Roasted Celeriac Soup

Fall, let me count the reasons I love thee...

1.  The weather is perfect!  Sweaters (preferably of the grandpa variety) and sunshine for all!!

2.  Pumpkins are back at the farmer's market!

3.  Hearty soups finally make sense again!

Seriously though, fall is my absolute favorite season.  The cooler days mean that I don't get sweaty on my way to work (or the subway, or the kitchen, or... you get the picture), and the cold nights just beg you to turn on the oven and roast some vegetables (a.k.a the best kind of veggie).
 
This week I roasted a vegetable that I've been dying to try:

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This gnarled rood vegetable is a celery root, or celeriac if you're feeling fancy ;)  Don't be disturbed by it's appearance, this guy has lots of inner beauty.  I roasted him up with some garlic cloves and blended it into a velvety soup.  Recipe at the end of the post!

Other exciting things have been going on for me this week.  Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of this blog.  It's hard to believe that it has been an entire year of food blogging already.  I've learned a lot about cooking and blogging since then, and I hope to carry on for the foreseeable future.  Hopefully this weekend I'll ring in this anniversary with a more appropriately celebratory post.

Anyway, enough of my rambling.  Let's get on to the heart of this post with WIAW!




Breakfast:

Breakfast this past Sunday consisted of two buttermilk biscuits topped with sauteed radish greens, a fried egg, and two of the best bacon strips ever. Trader Joe's fiends, you have to try their uncured, nitrate free bacon.  It is leaner and far tastier than any other commercial bacon I've ever had.

Lunch:

Sadly I didn't manage to snap a picture of my picnic lunch.  It included some more buttermilk biscuits, rosemary ham, Gruyere cheese, figs, kale, and some Trilogy kombucha.  A tasty combo I shared with Mr. greenhorn at the Brooklyn Bridge Park. 

Dinner:

The one downside of fall... no natural light for dinner = ugly,  poorly lit pictures.

I was a little apprehensive about trying this vegetable, but my fears were completely misplaced.  Perhaps celeriac is a different beast when prepared another way, but I absolutely loved it roasted.  The celery taste is there, but not in an overwhelming or offensive way.  The sweet richness of the  caramelized onions and roasted garlic balance perfectly with the fresh and slightly bitter celery root in this warm and creamy soup.

Roasted Celeriac Soup

Ingredients 

1 celery root, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces

6 cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large potato, peeled and thinly sliced

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 tbsp butter

2 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock)

2 cups water

a pinch of cayenne

2 tbsp sour cream (or to taste)

kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste 

chives (for garnish)

Directions

1.  Preheat the oven to 400F.  On a large foil lined baking sheet toss the celeriac and garlic cloves with 1 tbsp of olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste.  Roast for 35-45 minutes until celeriac is easily pierced with a fork, stirring half way through cook time to prevent burning.

2.  While celeriac is in the oven, heat remaining olive oil and butter in a large pot over medium high heat.  Add the onions and caramelize (about 30 minutes).  Once onions are caramelized, add the potatoes and toss to combine, lightly seasoning with salt and pepper. 

3.  Add the water, chicken stock, celeriac and garlic to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer, covered, for another 10-15 minutes until potatoes are tender.  

4.  Remove pot from heat and allow to cool slightly.  Blend with an immersion blender (or regular blender) and season to taste with salt, pepper, cayenne, and sour cream.  Serve garnished with chives.

Roasted Tomato Soup

I'm feeling a bit under the weather, so I'm going to keep this post bare bones.  The soup is adapted from the Sandwich King (I know, I know), but seriously it sounded so good I just had to try it.  My instinct was right, and this soup paired with a grilled cheddar cheese (almost) made me forget about my stuffed sinuses.


It all starts out like this:

Is transformed into this:

And is served up like this:

The first picture is a little misleading because a) it doesn't feature all of the ingredients I used, and b) it features one that I didn't end up using.  Can you guess which one?  Read the recipe to find out, you super sleuth.

Roasted Tomato Soup

Ingredients

2 28 ounce cans whole tomatoes, drained with the juices reserved

4 carrots, roughly chopped

2 large shallots, peeled and quartered

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

20 cranks ground black pepper (about 1/2 tsp)

2 tbsp butter

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp dry vermouth

2 cups chicken stock (or veggie stock)

6 tbsp sour cream

Directions

1.  Heat the oven to 400F.  In a large bowl toss tomatoes, carrots, and shallots with the olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Arrange on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper.  Bake for 35 minutes.

2.  When the veggies are almost done roasting melt the butter in a large pot or dutch oven.  Once the butter has melted add the garlic and red pepper and cook until fragrant, about one minute.  Next add the tomato paste, spreading it out on the bottom of the pan while stirring constantly to prevent burning.           3.  Once the tomato paste is incorporated into the butter add the roasted vegetables, cooking off any extra liquid.  Add the vermouth and continue cooking until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 3-4 minutes.

4.  Add one cup of the chicken stock and the reserved juices from the whole tomatoes.  Bring to a boil and then let simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow the soup to cool slightly, then puree with an immersion blender. 

5.  Once the soup has reached a desired smoothness you can add another cup of chicken stock if you would like your soup to be thinner (I did).  Then stir in the sour cream and salt and pepper to taste.

In the end I decided to just use the juices of the whole tomatoes rather than another 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes.  Mostly because I didn't have any on hand, and also because I didn't see the sense in wasting perfectly good tomato juice.  Anyway, this soup is complex, warming, and the perfect accompaniment to a grilled cheese sandwich.  Enjoy!