Snow, Snow, Snow and Creamy Celery Soup!

Brrr!  It is so cold here in Pullman, and we have gotten several inches of snow over the weekend.  Now, this doesn't seem too out of the ordinary for Pullman winter weather, but I think the cold is hitting me more because my parents are lucky enough to be in the Caribbean on vacation at the moment, where I'm sure snow is the last thing on their minds.  In order to try and stay warm, and to keep from making a trip to the grocery store while the weather is so bad, I went in search of another yummy pureed soup to try within the blogosphere.  I had a bunch of celery that was getting a bit wilt-y to eat raw, so I decided to try a Creamy Celery Soup.  I got the basis of my recipe from Healthy Girl's Kitchen, the recipe is found at this link.  If you have not checked out HGK's blog, I would highly suggest it.  It is one of my personal favorites :)

As I mentioned in my last post, I get cravings for celery, and I'm happy that I do because it is such a yummy and healthy vegetable!  I'm all for feeding my healthy addictions, and this recipe does just that!  If you are not as big of fan of celery, the actual celery "taste" is not very strong because the other flavors in the soup work so well with it.  If you really don't like celery, this recipe could easily be changed to use asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, or even carrots.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Creamy Celery Soup

Ingredients:

1 large head of celery (~1.5 lbs), trimmed and chopped into 1 in pieces and including the leaves

1 T coconut oil (or cooking oil of your choice)

1 large onion, roughly chopped

1/4 t dried rosemary

2 T fresh parsley, chopped

5-6 c vegetable broth (depending on desired consistancy)

2 medium white potatoes, peeled and diced

1 large sweet potato (not yams)

Directions:  In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the clery and leaves, onion, and rosemary.  Cover and stir frequently until celery is very tender (approximately 20 minutes).  Add the broth, potatoes, and parsley, and bring to a boil over high heat.  Once at a boil, reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for 20-30 minutes covered, or until potatoes are very tender.  Remove soup from heat.  With an immersion blender, blend soup well until creamy.  Salt and pepper as desired, and serve topped with parsley and parmesan.

Amy's notes:  The cooking oil in this recipe can be coconut or extra virgin olive oil, but you also have the option to admit the oil and saute in water.  If you do water saute, be sure to add water as needed when sauteing the celery and onion so nothing is burned to the bottom.  This is a very versatile recipe when it comes to herb seasonings, so feel free to improvise!  I know that fresh basil, parsley, rosemary, to thyme would be great in this.  The amount of vegetable broth used in this recipe is up to you.  I would suggest anywhere from 5 to 6 cups depending on how thin or thick you like your pureed soups to be.  I used 5 1/2 cups and found it perfect for me.  This recipe has three potatoes in it, and one of them is a sweet potato.  I know that grocery stores in my region label sweet potatoes as the potatoes with a pale orange skin and a yellowish inside, while advertising yams as the brown orange skinned potatoes with bright orange insides.  Make sure that you know the difference!  I don't know how this recipe would taste with a yam potato in it, but it definitely would not retain its pretty green color (I imagine it would be more of a brown green color).

I love celery!  What happens to be your healthy "addiction"?