Pigeon Cottage Kitchen

This being November, my thoughts are turning to recipes that will come in handy over the Christmas holidays. This velvety celeriac and apple soup freezes well so it’s a great make-ahead dish and, I think, elegant enough to serve as a starter or lunch course. The soup itself is so delicious and, garnished with chopped walnuts, celery leaves and some crumbled blue cheese, uses up ingredients you’re bound to have as cheeseboard leftovers at Christmas. Once the base is cooked through and blended, if you pass it through a fine sieve it will improve the texture and make it ultra-smooth and luxurious. Well worth the effort, especially if you serve it as a dinner party starter.

Ingredients

• 1 medium celeriac, peeled, chopped into small dice
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium potato, peeled and diced
• 1 stick of celery, finely chopped
• 2 tbsps light olive oil
• 1 small knob of butter
• 1 Braeburn apple, peeled and diced (toss them in a little lemon juice to prevent them going brown)
• freshly squeezed juice of a lemon
• 200ml double cream
• 1 litre chicken stock
• Salt and white pepper to season
• Garnish: crumbled blue cheese like Roquefort, celery leaves, chopped walnuts, walnut oil

To make…

• Peel and chop the celeriac, celery, apple, potato and onion.
• Gently warm the oil and butter over a low heat. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and gently sweat for 10 minutes. Next, add the celery, potato and apple and sweat that mixture for a further 10 minutes.
• Add the chicken stock and simmer gently for 10 minutes or so until tender celeriac is tender. Add the cream.
• Blitz smooth with a hand held blender. Taste and season with a little ground white pepper and salt. Now, pass it through a fine sieve. It may seem like an unnecessary extra step but it makes it taste so much more lovely and velvety. If it’s too thick, you can usually add a little extra water to thin it down without diluting the flavour.
• Reheat it gently when you’re ready to serve. Garnish with the crumbled blue cheese, celery leaves, walnuts and walnut oil.

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