Celeriac, Potato and Leek Soup

I’ll start by pointing out that until very recently, celeriac has entirely passed me by. I’d heard of celeriac, yes, but when you see it in the shop it’s just not an inspiring-looking vegetable. It looks like you’d have to hack at it with a rusty blade* to get anything out of it.

But on Sunday during his usual excellent Sunday roast (we get a full roast dinner EVERY SUNDAY for FREE. And all we have to do to get it is go round to their house, read their papers and drink their booze. I love my in-laws) my father-in-law did a potato and celeriac mash. At first, I was thinking hey, this gravy from the pot roast is very… celery-y. How does that happen? Are we in the middle of a good celery season? Is this a vintage year for celery?

But no, it was the celeriac. And it was tasty. And it managed to trick Mr B into eating an extra vegetable. Bonus points.

So yesterday, I made celeriac, potato and leek soup. The credit for this combination goes entirely to bigsky, who is wiser than I at vegetables. I made a special trip to Waitrose instead of just getting the bus home, which meant I had to walk for TEN MINUTES which is a long time when you’ve just been to the gym for an hour.

I won’t lie – I was daunted by the task of peeling the celeriac. It’s knobbly. How do a peel a knob? But I am too easily daunted and it was just a matter of, well, peeling it. Then I diced it into roughly 2cm chunks and put it in my lovely casserole dish with some water and a large pinch of salt. I didn’t use stock because I figured the soup wouldn’t need it and the flavours of the vegetables would stand up on their own.

I brought it to the boil and boiled it for about 10 minutes, then added 3 peeled, diced potatoes (Vivaldi potatoes, if you’re interested. They make excellent mash). Boiled for another 15 mins, the added one diced leek. I would have used more leek but it was very alium-y (that is, oniony – it stung my eyes) so I thought one would be enough.

I needed to add more water a couple of times because it was on quite a high boil. After 45 mins it was done. I blended it with my shiny new hand-blender what I got for my birthday. It tasted as it should – like celeriac, potatoes and leeks. I added a bit of pepper.

This quantity made what most recipes would probably call “serves four”, but I call “serves one, three times”. It was decanted into three random containers and put in the fridge. I’m having some for lunch today.

*I don’t know why rusty.