A very simple soup with a delicate celery flavour. Ingredients are celery, onions, a white sauce (milk, butter and flour) to thicken the soup and ensure a deliciously silky texture.
1 medium onion
1½ pints/ 900 ml vegetable stock
30g / 1oz butter
30g / 1oz plain flour
300ml / half a pint semi-skimmed milk
Quarter teaspoon of ground black pepper
Salt to your taste, we add none
Peel and cut the onion into 2cm / 1in chunks
This recipe achieves that perfect silky texture using a white suace which is extremly easy and quick to prepare. It's cheaper compared to cream and freezes very well when made with semi-skimmed milk.
Put all the vegetables in the pan and cover with the stock.
Bring the pan to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer till the vegetables are tender. This takes about 20 minutes.
Prepared vegetables for celery soup
While the vegetables are cooking, make the white sauce. Melt by melting the butter in a small pan, then add the flour, blend the mixture well with a fork or whisk and cook for a minute or two without colouring. Gradually add the milk stirring well all the time, then simmer for three minutes to cook the flour.
When the vegetables from step 1 are cooked puree them with a blender / food processor to a smooth mixture.
Vegetables simmering in stock and white sauce
Pour the white sauce into the pureed vegetables and stir well. Re-heat the celery soup without boiling and serve immediately with a couple of slices of good crusty bread.
Celery soup
