This is not your usual celery soup. It’s light, lean and spicy with a rich earthiness that is in every way the opposite of the Cream of Celery soups that were used to add a vegetable to church potluck casseroles. It’s also quite possibly the easiest soup in the history of soups. Quite simply, you take a head of celery and chop it into big chunks and toss it in a a pot with a chopped up carrot, half an onion, a couple twigs of thyme and a serrano chili. If you want it milder, you can carefully clean the chili. I went for heat and just chopped it up a bit and left the seeds in. I tossed on some salt and pepper and put it on to cook. To show you how ridiculously simple my chopping and prep was, here’s a snap of the pot just before I turned on the heat. Yeah, I spent two minutes chopping.
So then I let it come to a boil and then turned it down to a high simmer. I checked it a couple of times by trying to smoosh a piece of vegetable with my spoon. When it cooked enough that my spoon could squash (but not disintegrate) the veggies, I took it off the stove to cool down enough to puree. I use a Magic Bullet and if it’s too hot, there’s no opening it back up without help. Once it was a bit cooler, I pureed it and sat down to a delicious soup. I ate it plain since I don’t like crackers in my soup, but some chopped pecans or almonds might have been a nice touch.
There’s a earthy, umami flavor from the celery and a nice spicy heat from the chili, the carrot adds a mild touch of sweetness to balance the flavors. It’s a filling, hearty soup though with no oil, no cream and no meat, it’s almost no calories. This makes 8 servings, but since it is not a cream soup it will keep for several days in the fridge.
Single Servings 