Celeriac Apple Potato Soup

Another day, some more weird s**t from my CSA.

This here is celeriac, basically the root of the celery plant. I bet that, like me, you didn't think much about what the root of the celery plant looked like. But I have received some in my CSA the last few years, and it's finally time to do something exciting with it. (I am ashamed to admit that last year's celeriac withered sadly in my fridge, as I was too afraid to do anything with it.)

I'm really happy I went for it, too, because as soon as you begin to peel and chop the weird little root, it fills your entire kitchen with the smell of fresh celery. But there is no celery in sight. Very weird.

This is another CSA recipe, and I'm sharing it here again. (In case you haven't figured it out, I try not to reprint whole recipes from printed books for fear of copyright infringement, but I am happy to reprint CSA stuff because that was e-mailed for free to hundreds of people.)

Celeriac Apple Potato Soup

• 1 celeriac root (I used two pretty small ones), peeled and chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 large apple, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 quart chicken broth
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1 tbsp. oil
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
  
• Pepper to taste (this recipe again suggested adding salt, but chicken broth is already very salty!)

Saute onions in butter and oil over medium heat for a few minutes until brown and translucent. Add the celeriac and potatoes. Saute for about 8-10 minutes until they are cooked. Add broth and apples.

Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Blend together with an immersion blender, sieve, or simply mash them up in the pan with a potato masher like I did. When making root vegetable soups, Ina always says that the masher or sieve produce the best texture, which I definitely agree with.

The suggested garnishes are cooked bacon, pancetta, or prosciutto, or chopped chives, croutons, or blue cheese. I went for the bleu cheese (Rogue River Blue!) and some chopped chives from what's left of my herb garden.

It was really tasty! Oddly enough, you could taste the celery, apple, and potato flavors separately. The mashed up texture was really nice, and the blue cheese worked with it very well.

Not sure what's coming next...