Celery Soup with Cashel Blue Cheese

40 minutes

Serves 6. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see questions Lindsey has answered on this recipe

This recipe is taken from Delia Smith’s Christmas

English Fenland growers have developed new varieties of celery that can be grown in summer, and also overcome the severities of a British winter by growing English varieties in the warm climate of Spain.

This means extremely good celery is available practically all year round.

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Keeping Blue Cheese and Celery Soup

Asked by: anniefromcrewe

Hello Lindsay - h If I make it today, Wednesday, will it keep until lunch on Sunday in the fridge? I am conscious that it contains cream. Many thanks, Elizabeth

Answered by Lindsey: Hello Elizabeth, Refrigerated in a sealed container this soup will keep well until Sunday. Kind regards Lindsey

Method

First of all separate the stalks of celery from the base and trim, reserving the leaves for a garnish – the trimmed stalks should weigh 1 lb (450 g).

Scrub them in cold water, drain them, then slice across into thinnish slices.

ow in a large saucepan melt the butter and stir in the celery, the chopped potato and the onion. Stir everything around to get a good coating of butter, then put a lid on the pan and, keeping the heat at minimum, allow the vegetables to sweat for 10 minutes to release their buttery juices. Then uncover and pour in the stock and bring it up to simmering point. Cover again and cook gently for 30 minutes: after that test that the vegetables are tender and, if not, re-cover and continue to cook until they are.

Next remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream, then liquidise the soup along with the crumbled cheese until it is quite smooth. Return the soup to the rinsed-out pan and re-heat very gently (because the soup, at this stage, should not be boiled). Taste and season with salt and pepper and serve the soup sprinkled with the chopped celery leaves and crisp croutons (made by heating the walnut oil in a large frying pan and frying the cubes of bread in it until golden brown).