Recipe
Celeriac Soup with Crispy Bacon and Hazelnuts
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
Yield:
tend to turn to soupy and comfort food as the weather turns cold. I can’t go out without a thick coat and my chunky scarf. I like the feeling of being wrapped in a soft and smooth material around my body, giving me warmth and comfort. As we are entering winter months, I never fail to use my cocotte casserole more. I like to make big portion of food so that I can keep for the next day or two. One pot and one pan is the kind of cooking I resort to.
Mom always reminds me to keep myself hydrated. “Drink at least 2 litres of water a day”… “make sure you have soup as part of your meals”. I guess, I have been brought up to love soup very naturally. To be honest, making soup is really easy. There is not much cooking involved. You just need to let the vegetables or meats boil until the are soft.
Though growing up eating Chinese-style of soup that is never in a form of purée; I also love Western-style soup that tends to be creamy and smooth. I can survive with either one.
Celeriac is one of the vegetables that I got to know a few years ago. It doesn’t look very pretty from the outside. But, it smells absolutely wonderful! It’s a variety of celery and no wonder I love it because I love using celery in my cooking. So far, I have only used it in soup. But, I want to use it in some other dishes. Perhaps, use it in salad, stir-fry,.. etc
Celeriac has natural sweetness. So, it pairs really well with crispy salty bacon. On top of that, I decided to add some toasted hazelnuts as I like to have some extra crunch in my soup and I thought the combinations are great. Substitute hazelnuts with pine nuts or pecan nuts would be great ideas too!
Celeriac Soup with Crispy Bacon and Hazelnuts
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
Yield:
Ingredients:
For the Celeriac Soup with Crispy Bacon and Hazelnuts:
1 tbsp olive oil
400g celeriac, peeled and roughly chopped
250ml chicken stock
250ml milk
salt and pepper
To serve:
100g bacon, fried and chopped
50g toasted hazelnuts or any other nuts you like
Method:
1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat, add the celeriac, season with salt and pepper and cook very gently for 30 minutes. Stirring frequently to prevent the celeriac from colouring.
2. Pour in the chicken stock and milk bring to the boil and simmer over a low heat for 15 minutes or until the celeriac is soft. Purée the soup in batches in a liquidiser and pass through a sieve.
3. Meanwhile, heat the bacon in a large frying pan over a medium heat and fry in the rendered fat, stirring occasionally until golden and crisp. Drain these on kitchen paper. When cold, roughly chop the bacon into small pieces.
4. To serve, divide the soup into individual bowls, top equal portion of bacon and toasted hazelnuts.
I love, love, love celeriac soup. Perfect for this time of year too. I love your idea of the toasted hazelnuts. I will definitely be giving that a go, cheers me dear!
I love it too and it warms me up instantly. 😉
I am very fond of that root vegetable. Your soup must taste marvelous.
Cheers,
Rosa
I love root vegetables too!
Such pretty shots! Celeriac is lovely. .I like your soup with the contrast of textures:-) Perfect for the coming winter months!
Thank you. It’s definitely great for winter months. I am making more and more soupy stuff these days. 😉
this vegetables is new to me..but your bowl of this soup sound so comfort!
I also got to know it a few years ago. A wonderful vegetable.
Hi!
Just wanted to tell you that there was a kind of book-‘festival’ in my town. It’s not really a ‘festival’, it’s an event that returns every year. For four days, a lot of tables are set up in a huge hall and covered with books. Entrance is free, but you have to pay for the books ofcourse. You can stroll there for hours, looking for the books you want.
Obviously, I went straight for the cookbooks. It was so hard! I saw lots of books I like. I didn’t buy any of them though.. I’m bad at making decisions :S. But then my eye fell upon a green and blue-coloured book, named ‘Citroengras & gember’ (lemongrass & ginger)! I grabbed it enthousiasthically, I follow your blog (obvious…) and I was so excited to find your book there! I really didn’t even know it was translated in Dutch! So I bought it right away (well, after strolling around for an extra two hours, but didn’t see any other interesting books)!!
Just wanted to let you know! You are really going international!!
Hello!
Thanks for letting me know that you actually saw my books at the book event in your town!
Yes, my Asian cookbook has been translated to Dutch and published in October! I hope you will enjoy my book and would love to hear your feedback! 🙂
Wow… I really must try celeriac… heard of it, saw it in the market but always hesitate to get it… 😀
Should try it. I wasn’t sure before too. But, I am glad that I gave it a go! 🙂
I’ve been looking for some good soup recipes lately–ill be sure to give this one a try!!
http://xfluffymuffinsx.wordpress.com/
Give it a go! 🙂
I love celeriac, it needs to be better known because beyond that ugly gnarly exteror is a wonderful creamy vegetable. funny I also did a celeriac soup with hazelnuts on my blog a long time ago before, now I must try it with bacon added.
http://mummyicancook.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/celeriac-and-halzelnut-soup.html
I love the taste and I ran out of other nuts but hazelnuts, so thought it was a great addition and it turned out great with bacon. 🙂
I never cooked with celeriac…now seeing this post I must look for it…looks delicious and the pictures as always awesome Leemei.
Have a wonderful week 🙂
Thank you Juliana! In fact, it was my second time using celeriac and I just love it. 🙂 Have a fab week ahead!
beautiful set-up and photography! =)
I love soup as well, it’s wonderful and so nourishing during the colder months.
Hi, I would really like to have a go of making your celeriac and crispy bacon soup but it doesn’t look like the recipe is coming up on here. Is it available please?
Thank you, 🙂
K x
Hello Karley,
Thanks for dropping by! Sorry that the recipe wasn’t showing. It should be working fine now!
Just blogged about determination to make best use of last night`s roast chicken and at least I know I will get good basis for a soup out of carcass – and then next thing I see is your soup recipe – so that`s the decision made on what`s going in soup 🙂
Awesome! Definitely great idea to use the carcass to make good chicken stock!
Hello,
It’s maybe too late but can you tell me we you buy the little bowl ?
Si cuuuute !
Two of them (front and top left) – I bought from Anthropologie. The other one I bought at a Japanese store.