Celeriac, sprouts and bacon soup recipe
I quite often blitz surplus root veg and cooked greens together. Brussels sprouts puréed with creamed celeriac and some stock was a particularly successful improvisation, and now I make this lovely soup from scratch. A handful of crisp, salty bacon bits is a great finishing touch.
Ingredients
- 30 g butter
- 2 tbsp sunflower, rapeseed or olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 500 g celeriac, peeled and cubed
- 700 ml vegetable stock
- 200 g Brussels sprouts, trimmed and sliced
- 6 rashers of unsmoked streaky bacon or pancetta, cut into small lardons
- 100 ml double cream, or milk (if you prefer a lighter soup)
- 1 pinch sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Details
- Cuisine: English
- Recipe Type: Soup
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 10 mins
- Cooking Time: 35 mins
- Serves: 4
Step-by-step
- Heat the butter and 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and sweat gently for a few minutes. Add the celeriac, stir to combine, then cover and sweat for about 10 minutes to soften.
- Add the stock, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the celeriac is tender. Add the sprouts, return to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes more. Puree the whole lot in a blender until smooth. Return to the pan.
- While the soup is cooking, heat a trickle more oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and fry the bacon until crisp and golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper.
- Add the cream or milk to the soup and reheat gently. Season with salt and pepper and serve, scattered with the bacon.
- For a vegetarian version, just serve the soup without the bacon. Some toasted blanched almonds or crispy, garlicky bread croutons are great alternatives to the bacon to give the soup a bit of a fancy finish.
Recipe taken from Hugh’s Three Good Things, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Text by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, 2012. Photographs by Simon Wheeler, 2012. Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2012.
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