Celery Soup With Blue Cheese |
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Prep Time: 0 Minutes Cook Time: 40 Minutes |
Ready In: 40 Minutes Servings: 6 |
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This is a lovely creamy blue cheese soup. Use a blue cheese like Irish Cashel Blue or Blue Wensleydale. Or a blue cheese you love! Ingredients:
1 lb (450g) celery (1 large head, trimmed weight) |
2 oz (50g) butter |
1 potato (about 7 oz, 200g), peeled and diced |
1 pint (570ml) vegetable stock |
1 small onion, finely chopped |
5 fl oz (150ml) single cream |
5 oz (150g) blue cheese, rind removed and crumbled |
salt and freshly milled black pepper |
for the croutons |
4 oz (110g) thickly sliced white bread, crusts removed and cut into small cubes |
4 tablespoons walnut oil |
Directions:
1. First of all separate the stalks of celery from the base and trim, reserving the leaves for a garnish - the trimmed stalks should weigh 1 lb (450g).
2. Scrub them in cold water, drain them, then slice across ito thinnish slices.
3. Now in a large saucepan melt the butter and stir in the celery, the chopped potato and the onion.
4. Stir everything around to get a good coating of butter, then put a lid on the pan and, keeping the heat at minimum, allow the vegetables to sweat for ten minutes to release their buttery juices.
5. Then uncover and pour in the stock and bring it up to simmering point.
6. Cover again and cook gently for 30 minutes: after that test that the vegetables are tender and, if not, re-cover and continue to cook until they are tender.
7. Next remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream, then liquidise the soup along with the crumbled cheese until it is quite smooth.
8. Return the soup to the rinsed-out pan and re-heat very gently (do not boil at this stage).
9. Taste and season with salt and pepper and serve the soup sprinkled with the chopped celery leaves and crisp croutons (made by heating the walnut oil in a large frying-pan and frying the cubes of bread in it until golden-brown).
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