soup's on

This week I found myself scrambling for a last minute dinner and didn't have much in the house so I decided to take stock of the fridge and go from there. It turned out there was a head of celery on it's last day of being crisp and onion, lots of onion... green, red, and these lovely sprouted ones I have been growing for a month or so now by just letting them sit in water on the kitchen windowsill soaking up the sunlight.
I decided to make a soup and based it on a few old recipes I had for similar dishes. It happily turned out to be just a delight!

ingredients:

• 1 head of celery
• 1 small onion
• 1 large handful of spring or green onion
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• 1 large peeled potato
• 6 cups of vegetable stock
• olive oil
• butter
• white wine
• heavy cream
• fresh parsley
• thyme
• crushed red pepper
• salt & black pepper

process:

• chop celery (including leaves) and all onions
• transfer to a large deep pot over medium-high heat and saute' in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 10 minutes
• add a tablespoon of butter and a 1/4 cup of white wine, cook for 5 minutes more
• pour in broth and a large pinch of thyme and crushed red pepper
• add cubed potato and rough chopped garlic, cover and cook for 30 minutes
• take off heat and salt & pepper to taste

• at this point blend the soup in a food processor in batches or with hand blender right in the pot
• once blended return to a low heat and stir in a 1/4 cup of heavy cream
• garnish with parsley and chopped green onion

This soup is light and refreshing. A perfectly pleasant dish for celebrating the end of winter as we transition into spring. The cream gives it a winter warming quality, you could omit it and I still think it would work just fine since the one potato is really what gives it body. A nice crusty bread and triple creme champignon brie is a perfect accompaniment to a bowl of this simple but delicious fare.