Brrr! It's been cold this week. Perfect weather for soup and sitting on the couch with the heater on.
I don't think I've ever had celeriac before this winter. It's so unattractive with it's brown knobbly surface that I never felt tempted to pick it up. Appearances can be deceiving though, and I'm glad I decided to give it a try.
Celeriac is a kind of celery that's grown for the taproot rather than for the stem and leaves. It has a mild flavour with a cross between celery and parsnip. The first time we ate it, we had it alongside mashed potato, and I kept it separate in case we didn't like it. Fortunately, that wasn't the case, and the following week I picked up a large one (over a kilo!). What to do with such a big lump of celeriac? Soup!!
I softened some onion, garlic and diced bacon (probably didn't need the bacon) in a pot, then added the diced celeriac and enough vegetable stock to cover. It all simmered until the celeriac was soft, and then I used my stick blender to puree it. After that, I seasoned it with salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice and stirred through some grated parmesan (probably didn't need the cheese).
Here it is served up with a dash of extra virgin olive oil, and some diced celery leaves. My soup was very thick, so I found it quite filling. It was perfect for a meal on the couch!
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