Celery Apple Soup With Coleslaw

From Allison Stout

Alison’s been an annual Soup & Bread cook — and her recipe for khao tom, created with Andrea Deibler, is featured in the Soup & Bread Cookbook. This time around, she produced something altogether different, and delicious. Says Allison: “I don’t mind doing dishes, so this soup isn’t exactly a one-pot meal. It could definitely be simplified by excluding the cream scalding step, cooking the vegetables in the same stock pot and setting aside prior to heating up the stock. This recipe uses homemade vegetable stock, but punching up store-bought stock with the vegetable and fruit scraps you’re already for this dish is a nice alternative. This is a bright and tangy soup, but the amounts of cream, vinegar, etc. can be easily adjusted to taste.”

For the soup:

Ingredients
2 bunches celery
1 large celery root
4 Granny Smith apples
1 small yellow onion
1 small leek
butter
olive oil
6-8 cups vegetable stock
1 1/2 – 2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup apple cider
1/4 – 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
handful parsley leaves
chives to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
Heat the vegetable stock to a simmer in a large pot. Roughly chop the celery, discard the leaves. Peel and roughly chop the celery root, apples, and onion. Trim and clean the leek. Throw the apple cores, peels, celery ends, and leek tops into the vegetable stock. In a small saucepan, add the cream and toss in a handful of celery and celery root. Scald the cream – bring it just to a boil – and then set it aside to steep. Saute the onions, celery, celery root, and apples, leeks in equal parts butter and olive oil until slightly softened, working in batches if necessary.

Discard the apple cores, peels, celery ends, and leek tops from stock. Add sauteed vegetables (and the veg hanging out in the cream) to the stock and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Let cool for a bit. Puree veg, stock, chives, parsley, and cream in a blender in batches (don’t overfill blender, cover tightly and use a towel!) or use an immersion blender.

Season soup with apple cider, cider vinegar, salt and pepper. Garnish with coleslaw.

For the stock:

Roasted vegetable stock
carrot peels and ends
celery ends
leek tops
2 heads of garlic, halved at the equator
2 onions, quartered
2 tablespoons tomato paste
olive oil

Toss vegetables in olive oil and roast at 350 for 25-30 minutes in a dutch oven. Add tomato paste and water to cover vegetables. Roast stock for at least one hour, adding water if necessary to keep vegetables covered, or up to 2 hours.

For the slaw:

Coleslaw
1 small head of cabbage, shredded
3/4 cup shallot & celery pickles (or your favorite), finely chopped
3 ribs celery, finely sliced
1/2 cup peanuts, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon celery seed
handful of chives, chopped
pickle brine
olive oil
squeeze of lemon
salt & pepper to taste

Mix cabbage, celery, peanuts, pickles, celery seed, and chives. Dress with equal parts pickle brine and olive oil to taste. Season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

For pickles:

Quick Celery & Shallot Pickles
4 cups white vinegar
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cups kosher salt
1/4 cups whole coriander
4 bay leaves
chiles de arbol, broken in half

Boil vinegar, sugar, salt until solids completely dissolve. Remove from heat and add coriander, bay, chiles (as much as you like). Chop veggies and put into jars or containers, pour warm vinegar solution to cover. Refrigerate at least 24 hours before eating.

Posted: Sunday Apr 8,2012 04:47 PM In Soup Recipes, Uncategorized