Celeriac and Black Pepper Soup

A truly heartwarming natural thick vegetable soup, especially good on a cold winters day. I make this soup using a quality chicken stock but for vegans just use water and of course, substitute 2tbsp olive oil for the butter and naturally omit the bacon. Use plain yoghurt rather than cream.

15 minutes

45 minutes

Stove top cooking

Ingredients

75g butter
1 large celeriac

- peeled and cut into cubes
1 onion

- chopped
1 clove garlic

- chopped
1 large potato

- peeled and chopped
1 leek

- cleaned and roughly chopped
1 bayleaf
1.5 litres of chicken stock

- or water
Sea salt

- to taste
Plenty of freshly ground black pepper

- to taste
Garnish
50g cooked bacon

- turkey or beef, thinly sliced
Additional black pepper
Swirl of single cream

- optional

Instructions

Make soup:
01 In a large saucepan melt butter. Add celeriac, leek, potato, garlic, bayleaf and onion, season with salt and pepper. Gently cook the vegetables until all are soft. This will take a 10 minutes or so. Careful not to burn.
Cook soup:
02 Add the stock and bring the soup to a gentle boil, and then simmer for 40 minutes or so until the celeriac is completely soft and tender. Remove bayleaf.
Complete soup:
03 Using an electric food processor or immersion hand blender pulse until a smooth puree. Return to the pan. Pan fry the bacon lardons. Keep to one side.
Serve:
04 Divide the soup between bowls and top with the hot fried bacon bits and plenty of extra freshly ground black pepper.

Notes

This is a truly heartwarming natural thick soup, especially good on a chilly winter day. Delicious as is but extra special with a swirl of single cream on the top. The addition of freshly ground black pepper is also good as this adds extra spicy heat to this unique creamy celeriac soup. Can freeze.