Gnarly Celeriac? Make Soup…. Diary of a Rocket Gardener

Well I had a somewhat unsuccessful celeriac harvest this year – all my own fault as well. I knew better than to not water them! Celeriac needs a lot of moisture for the root to swell properly, and I well and truly neglected mine over the summer. As a result, the main roots themselves were very stunted, and instead they had a gnarly mess of smaller roots tangled up in a ball like this one pictured.

So, lesson learnt for next year – don’t neglect the celeriac. Keep them well watered, regularly and make sure you give them enough space!

I had been growing the celeriac with the intention of using them in stews over the winter, but since they were going to be fiddly to prepare I decided to just make a big batch of soup instead.

Firstly, chopped off the top stalks to reveal the main root, and then trimmed off the smaller spindly roots.

This left me with the main root and any chunkier side roots which I separated. I gave them a good wash at this stage, with the hose outside so that I could easily remove most of the soil to make peeling and chopping less laborious. Then I used a peeler to quickly peel off most of the skin and cut them up roughly so that I could make the soup as follows:

Ingredients:

  • 2-3 celeriac, peeled and chopped (depending on size!)
  • 1 potato, peeled and chopped
  • 2 apples, peeled and chopped
  • 1 large onion, roughly chopped
  • Approx 400ml veg stock
  • 200ml milk (optional – you could always use more veg stock instead)
  • Sea salt & pepper
  • Oil for cooking

Method:

  1. Heat some oil in a heavy based saucepan and cook the onion on a medium heat
  2. As the onion starts to become translucent, add the potato, apple, celeriac and stock
  3. Bring to the boil and then simmer for approximately 15-20 mins until the potatoes and celeriac are cooked through. (You may need to top up with a little extra stock if the liquid levels get too low – ideally you want the veggies just covered)
  4. Once cooked, use a blender to liquidise the soup and add the milk (or extra stock) to get it to the right consistency.
  5. Season with sea salt and pepper
  6. If you find it a bit stringy at all from any of the celeriac skin/roots, then just pass it through a sieve before serving. That’s what I did and it came out perfectly in spite of my lackadaisical food prep!