Simple soups like this Celeriac, Fennel and Sweet Potato soup is perfect for the cold and rainy days Portland this winter. It comes together so quickly, which in my mind is always a good thing. This soup combines a few of my favorite root veggies and an addition of milk makes this a velvety and smooth in texture.
This whole week I have been fighting a nasty cold and an ear infection. Not fun at all. All I have been craving is something warm and soothing for my throat and body. Silky smooth soup definitely gave me all to cozy warm feelings I was craving. Plus working with great organic ingredients that I picked up on my run to Fred Meyers, helps keep my fridge stocked with good, healthy options.
Kroger stores have dramatically lowered prices on many items, but most notably (dairy) milk. I’ve partnered with Kroger to help promote this awareness of prices lowered on all of their MILK products, yes milk, a staple we have in our house. My favorite milk to buy is their Simple Truth Organic Whole Milk for our family in their organic section. They make it affordable for anyone to buy organic milk products for a fraction of the price. Why would you want to pay more for something you can pay less for? Am I right?
Holding the celeriac (aka celery root) in my hands, I am amazed, quite frankly, at how anyone would have been brave enough to eat it. It looks terrifying with its twisted roots and hairy tendrils. But beneath its villainous exterior resides the tenderest of hearts.
Given proper consideration, one discovers a huge and amazing secret – its incredible flavor. You may feel as if you’ve known it all your life. You have. For celeriac is a very close relative of celery. Light familiar flavors of celery and parsley flirt with the palate, while underlying notes of earthiness, nuttiness and spice, add mystery and depth. But to unlock theses flavors you must brave the beast.
Arm yourself with a good knife, I am using the beautiful new knife from Zwilling Pro Holm Oak 5 1/2″ prep knife to peel and cut up all my root veggies. For the celeriac, slice away the top of the root and then the bottom, creating a steady base, and cut the remaining peel off in vertical strips from top to bottom, following the shape of the root, until all of the rough mottled skin is removed. Cut into smaller cubes. Peel and cut up the other veggies as well.
Fennel Bulb couples well with celeriac and gives the soup a hint of sweetness.
In a heavy bottomed pot, like this Staub Round Wide Cocotte sauté the onions, garlic, fennel and thyme in oil on medium heat, stir often so nothing sticks. After the onions become translucent add in celeriac, both potatoes and stock. Bring to a boil and cover, let it simmer until veggies are tender.
Before putting half of the soup in a blender, add in half of the milk into the pot. The soup is blended until creamy and smooth in a blender, I love my Wolf Blender for jobs like this. Blend for about a minute or until fully pureed.
Add the remaining milk into the blender to make it as runny as you prefer, I like mine a bit more liquid so I added all of the 2 1/2 cups of milk.
Serve with parsley – chives oil and some good bread. Enjoy!
CELERIAC, FENNEL & SWEET POTATO SOUP
INGREDIENTS
- 1 bunch Italian parsley (leaves and some stems)
- 1 package chives
- 1 cup good olive oil
- cheesecloth
- 2 grapefruit sized celeriac, peeled and diced
- 1 large fennel bulb, cored and sliced thin into half rounds
- 2 medium Japanese sweet potatoes
- 1 russet potato, peeled and diced
- 3 large sprigs thyme
- 5 cloves garlic, thickly sliced
- 5 cups low sodium veggie stock
- 1 large sweet onion, diced into cubes
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- 2-2.5 cups Simple Truth Organic whole milk, to your preferred consistency
- salt, to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
PARSLEY-CHIVE OIL
- Pulse all ingredients in a blender or food processor until combined.
- Using cheesecloth, place into a strainer, pour in the mixture and let it drain while soup is cooking.
SOUP
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, fennel and thyme. Stir and cook for 10 minutes.
- Add the celery root, sweet potato, potato, thyme, and chicken stock. Bring liquid to a boil over medium high heat, reduce heat to medium low, cover the pot, and cook for 15-25 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Carefully remove any thyme twigs when soup is done.
- Using a blender, blend until smooth - in batches, only filling blender ½ full. (Remember when blending any hot liquid, cover the blender lid firmly with a kitchen towel, and only fill blender ½ full, and start on the lowest speed, to prevent a blender explosion.)
- Add milk and blend together. Season with salt, to taste.
- Pour the soup into bowls, garnish with a drizzle of the oil, add some fennel ferns and some finishing salt to top off the bowl.
This is a sponsored post written by LENASKITCHEN on behalf of Kroger. The opinions and text are all mine.
xoxo,
LENA
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?
If you give this Celeriac, Fennel and Sweet Potato soup a try? Let me know what you think. Leave a comment and don’t forget to take a picture and share it on my Facebook page or tag it #lenaskitchenblog on Instagram! I love seeing what you come up with!
That sounds great Kathy. Thanks for including some different options. Glad it turned out good for you.
I ended up using chicken bone broth instead of vegetable broth, and asafoetida (about 1/16 of a teaspoon) in lieu of the onion and garlic to make this FODMAP friendly. Also used a combination of cream and hemp milk (it’s what I had on hand), and it worked great. I think just hemp milk would have been fine as well for a dairy-free version.
You can actually omit milk if you want and make it full dairy free. If you feel like you need it to be more runny, just add a tad more stock and you should be good to go. But if you feel the need to add the pea protein, I’m not sure how the taste will change, try in a small bowl first and then see what you think. Thanks and can’t wait to hear what you think.
Thank you. It’s such a tasty soup, you will love how velvety it is. I will have to figure that one out. Will do it as soon as I get help with it, I’m not as tech savvy.
We do not drink milk. We drink either almond or a pea protein of which neither are whole milk.
Would I be able to substitute the pea protein milk?
I’m going to try this – thank you – it will be fun to work with the new ingredient celeriac.
Could you please add a ‘print’ recipe to this page.
Thank YOU
It’s amazing to see the raw and rough celeriac turned into something so soft and tender:)