Harvest bounty Fall Soup
Crème of Celeriac Soup with Fresh Beet Chips
Vegan and Gluten-free, by Mary Fraser
Celeriac, also known as Celery Root, is a winter root vegetable and member of the celery family, and can be eaten cooked or raw. While it is a vegetable that can be grown locally, organically, and in a sustainable way while still being inexpensive and healthy, celeriac is predominantly grown in France, Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium, and is more common in Northern European and Mediterranean cuisine.
Celeriac is popular in Europe because of its nutritional benefits and diversity as an ingredient, as it can be served raw, boiled, baked, or roasted. It is a vegetable that is easy to grow, low in calories, high in fiber and contains no cholesterol or fat.
Soup is one of my favorite dishes. For variety, try combining different squashes and root vegetable purees into simple soup recipes for some wonderful alternatives. For starters, here is a simple soup recipe that is delicious with freshly made beet chips.
Yield: 8 Servings
For the Crème of Celeriac Soup
Ingredients
• 900g celeriac root, peeled and diced (apx 1” dices)
• 225g shallots, rough chopped
• 90g leeks, white and pale green parts only, rough chopped
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1.6 L vegetable stock or use chicken stock for more depth of flavor (if using store bought stock, use low/no sodium stock)
• 50g raw cashews
• 50g raw almonds (soak in 4 cups of water overnight), drained
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 4 sprigs thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste
Procedure
1. Sweat diced celeriac and shallots in oil and salt. Add leeks after 4 minutes, along with vegetable stock, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper.
2. Soft boil for 30-40 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add water if necessary to keep vegetables covered. Be careful not to over-reduce or run out of liquid.
3. Puree the cashews and almonds with 200 ml water in a blender, then strain through a nut milk bag. Combine the strained nut milk with the soup after removing the bouquet garni
4. Put the combined mixture in blender and puree until smooth.
5. Return to pot and heat to serve.
6. Salt and pepper to taste. Add salt :) at this point.
7. To serve, garnish top of hot soup with 3 beet chips. Serve immediately, as chips will get soggy quickly.
For the Vegetable Stock
This recipe makes more stock than this soup requires, so it can be frozen for later use.
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients
• 2 large onion, diced, sweated (1st)
• 4 carrots, diced, sweated (1st)
• 2 stalk celery, diced, sweated (2nd)
• 2 leek pale green parts, chopped, sweated (2nd)
• 2 parsnip, diced, sweated (2nd)
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped, sweated (2nd)
• 150g raw mushrooms (do not sauté)
• 4 bay leaves (for bouquet garni)
• 1 bunch chopped parsley (for bouquet garni)
• 10 thyme sprigs (for bouquet garni)
• 10 black peppercorns (for bouquet garni)
• 4 L water
• Cooking oil to sweat veggies
Procedure for Vegetable Stock
1. Sweat onions, carrots in oil, then add leeks, celery, garlic, parsnips, don’t achieve any color.
2. Add all ingredients to pot of water. Bring pot to boil, then simmer for 1 hour.
3. Rest, Strain, Degrease. Skim off oil and fat.
4. Use immediately or cool, cover, and refrigerate or freeze.
Note: Stock can keep for 4 days in the refrigerator, or 3 months in the freezer.
For the Beet Chips
Ingredients
• 2 medium red beets, peeled, de-stemmed. (use 2-3 chips per serving)
• cooking oil
• salt
Procedure
1. Using a mandoline, or vegetable slicer, slice the beets into 1/16” thick rounds. Rounds should be thicker than paper, but not by much. Think potato chip thickness.
2. Put enough oil in a pot so that the beet rounds can be submerged and heat the oil.
3. When oil is hot, use a wire skimmer to carefully place the rounds into the oil. Be careful not to splatter, as the oil burns! The beets will bubble rapidly upon entering the pot, as the moisture in the beet evaporates.
4. After the bubbling stops (apx 1-2 min), remove the beet rounds and place on a rack to dry and season immediately with salt.
5. Cooked chips can be kept warm in a low temperature oven.