poached eggs that look so good
• Vinaigrette dressing using a raspberry vinegar

Piers and Lin
from the Galley of
Play d’eau
Fleming 55

You can get in touch with us any time by using our Contact Form.