This thick and creamy soup contains no flour or cream, but it’s surprisingly satisfying with very few calories. A few tips help you get a wonderful smooth texture and there’s just enough blue cheese to enhance the flavour without overpowering the soup.
I discovered a recipe called Celery and Stilton Soup in a Gordon Ramsay cookbook at the local library. I love looking through the cookbook section. You can find any recipe by searching online (too many usually), but books give you great ideas that you hadn’t thought about! This is only a slightly modified version. It wasn’t that I wanted to change his recipe, but I didn’t have enough celery and I wanted to make this soup right away with what I had on hand. The idea of celery sticks filled with cheese is not new, nor is cauliflower with cheese sauce. So, cauliflower was the perfect fill in.
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Many soup recipes will call for either chicken or vegetable broth. You certainly can use chicken broth if you aren’t making a vegetarian version. It’s fairly neutral so the soup doesn’t taste like chicken. I do prefer vegetable broth in this soup though. But, not all veggie broths are alike. If you read the various labels, you’ll discover that they’re made from all kinds of combinations of ingredients like carrots, celery, onion, beet purée, tomato paste etc. So your broth could be yellow, light brown or even pinkish. It doesn’t really matter. But if you’ve ever been confused when buying broth, the next paragraph might help.
I use the terms broth and stock interchangeably. But there is a difference. Stock is typically the term used if it’s made with meat parts, bones, etc. and simmered for hours. If you make your own, you’ll notice once your stock cools it gels. That’s from the collagen in the bones. Broth, on the other hand is normally made from just the meat. I can’t claim to be an expert on the difference between vegetable broth and stock but it’s likely that broth is simply chopped veggies simmered in water whereas stock would contain whole or larger unpeeled veggies, onion skin, etc.
You may have noticed that celery can be stringy. The fact that this soup is puréed doesn’t completely fix that problem. If your stalks are dark or stringy, particularly ones on the outside, you may prefer to peel them. Or, just use the lighter inside stalks. And slicing the celery thinly crosswise will ensure you don’t have any long strands to worry about. The gentle green colour of the celery does fade when simmering so your soup will have very little colour. BUT, if you reserve some of the darker leaves from the tops and add them right before puréeing, you’ll be rewarded with a nicer colour and even a little hint of fresh celery flavour.
To purée soup, you can use an immersion blender or regular counter top blender. Either way, it’s best to allow the mixture to cool slightly. If you go with the immersion blender (or sometimes called stick blender), which is my preference, you don’t want to splash hot liquid on yourself. And if you’re new to this awesome tool, you’ll quickly learn to keep it fully immersed. Otherwise you’ll have a mess to clean up. It takes a bit of practice but if you get it in the right position, the soup will start rotating into a vortex and transform your soup into a perfectly smooth purée.
A counter top blender works great as well. I’m all about simplicity and avoiding extra clean up so I don’t usually use this method. But if you do, a cooler liquid is safer. With hot liquid, steam creates pressure build up when the lid is on which could result in a big mess. Remove the lid carefully. Once your soup is smooth, regardless of which tool you use, reheat it gently and stir in the cheese.
Even if you don’t like Blue Cheese (or, more accurately, Bleu Cheese), you will find that it isn’t overpowering. In fact, my taste testers said they wouldn’t have minded even more blue cheese. Mr. Ramsay’s book suggests using Stilton Cheese and serving this yummy soup with blue cheese toast. I concur.
If you make Celery and Cauliflower Soup with Blue Cheese, consider leaving a comment or rating below. Here’s the recipe:
Celery and Cauliflower Soup with Blue Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp butter
- ½ small onion, diced
- 5 stalks celery save leafy tops for garnish if desired
- ½ medium sized cauliflower
- 2¾ - 3 cups low sodium vegetable broth
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 bay leaf
- ⅓ cup crumbled blue cheese plus extra if desired for garnish
Instructions
- Sauté onion in olive oil and butter on medium-low heat until soft and golden.
- Slice celery crosswise and cut cauliflower into small chunks. Vegetable mixture should be about 5 or 6 cups in total. Add to pot, along with broth and bay leaf, increase heat and bring to a simmer.
- Reduce heat and continue to simmer until vegetable are fork tender, about 10 minutes. Taste and season with salt, adjusting for amount of sodium in broth.
- Remove bay leaf and let soup cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Purée with immersion blender or counter top blender until smooth. If desired, add some of the leafy celery tops for a hint of colour and freshness.
- Stir in blue cheese until melted. Reheat soup if necessary.
- Serve hot with extra blue cheese and chopped celery leaves for garnish if desired.
This soup is delicious. It’s a must make!
Thank you Moreen!