Root, Shoot & Leaf!

For me, celeriac is the undisputed king of winter vegetables. Its humble root vegetable status belies the pure luxury of its texture and flavour, both of which are second to none. No other vegetable can yield quite such a velvety texture; a pure celeriac soup is so rich and creamy, it defies belief that heaps of double cream is not hiding within.

This simple supper of soup and salad was inspired by the recent change in season, and therefore fresh produce at the farmers’ market. Very rarely do you find celery root, or celeriac, and celery still attached. Well, fortunately at the farmers’ market this Sunday, such a beauty was to be had, and I was keen to enjoy a supper which paid homage to the whole plant: root, shoot and leaf! The soup here makes use of the celeriac and the celery stalks, and the leaves are used both in the accompanying salad, and in the tangy green sauce, or salsa verde, which tops the soup.

This recipe will happily serve four people, and is brilliant accompanied with some fresh sourdough. It is a delicious and wonderfully frugal vegetarian (vegan even!) winter supper.

For the soup:

2 tablespoons rapeseed oil, or cooking oil of your choice
1 large brown onion
1 medium/large celeriac
the plant’s celery stalks (approximately 10 stalks, thinner than those on a shop-bought celery)
fresh thyme
800ml vegetable stock
salt & pepper

For the salad:

the plant’s leaves (tougher ones removed for green sauce)
2 pears
½ cup (60g) cobnuts or hazelnuts
1 teaspoon runny honey
fresh thyme
sea salt

For the salad dressing:

4 tablespoons rapeseed oil or olive oil
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon runny honey
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt & pepper

For the green sauce:

3-4 handfuls of celery leaves (use the tougher ones here, and the finer ones in the salad)
8 tablespoons olive oil
1tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt & pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190 (this is for the honeyed cobnuts which will go in the salad).

Heat two tablespoons of rapeseed oil in a large saucepan or casserole. Finely chop the onion and gently sautee. Finely chop the celery stalks and add these to the saucepan, along with the fresh thyme leaves, stripped from their stalks.

Peel and dice the celeriac into even cubes, roughly 1 cm by 1 cm is ideal.

Add the celeriac to the softened onions and celery, and season with salt and pepper. Have the lid of the saucepan half-on, half-off and continue to sauté for another ten minutes, stirring from time to time.

Meanwhile, prepare the salad ingredients, starting with the honeyed cobnuts. Roast the nuts in the preheated oven for four minutes, until slightly golden and smelling delicious. If they still have their papery skins on, allow a further two minutes, and once roasted, rustle the nuts in a tea towel, encouraging the papery skin to flake off.

Tip the nuts into a frying pan and place on a medium heat. Once the frying pan is hot add a teaspoon of honey which will bubble immediately. Add a generous pinch of sea salt and keep the nuts moving around, coating them evenly in the honey. When the honey starts to dry out, and the nuts look shiny and caramelized, add some fresh thyme leaves for the last few moments. Roll the cobnuts around a final time before tipping onto a little greaseproof paper.

Simply shake all of the salad dressing ingredients together in an old jam jar.

All that remains for the salad is to pick down the celery leaves and finely sliced the pear. These tasks can be done, and the salad assembled, moments before you would like to eat.

Continuing with the soup, add 800ml of vegetable stock to the celeriac, and bring to a gentle boil. Simmer gently for approximately twenty minutes, or until the celeriac is soft enough to be squashed easily by the back of a wooden spoon.

Meanwhile, make the green sauce simply by blitzing the ingredients together either with a hand-blender, or in a small jug blender. The texture should be that of a frsh pesto.

Allow the soup to cool slightly before transferring into a jug blender and pureeing until totally smooth. The smoother the better here, so blend for as long as you can bear! A hand-blender will also work very well, yet the texture will not be quite so velvety.

When you are ready to eat, simply dress and toss the celery leaves with the sliced pear and honeyed cobnuts, sliced some fresh sourdough, and ladle the soup into warmed bowls, topping with a generous drizzle of the celery leaf green sauce