Celery soup with blue cheese recipe

This lovely celery soup with blue cheese is a brilliant, affordable feast, and it's suitable for anyone on a gluten-free diet. 

Homemade soup batches are a brilliant way to save money and still feel like you're treating yourself. This recipe uses inexpensive vegetables like onion, celery and potatoes to make the base soup, then a relatively small amount of blue cheese to really bring out the flavours. The potatoes thicken the soup so there's no need for traditional flour-based thickeners with gluten in. Plus this recipe is so adaptable. Once you've tried the base soup, you can swap the celery with other vegetables such as leeks or parsnips. And you can vary the cheese if you like too - try gruyere or camembert instead.

Ingredients

• 25g butter
• 1 head of celery with leaves, washed and chopped
• 500g potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 900ml vegetable or chicken stock
• 150ml single cream
• 100g blue cheese such as Stilton or Roquefort, crumbled
• Chopped fresh chives, to garnish

Method

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the celery, potatoes and onion and cook over a gentle heat for 5 mins, stirring occasionally, to soften but not brown.
2. Add the stock and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat, season with salt and freshly ground pepper, cover and simmer for 40 mins until the vegetables are very soft.
3. Pour the soup into a food processor or blender, or use a stick blender in the pan, and blend until smooth. Return to the pan if using a food processor or blender, stir in the cream and half the cheese and heat gently until the cheese has melted but do not boil. 
4. Check the seasoning and add more salt and freshly ground pepper if necessary. Pour into bowls, and sprinkle with remaining cheese and the chives.

Top tip for making celery soup with blue cheese

The easiest way to chop chives is to snip them with scissors. If you haven’t got any chives reserve a few of the celery leaves and use those as a garnish instead.

You might also like...

• Cauliflower soup
• Healthy soup recipes