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Celeriac soups and the 3rd ingredient
Do you like celeriac, a vegetable that is not always a big hit? If your answer is "no" or "not so much", it is perhaps that you have in mind the celery remoulade, the emblematic starter, with the eggs mimosa, of the bistrot kitchen.
It's very good, well if you like it of course, but it's a bit limited, and there's another aspect of celery that I'd like to talk about with you, and that is that it makes some pretty great soups.
It's very good, well if you like it of course, but it's a bit limited, and there's another aspect of celery that I'd like to talk about with you, and that is that it makes some pretty great soups.
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Last modified on: May 21th 2022
Keywords for this post:Celery rootSoupIngredientMilkMustardTahinehParsleyCeleriac soups and the 3rd ingredient
The main advantage is that they all have the same base: we cook the celery cut in small pieces in milk, and when it is quite soft, we mix the whole thing and then we add a third thing, a third ingredient, which makes all the flavor of this declination, accompanying the celery base. It is very simple, easy to make, and delicious.
It's very classic, you peel the vegetable, the skin is hard, thick and the bottom is generally quite earthy, so there is quite a lot of waste, at the end you have to keep only the flesh, very firm, white, of the celery, everything else goes (if possible) to the compost.
It would be a mistake to try to cook large pieces of celery, it will take longer and be very irregular, the time it takes for the heat to reach the heart. To do it right, you need to cut the large pieces obtained after peeling into small pieces, as regular as possible. Unfortunately, there is no trick to this, it is a bit long and tedious, but if you have a mandolin you will save time.
Put your small pieces of celery in a large saucepan, cover with whole milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg if you like, turn on the heat, not too high.
Let it cook at low temperature until the celery is very tender, a knife tip can easily go through it.
This is where the 3rd ingredient comes into play, it is there to accompany the celery, here are 3 examples:
- 2 tablespoons of mustard(recipe)
- 3 or 4 tablespoons of sesame puree or tahineh as shown in the photo(recipe)
- A good bunch of whole parsley (leaves and stems) that has been scalded for 1 minute and then refreshed under cold water(recipe)
As you can see, it's very simple, and there's nothing to stop you from imagining or trying your own 3rd ingredient: Cashew nuts, a little tomato paste, etc. etc. Let your imagination and your taste do the rest.
To sum up: By starting with a simple base, celery cut and cooked in milk, then adding a single third ingredient before blending carefully, you can obtain delicious and easy to prepare soups.
First, the celeriac
It's very classic, you peel the vegetable, the skin is hard, thick and the bottom is generally quite earthy, so there is quite a lot of waste, at the end you have to keep only the flesh, very firm, white, of the celery, everything else goes (if possible) to the compost.
It would be a mistake to try to cook large pieces of celery, it will take longer and be very irregular, the time it takes for the heat to reach the heart. To do it right, you need to cut the large pieces obtained after peeling into small pieces, as regular as possible. Unfortunately, there is no trick to this, it is a bit long and tedious, but if you have a mandolin you will save time.
Then the cooking
Put your small pieces of celery in a large saucepan, cover with whole milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg if you like, turn on the heat, not too high.
Let it cook at low temperature until the celery is very tender, a knife tip can easily go through it.
And finally the association
This is where the 3rd ingredient comes into play, it is there to accompany the celery, here are 3 examples:
- 2 tablespoons of mustard(recipe)
- 3 or 4 tablespoons of sesame puree or tahineh as shown in the photo(recipe)
- A good bunch of whole parsley (leaves and stems) that has been scalded for 1 minute and then refreshed under cold water(recipe)
As you can see, it's very simple, and there's nothing to stop you from imagining or trying your own 3rd ingredient: Cashew nuts, a little tomato paste, etc. etc. Let your imagination and your taste do the rest.
To sum up: By starting with a simple base, celery cut and cooked in milk, then adding a single third ingredient before blending carefully, you can obtain delicious and easy to prepare soups.
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